Being a vegetarian can be challenging especially if you’re new to it.
So what is a vegetarian and what’s a vegan?
A vegetarian is someone who doesn’t eat any meat.
A pescatarian is someone who doesn’t eat eat red meat but does eat fish.
A vegan is someone who doesn’t use any animal products i.e. milk, eggs or fur.
How can being a vegetarian impact the environment?
Firstly if you care about animal rights, you should care about sheep being slaughtered and cows being ripped away from their calves, just 24 hours after their babies are born.
Secondly, producing meat requires a lot more energy, land and money than grains or vegetables.
Risks of being a vegetarian.
Although being a vegetarian, vegan or pescatarian can be great for the planet it’s sometimes not so great for your body.
If you do not eat a healthy diet you can suffer from anaemia.
Anaemia is a condition you can get if your body does not consume enough iron.
Side affects of anaemia include:
- Pale skin
- Dizziness
- Difficulty concentrating
- Easy fatigue and loss of energy
- Spinach
- Lentils
- Beans
- Nuts
- Beans
- Brown rice
- Whole wheat
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Dried fruit
Vegetarianism sounds hard, are there any tips and tricks?
Having an easy and quick bank of recipes that you can rely on is vital. There are hundreds of books and websites to explore for inspiration.
To avoid falling into the trap of ready meals try to batch cook some veggie staples when you have time. If you have a freezer full of veggie pasta sauce or soups, you’ll never go hungry!
If you miss eating meat you can have tofu or meat substitutes. Some good brands include Linda McCartney, Quorn and most supermarkets have their own brand of tofu
Sushi is a good route to take.When you hear someone say sushi you automatically think, fish but you can have vegetarian sushi is as well. They have carrots or beetroots in them.
Key ingredients in a vegetarian diet are chickpeas or beans, chickpeas can be anything humous, salads, pastas, and the list goes on, they are really good for iron and very healthy too.
You can turn almost any dish into a vegetarian version. That may be using vegetarian burgers instead of real burgers i.e. beetroot It could also mean swapping out the meat in recipes to vegetables or just getting rid of it completely. For example if you were eating a chilli con carne you could just have vegetables, sauce and rice instead of vegetables, meat, sauce and rice.
