Vegetarian Nutrition Tips
Read these 36 Vegetarian Nutrition Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Vegetarian tips and hundreds of other topics.
Love Those Legumes
According to nutritionist Bonnie Minsky, beans are the healthiest, least perishable, and least expensive food for building good health. Beans can be counted as a protein or carbohydrate choice. They are high in fiber, vitamins and minerals and low in fat. But the best health news may be for hypoglycemics, diabetics, and dieters because beans also stabilize blood sugar.
Nuts about Nuts
Recent research has proven that populations that consume large amounts of nuts and seeds are very heart healthy. Nuts and seeds contain monounstaurated fats and are a powerhouse of vitamins and minerals such as vitamin E, B-complex, magnesium, calcium and zinc. Nuts, seeds and beans all help to stabilize blood sugar.
Roasted soynuts are whole soybeans that have been soaked in water and then baked until browned. Soynuts can be found in a variety of flavors, including chocolate-covered. High in protein and isoflavones, soynuts are similar in texture and flavor to peanuts.
Beware of Tea
If you are an avid tea drinker, be careful. More than coffee, tea impairs your body's ability to absorb dietary iron. Consider switching to herbal tea, since most do not contain tannins which steal your iron.
Getting Enough Vitamin B12
Vitamin B12 helps to maintain healthy nerve cells and red blood cells, and is also needed to make DNA. Experts say that vegetarians who do not eat enough eggs, milk or milk products, or B12 fortified foods over a long period of time may be at risk of developing a vitamin B12 deficiency. If your diet is completely animal-product free, you may have difficulty meeting your needs for Vitamin B-12. However, if you include fortified non-dairy beverages, fortified breakfast cereals, nutritional yeast and some meat substitutes in your diet you should meet all requirements. Also, consider taking supplements that contain this important vitamin.
Eating More Apples
One of the original health foods is an apple. Due to their versatility, they can easily be incorporated into your diet.The preferred way of eating apples is out of hand, biting into their crisp, juicy flesh. Yet, they're surprisingly versatile in the kitchen.
Some simple ways to enjoy them: diced and tossed into salads, sliced and dipped into peanut butter, and baked whole. Lightly cooked apples, diced, are delicious in grain pilafs and add a delightful nuance to savory soups and stews. Sliced, sautéed, and sprinkled with cinnamon, apples make a for an uncommon side dish with dinner. And of course, apples are always welcome in baked goods, lending their wholesome goodness to muffins, pies, cakes, crisps, crumbles, and more.
Nutritional Benefits of Jicama
Jicama is an excellent source of Vitamin C, which is is a powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. As such, jicama may be helpful if you have asthma, or are easily bruised, or having frequent colds and flu.
Find Out Your Fat Limit
Here is an easy way to calculate the maximum amount of fat you should consume daily. For a diet of 30% fat calories, divide your ideal body weight by 2. For example, 120/2=60. If your ideal body weight is 120 pounds, your total daily fat intake should be 60 grams. If you want to consume 20% fat calories, divide your ideal weight by 3.
Vegetarian hypoglycemic foods
For a Vegetarian, the higher protein diet can be a problem. For ovo vegetarians, having eggs for breakfast provides one of the best protein bases to help maintain adequate blood sugar control into the day, while oatmeal may be a reasonable compromise for vegans.
Most nuts should be part of a hypoglycemic diet, being a good source of protein. Cashews, chestnuts, and
coconuts in particular have a lower potassium / higher sodium ratio, which helps sustain higher blood
sugar levels.
Whole Grains
Always choose whole, unrefined grains whenever possible. The refining process (turning brown rice into white rice, for instance) removes most of the fiber, protein, vitamins and minerals from the grain, and enriching doesn't begin to add back what was lost.
Weight Control
It's hard to get fat, or stay fat, on a healthy vegetarian diet. Grains, legumes and soy foods are bulky and filling, yet contain virtually no fat. They provide a feeling of fullness that keeps the body fueled and satisfied for hours.
