Excerpted from Food World

Knowing the benefits of being vegetarian, perhaps your only worry is not getting the nutrients that meat only has. In fact, as long as you can choose a variety of dishes when eating vegetarian and don't prefer a few dishes, you can still get enough nutrients. In addition, because the cell tissue of meat itself is closer to human cells, the human body can better absorb it. Vegetarians need to master several principles in their diet to reduce their meat intake.

Various types. Whether it is staple food (rice, bread, whole grains, beans) or vegetables, fruits, milk, eggs, and oils, the nutrients they contain are different, and they cannot replace each other. Therefore, the dishes on the table should be changed frequently and should be based on Whole wheat bread, germ bread, brown rice, etc. instead of white rice and white flour.

Choose more fresh, unrefined foods. Vegetarians should develop the habit of choosing fresh beans and whole grains instead of vegetarian chicken and duck. Nutritionists strongly recommend soybean-brown rice, which has about one to three ratios of soybeans and brown rice. The ratio of protein to sugar is just right. Before cooking, soybeans need to be soaked for 2-3 hours and brown rice for 1 hour (soak in the refrigerator in summer to avoid souring).

Meat is high in protein, but legumes such as soybeans, edamame, mung beans, tofu, dried beans and other processed beans are also rich in protein, which can supplement the lack of meat. And eating more beans will eliminate the worry of high cholesterol.

Ingest more cashews, almonds and other stone fruits. Its rich oil can replenish the calories needed by the human body; it is best to have four or five variations of vegetables. The iron contained in meat can be supplemented by consuming more high-iron fruits such as tomatoes, kiwis, grapes, etc. Adhere to the basic dietary principles of less oil, less salt, and less sugar, and consciously supplement vitamins that vegetarians may lack.

If you are a beginner in vegetarianism, you may feel like you eat a lot at first, but you get hungry quickly. This is precisely because plants are easier to be absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract. Don’t worry, you will get used to it gradually. .

It is worth noting for vegetarians that a vegetarian diet can lead to a decrease in estrogen levels in women. Due to their special physiological characteristics, women should not be vegetarians for a long time in at least three periods in their lives:

1. For girls in the sexually mature development period, long-term vegetarianism will lead to low estrogen levels, delay the development of secondary sexual characteristics, and hinder the development of female breasts and gonads and body beauty.

2. If women of childbearing age regularly eat vegetarian food, their estrogen levels may decrease, leading to pregnancy disorders.

3. Due to ovarian atrophy and lack of estrogen secretion or the "end" of estrogen secretion in menopausal women, if they are vegetarian for a long time, the symptoms of "menopausal syndrome" will be more obvious.

Vegetarians who are picky eaters are most likely to lack vitamin B12, vitamin D, and minerals iron, zinc, and calcium. Therefore, vegetarians should pay attention to whether they have beriberi, night blindness, or bleeding gums? Vegetarians can avoid the side effects of micronutrient deficiencies by increasing the variety of dishes and taking a daily multivitamin.

Dark green leafy vegetables, fruit kernels, unrefined whole grains and other natural foods are the best sources of vegetarian diet; soy milk and tofu are the most recognized vegetarian nutritional supplements among processed foods. As for the soy chicken vegetarian meat that is familiar to the domestic public, it is best to pay special attention to the hygienic quality of its manufacturing process and added ingredients when purchasing.

Vegetarians are those whose food sources come entirely or mostly from the plant kingdom. Vegetarian foods contain large amounts of oxalic acid and phytic acid, which are easily combined with zinc, magnesium, iron, etc. and excreted from the body, causing deficiency. Therefore, you should pay more attention to the foods or supplements that contain these minerals.

Vegetarians should pay attention to the more types of food, the better, and try to eat whole grain foods, such as glutinous rice, embryonic rice, bran, whole wheat bread and other five grain foods. According to research, because vegetarian diets are mainly plant-based foods, the ratio of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) to saturated fatty acids (SFA) is relatively high. Therefore, it can reduce the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases.

Vegetarians need to maintain good physical strength, so they need to exercise regularly, drink more water, and get some sunshine to help their bodies more effectively utilize the nutrients absorbed by vegetarian diets.

The following suggestions are provided for vegetarians’ reference:

1. Eat a variety of foods to achieve protein complementation.

2. Choose whole grains, such as brown rice and whole wheat bread.

3. Choose beans, stone fruits and seeds in your diet.

4. Choose more dark green vegetables.

5. Lacto-vegetarians should choose low-fat or skim milk products.

6. Avoid eating excessive amounts of sweets and high-fat foods.

7. Children and adolescents should pay attention to supplementing calcium, iron, vitamin B2, B12 and vitamin D. For example, milk, yeast, sesame seeds, seaweed, seaweed, green vegetables, beans, etc. are vegetarian foods rich in calcium, iron, and vitamin B2, so you should choose them more.

8. Pregnant and breastfeeding women should take iron supplements, eat calcium-rich foods, get more sun exposure to produce vitamin D, and supplement vitamin B12.

9. Eat more fruits rich in vitamin C (such as citrus, guava, etc.) to facilitate the absorption of iron.

10. Eat enough calories and maintain your ideal weight.