Vegetarian Diet: How to get the best nutrition?

guess we should plant more legumes

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)

Be very careful on the B-12 note. I tried to go veggie and got so sick. My B12 went down to 80. Sublingual B12 suppliments are as good, if not better than the shots.

I eat meat again now but limited amounts, I think people these days tend to eat way too much meat anyway. And I enjoy at least 2 eggs a day from my happy healthy pet chickies :)

-- Xploreorganics, 5b Canada, LFD 06-20

people forget about “balance” I think … most of us anyway.
Your pets sure are nice paying rent every day!! :)

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a)

It’s hard for vegans to get all their vitamins, but is possible to do so without being boring.

We should all be eating as wide a variety of (local) fruits and veg possible. If we eat a rainbow – lots of different colored foods every day/week, and the dark leafy greens we didn’t like as kids (spinach, kale) you’ll have most, if not all of your bases covered.

my diet has run the gamut from omnivore to vegetarian (after college lots of foods, sausage, cheese… began to no longer sit well) to vegan (it was easier to give up cheese than chicken!) to macrobiotic (Local, organic, no processed sugars/flours, lots of whole grains and veg – and yay, seafood!!!)...

following this diet my wife gave birth to a perfectly healthy daughter – we believe this helped her avoid some specific birth defect risks. Unfortunately, most of the foods that we’re so healthy in utero didn’t react well in breastmilk, and we slipped into more of a “flexitarian” diet after my daughter was born.

Unfortunately I’ve lost most of my great vegetarian habits and practice with those recipes… basically we don’t eat anything with 4 legs. Luckily for me, a lot of the foods that forced me go go veg, no longer cause me digestive problems, in proper quantities. But we do eat a lot, and good variety of fruits and veg, I mostly, make our own bread starting with a mixture of hot cereal as a base, soymilk goes on our cereal… etc…

-- southern NH. - smack dab in the middle of 5a and 5b - with lots of shade and full sun, in all the wrong places.

This may sound ridiculous…I’ve been eating alot of natural/healthy foods and read on a vegan site that vegans don’t eat gelatin or jelly? Is this stuff (gelatin) really bad for you and I missed something? We love sugarfree jellies and Jello! (I know about the artifical sweetners being bad:( Thanks for any info!!!

-- Jen, Zone 8 SC, http://www.woodlandchic.com

Vegans don’t eat gelatin as it is an animal product usually made from pork or bovine cartillage…You can find veggie jellies made from Agar Agar and fruit juice…

No gelatin is not bad…Jello…well…it has artifical everything.

Use Knox gelatin (if your vegan Agar) and fruit juice to make your own. 1 Cup of boiled juice…stir in 1 tbs of gelatin then ad 1 cup of icy cold juice and let set in fridge.

-- Xploreorganics, 5b Canada, LFD 06-20

some are vegan for ethical reasons, others for health, or reasons pertaining to not using any products made by or from animals. Honey, milk, cheese, gelatin, or even clarified soups and broths (I remember reading, though I could be wrong) that blood is used to clarify broths – like consommes)

Of course on one level honeybees are responsible for almost everything we eat – the great pollinators that they are. So while I understand not wishing to take honey away as their own food source, they are giving us most of our fruits and veggies.

There are also good economic reasons to be vegetarian (sure you’ll have a lower food bill) but also the grain required to yield one pound of hamburger will make 100 pounds of bread. (and on a planet full of starving people, which makes more sense?) Eating food closer to the sun, rather than several levels removed from it is more efficient, and healthier for the body and planet. The heir to the Baskin-Robbins throne wrote a good book (or two) about this – Diet for a Small Planet.

-- southern NH. - smack dab in the middle of 5a and 5b - with lots of shade and full sun, in all the wrong places.

Thank you Xploreorganics and scottb…lots of great and helpful info! I will be making my own “jello” now! And my own broths…yuck!!! And hopefully I can grow great veggies!

-- Jen, Zone 8 SC, http://www.woodlandchic.com