Vegetarian substitutes for eggs
There are, quite a few. For 1 egg, you can take one of the following:
2 tbsp corn starch
2 tbsp arrowroot flour
2 tbsp potato starch
1 tbsp soy powder + 2 tbsp water
1 tbsp soy milk powder + 1 tbsp cornstarch + 2 tbsp water
1 banana = 1 egg in cakes
2 Tbsp Peanut butter - 0.9
Nutritional Benefits of Apricots
Apricots are a great source of beta-carotene, vitamin C, potassium and iron. And at only 50 calories for 3 apricots, they are also a dieter´s dream.
Getting Your Zinc
Meeting recommended intakes of zinc appears to be a challenge for vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike. Whole grains, nuts, dried beans and tofu are good plant based sources of zinc.
Meeting All Your Nutritional Needs
To get all your nutritional needs met, a vegetarian diet should be well-planned and balanced. Keep the intake of "treat" foods such as sweets, and fried foods to a minimum. Choose whole or unrefined foods whenever possible, and eat a variety of fruits and vegetables. Meet your protein needs by eating a variety of legumes, nuts, seeds, tofu and meat substitutes.
Dietary Fiber
Dietary fiber promotes regularity, helps control caloric intake and promotes weight loss. It may also reduce the risk of certain cancers and cardiovascular diseases, and help people with diabetes control their blood sugar.
To increase your fiber in your diet, try switching to whole grain cereals and breads. Snack on dried fruits, and add raisins to baked goods. Cook and eat fresh produce with the skin on whenever possible. Eat legumes such as beans and lentils.
Soluble fiber also known as roughage, is found in whole-wheat grain cereals, pasta, bread and in the skins and seeds of some fruits and vegetables.
Insoluble fiber is the kind that keeps us regular. It works by absorbing water and speeding up the passage of waste through our intestines. This prevents constipation and may reduce the risk of certain ulcers.veral times a week in soups, stews and as side dishes.
Iron in Spinach
Don't rely strictly on spinach to get your iron. Your body can't absorb enough iron from spinach to justify its reputation as a major source of that mineral. The best way to get iron from vegetables is to make a meatless stew such as chili with beans. The vitamin C in the tomatoes and bell peppers helps release iron from the beans.
Vitamin D
Since milk is often a main source of Vitamin D, those omitting or cutting down on dairy may be concerned on meeting their Vitamin D requirements. For most people, in most climates, 15-20 minutes of exposure to sunlight daily is enough to meet your Vitamin D needs. Another option is to drink a Vitamin D fortified milk alternative or take a vitamin supplement.
Water retention
1. Try to control you sodium intake reducing the use of table salt;
2. You may be consuming too much carbohydrates known for water retention. Try to avoid high-carb foods for a while, such as white bread, potato, starchy vegetables, and fruits.
3. Eat more cucumbers and parsley.
4. Take warm tubs with dissolved sea salt: sea water squeses some of tisue water out.
Removing Pesticides
Wash fruits and vegetables using a dilute soap solution and peel them completely to remove surface residues. However, keep in mind this may remove some of the nutritional value and will not affect the residues that may have been introduced systematically into the produce. Therefore, it is very important to buy certified organically grown fruits and vegetables whenever possible. Even better, grow your own!!
Soy Oil
Soyoil is the natural oil extracted from whole soybeans. It is the most widely used oil in the U.S., accounting for more than 75 percent of our total vegetable fats and oils intake. Oil sold in the grocery store under the generic name "vegetable oil" is usually 100 percent soyoil or a blend of soyoil and other oils. Read the label to make certain you're buying soybean oil. Soyoil is cholesterol-free and high in polyunsaturated fat. Soyoil also is used to make margarine and shortening.
