Stopping eating meat is something that crosses anyone’s mind.
Whether to have a healthier life, lose a few pounds or even as a form of protest in favor of animal life.
Whatever the intention, becoming vegetarian can have a very positive impact on your body.
Of course, this is if the diet is created in a balanced way, so that your body does not lack any nutrients.
Therefore, we will now show you everything you need to know before you stop eating meat and become a vegetarian for good.
And at the end, a bonus for you!
See Also: 7 benefits of chia for diet and overall health
Stop eating meat: can you eat healthy without our main food?
What happens to a person who doesn’t eat meat?
1 – Vitamin B12 will need to be supplemented
Contained only in meat, eggs and fish, vitamin B12 is responsible for the cognitive processes of our brain.
Thus, the lack of it can end up compromising short-term memory, for example.
Therefore, if you have cut out eggs and fish, you should consume B12 in supplement form.
However, if you are vegan and do not consume anything that comes from animals, make sure that the supplement is not produced with ingredients derived from them.
See Also: Is washing your hair every day bad? Find out if the habit harms the health of your hair
2 – It is possible to start slowly
As we just said, there are vegetarians who start by cutting only red meat from the menu.
Thus, eggs, milk and even fish end up being part of the diet at the beginning.
It turns out that it is essential to keep in mind that vegetarianism is not a cult but rather an individual option for each person.
Those who choose to eliminate only meat from their diet, for example, reap the benefits of eliminating one of the main villains in our diet, which are processed foods and a large part of fast food.
See Also: 6 wardrobe items that can be bad for your health
3 – Learn vegetarian recipes so you don’t just stick to pasta and fries
What can’t a vegan eat?
There’s no point in becoming a vegetarian and living on carbohydrates, right?!
Therefore, a great tip for eating well and healthy, and in fact, very well, is learning some vegetarian recipes.
Believe me, there is a gastronomic world at your disposal that you might not even imagine exists.
There are soy burgers, delicious brownies, cookies, wraps and everything else you can imagine.
Know that the important thing about vegetarianism is to open your mind and expand your palate, not the other way around!
But another thing you need to know before stopping eating meat is that:
4 – It is important to double your iron consumption!
This is because the iron contained in vegetables is not absorbed as efficiently in our body as iron of animal origin.
Therefore, it is essential that your diet contains at least twice the amount of iron needed per day.
For vegetarians, this is in the range of 14.4 mg for men over 19 years old and 32.4 mg for women up to 50 years old, after this age group, women start to need the same amount as men.
Among the vegetables that contain iron, we can mention:
- bean
- military
- spinach
- cabbage
- Lentil
Furthermore, speaking of the absorption of this nutrient…
5 – Vitamin C helps to better absorb iron in the body
Therefore, give preference to consuming dishes that include foods rich in vitamin C and iron in their recipes.
There are foods full of this nutrient everywhere, both fruits and vegetables.
Just look:
- acerola
- guava
- kiwi
- strawberry
- orange
- pepper
- broccoli
- Brussels sprouts
- goji berry
- cranberry
- cashew
You see, the secret to a good vegetarian dish is in the mix of ingredients, which bring more flavor and boost our health.
There’s just one more thing worth highlighting, for those who are more concerned about vegetarianism:
6 – Calcium is not only present in milk
When stopping eating meat and becoming vegetarian, many people are afraid to leave milk aside, for fear of undernourishing the amount of calcium in the body.
But contrary to what many people think, there are many vegetables that are perfect sources of calcium, especially those with a dark green color, such as broccoli, spinach and kale.
However, we come to our special bonus!
Valuable tip for those who want to stop eating meat
Just like any other person, carrying out periodic exams is essential.
However, when we are new to some things, we end up forgetting a little thing here and there in the basic rules.
Therefore, it is essential for anyone who is becoming a vegetarian to undergo periodic examinations.
Until you get used to the new routine and new foods in your diet, it is normal for your body to be lacking one nutrient or another.
But that doesn’t mean it’s just because you stopped eating meat.
Therefore, it is important to have the tips in this article as a manual, to keep your health up to date.
Furthermore, another super valid tip is to have equipment at home that steams food.
This means that no nutrients are lost in the water and you absorb the full potential of each vegetable.
Want more tips?
Follow our publications on Google News.
