A vegetarian diet is the habit of refraining from consuming fish, poultry, and meat. It involves consuming legumes, grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds. People opt to be vegetarians for various reasons, such as ethical issues, religion, environment, or any other personal reasons.
You must have heard someone refer to him or herself as a vegetarian? Such a person does not consume meat, fish, or any by-products of slaughter. He or she lives on eating vegetables, grains, fruits, and nuts.
Types of vegetarian
As much as the general aim is to refrain from consuming fish, poultry, and meat, not all these people stay away from everything mentioned. And that’s why there are types to being a vegetarian:
1. Ovo-vegetarian
They do not consume seafood, dairy, poultry and seafood. But consume eggs.
2. Lacto-vegetarian
No eggs, fish and meat. But lacto-vegetarians feed on milk, yoghurt, butter and cheese.
3. Lacto-ovo-vegetarian
It excludes eating fish, meat and poultry. They rather feed on eggs and dairy products.
4. Vegan
A vegan does not consume any animal products including honey, eggs and dairy products.
5. Ento-vegan
This is someone who follows a vegan diet and also consumes insects.
Is ther any health benefits for refraining from all these food items? You’re not alone if the question on your mind is this and many more about Vegetarians. But there are:
1. May reduce cancer
Vegetarian diet is another way you can reduce the risk of having cancer of the breast, rectum and colon. Especially eating less meat, it can protect you to a certain level from cancer.
2. Reduces blood sugar
Not consuming meat or fish can as well help maintain a healthy blood sugar level especially in people who have type 2 diabetes.
3 Weight loss
If you want to lose weight, maybe being a vegetarian should be the next thing for you because it is an effective strategy to lose excess fat on time. Vegetarians tend to have lower body mass index (BMI) which is the measurement of body fat unlike non-vegetarians.
4. Promotes heart health
Vegetarian diets can help keep your heart healthy and strong. It reduces the risk of having a heart disease. No room for cholesterol which is part of the factors for heart disease.
5. Improve skin health
Higher intake of vegetarian foods can improve the health of your skin. Eating foods highly rich in plants can prevent the skin from acne, ageing and dermatitis.