Soy Protein and Tofu
Soy protein is protein from soy beans, same as fish protein is protein from fish. Tofu is a kind of soy cheese, so it is not a simple nutrient but a prepared food containing more than just protein. Nutrients in tofu: Amount Per 1 cup Calories 93.94 Calories from Fat 19 Total Fat 2.11g Saturated Fat 0.235g Polyunsaturated Fat 0.921g Monounsaturated Fat 0.36g Sodium 10.98mg Potassium 259.86mg Total Carbohydrate 15.3g Protein 3.93g % of recommended daily allowences: Calcium 10 % Iron 9 % Thiamin 1 % Riboflavin 1 % Niacin 1 % Folate 8 % Vitamin B-6 7 % Phosphorus 7 % Magnesium 8 % Zinc 5 % Copper 12 %
Antibiotics in Food
Scientists say the increased use of antibiotics in food animals is boosting the risk that dangerous "superbugs" resistant to drug treatment could be passed along to humans. This is just one more reason to skip the meat.
Soy Sprouts
Although not as popular as mung bean sprouts or alfalfa sprouts, soy sprouts (also called soybean sprouts), are an excellent source of nutrition, packed with protein and vitamin C. They can be sprouted in the same manner as other beans and seeds. Soy sprouts must be cooked quickly at low heat so they don't get mushy. They can also be used raw in salads or soups, or in stir-fried, sautéed, or baked dishes.
Fruits and Veggies
Vegetables and fruits are our most nutrient-dense foods. They contain the greatest amounts of nutrients per calorie of any food. Most of the nutrients that fight against cancer and heart disease are found in these foods.
Get Your Vitamins
Meatless diets are more likely to lack B vitamins and iron. Make sure you compensate for B vitamins by eating lots of legumes, whole grains, and dark leafy vegetables.
Flaxseed Meal
Try to avoid "defatted" varieties of flaxseed. These have been stripped of many essential fatty acids and therefore have lost many of the health benefits.
Fructose
It may come as a great surprise to many people that fructose is not a healthy sweetener, as people are highly mislead to believe. It is a common misconception that fructose is derived from fruit. In fact, it is a highly refined sugar that is believed to cause heart disease and high cholesterol.
Getting All Possible Nutrients
To ensure that you are getting all possible nutrients from your veggies, never soak vegetables after slicing; you will lose much of their nutritional values.
Soynut Butter
Soynut butter is made from roasted, whole soynuts, which are then crushed and blended with soyoil and other ingredients, soynut butter has a slightly nutty taste, significantly less fat than peanut butter and provides many other nutritional benefits as well.
Genetically Modified Soybeans
Since nearly 50% of all soybeans grown in the United States are genetically modified, choose organic varieties whenever possible.
Disease Prevention
Plant-based diets are high in fiber and low in fat. In numerous studies, high-fiber, low-fat diets have consistently been shown to lower the risk of heart disease and rates of certain cancers such as those of the colon, breast and prostate. In addition, this type of diet is believed to reduce the risk of diabetes, hemorrhoids and colitis.
Fat in Vegetarian Foods
It's a myth that if you follow a vegetarian diet you will automatically lose weight. In fact, many vegetarians actually have a really high intake of fat. The reason is due to foods like eggs, whole milk, cream, cheese, and butter that many vegetarians include in their diet. These items all have high calorie counts. And, some vegetarian protein sources, like seeds and nuts are extremely high in fat.
Despite all the dangers of unnecessary fats hiding behind every corner, you can still lead a vegetarian lifestyle and lose weight. The trick to maintaining a low fat vegetarian diet is to skip out on the fatty stuff and to opt for healthy vegetarian options (and healthy fast food options).
More Can Be Less
If you eat more foods, you may eat less food. When you have a lot of variety, you may want less volume. Many people find they fill up faster when they have small portions of a number of different foods. Bulk foods, such as vegetable soups and salads are especially more filling than having a large serving of a single dish.
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| Susan Sayour |
