Reference no: EM133292020
Respond to Peer Discussion board
There are more than four types of different vegetarian diets. The most popular American vegetarian diet is the lacto ovo vegetarian diet which allows for plant foods, dairy products, and eggs. Three other vegetarian diets include vegans, raw vegans, and pesco vegetarians. The latter diet involves eating of plants and fish as the term "pesco" would suggest the inclusion of fish.
One of the deficiencies in a vegetarian diet is that of the omega-3 fatty acids. These fatty acids are found in fish, eggs, organ meats, nuts, flax seeds, walnuts, canola oil. While omega-3 fatty acids tend to be a deficiency in vegan diets, calcium is generally not found deficient in vegetarians because calcium can be obtained from greens such as collards, kale, turnip, spinach and other vegetables including broccoli, bok choy, and Chinese cabbage. Vegetarians also are usually deficient in zinc, iron, vitamin D, vitamin B-12, and iodine.
There are many food sources available in the vegetarian diet. Vegetarians can survive on plant sources including whole grains, legumes, leafy green vegetables, seeds, nuts, tofu, tempeh (i.e., soybean based product), and soy milk. Sources of omega-3 fatty acids can also be found in chia seeds. Sources of zinc can be obtained from soy products, cheese, and nuts. Sources of the B-12 vitamin can be obtained from consumption of nori, spirulina, chlorella, algae, fortified nutritional yeast, kimchi, breakfast cereal and soy-based drinks. Iodine sources can be obtained from the vegetarian consuming sea kelp, seaweed, kombu, and wakame. As a side note, yeast alone does not contain B-12 however, nutritional yeast has B-12 added to it and the bitter tasting nutritional yeast can be added to hot or cold cereals, added to soups, placed in baked goods, sprinkled on popcorn, or placed on cottage cheese or yogurt (Stone, 2010/2012).
As a recommendation to those who wish to transfer from an all you can eat diet to just a vegetarian diet, a personal consultation with a Nutritionist or Physician would be vital to overall health and wellness. A lack of B-12 alone in a vegetarian diet can lead to nerve damage which can never be fixed. There are serious consequences for those who are not careful in what they eat especially vegetarians.