Adopting Vegetarianism: Benefits for Your Body and Mind
Whether for religious, ethical, ecological, economic, or health reasons, many people choose to become vegetarians. Vegetarian food would indeed have multiple benefits. If you feel like becoming a vegetarian for the love of animals or for health reasons, you will quickly notice many benefits for your body and mind.
FORMS OF VEGETARIANISM
Vegetarianism is a diet that excludes meat, poultry, fish, and seafood. However, there are various types, of which here is an overview.
The strict vegetarian (or vegan): He only consumes plants such as grain products, legumes, nuts, seeds, fruits, and vegetables.
The semi-vegetarian: He does not eat any red meat but sometimes consumes poultry and fish, or exclusively fish.
Lacto-vegetarian: He banishes eggs from his plate but consumes dairy products.
Ovo-vegetarian: He does not eat any dairy products but eats eggs.
Lacto-ovo-vegetarian: You can find eggs and dairy products on your plate.
The fruitarian: It gives pride of place to fresh or dried fruits and sometimes adds nuts and seeds to its menu.
To replace meat, eat tofu. It is indeed an excellent source of protein, containing little fat and no cholesterol.
THE BENEFITS OF VEGETARIANISM
The vegetarian diet can help maintain good health for several reasons:
Adopting vegetarianism: benefits for the body
By eliminating animal flesh from your diet, various changes take place in your body. Some people lose weight when they become vegetarians. However, this doesn’t have to be your sole motivation, and it only happens if you don’t compensate meat with cheese but rather with vegetables. These are very low in calories; weight loss can be noticed in people who had bad eating habits and ate many cold meats or meat in the sauce. The level of bad cholesterol will also tend to decrease considerably, thus reducing the risk of suffering from cardiovascular diseases.
The benefits will also be felt in your intestines: consuming more fruits and vegetables makes you less likely to be constipated. The intestinal bacteria that make up your digestive system will also be more defensive, and you will be less likely to catch gastroenteritis, which is not negligible!
By becoming vegetarian, you will also be less at risk of cancer. The WHO (World Health Organization) has itself referenced meat as a carcinogenic food. Some meats are even considered as harmful to health as cigarettes.
Many studies show that a vegetarian diet would prevent the risk of obesity, cardiovascular problems, cancer, and osteoporosis. Note, however, that a balanced diet, but not vegetarian, can also contribute to the maintenance of good health if it includes fruits, vegetables, and whole-grain cereal products. Knowing that there are many delicious vegetarian recipes out there, you have something to feast on while taking care of your body.
Adopting vegetarianism: Benefits to the mind
The benefits of vegetarianism on the mind are numerous. First, if you go vegetarian for the sake of animals, you won’t feel guilty after every meal. You won’t think about the sheep or the hen you just ate before you fall asleep. Therefore, you will be more serene, with a peaceful conscience, thanks to the vegetables, cereals, and fruits that will now make up your meals. Vegetarianism, even veganism, is also the diet of Buddhists, great sages who are always Zen.
Adopting vegetarianism: Other benefits
The benefits of a vegetarian diet are not only physical and psychological; they are also ecological. Indeed, intensive livestock farming is catastrophic for the planet because, to produce 1 kg of meat, breeders use 20,000 liters of drinking water, while 1 kg of cereals requires only around 1,500 liters of water. In addition, livestock feed on grain in large quantities, grains that would be enough to feed the entire planet. When we know that 800 million people suffer from hunger in the world and that 40 million die from it every year, an ethical problem arises. By becoming vegetarian, you, therefore, play a role against the poor distribution of food.
Vegetarianism is, therefore, a benefit for animals, for your health, for your conscience, for the planet, and for humanity. So, don’t hesitate to take the plunge!
