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Ask the Expert: Kathleen Zelman
Vegetarian vs. traditional diets – UHC TV
Is a vegetarian diet healthier than a traditional diet that includes animal products? Well, it all depends. It’s not as simple as black and white.
Vegetarian diets tend to be healthier, but it all depends on the kinds of foods that you choose. In general they tend to be healthier. They’re associated with a lower incidence of Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, so they really can be a healthier diet because they’re based primarily on plant foods.
When your diet is rich with plant foods, and that means things that grow in the earth – fruits and vegetables, grains, especially whole grains – they tend to have a lot of fiber, a lot of antioxidants which are disease preventing, and there’s not much natural fat there.
You can ladle on the oil. Even if it’s good, healthy canola or olive oil, it’s still fats. You can still get lots of fat calories. You can get fat in a variety of different sources.
A vegetarian diet isn’t necessarily a low-calorie diet or a low-fat diet. If you choose properly, if you have a wide variety, and I think being a vegetarian, it’s the easiest if you include dairy products and eggs. That’s a lacto-ovo vegetarian that includes those two types of animal products. If you can include those products, then you’re less likely to have nutritional deficiencies and you’re going to get enough calcium, Vitamin D, and complete protein from the animal products. It makes the diet a little more well-rounded.
You can be a vegan; you can be healthy. You’ll probably need dietary supplements because you can’t get B12 in any other sources except animal sources. Vitamin D is hard to get enough of, and even the sun depends on the time of year, where you live, and the color of your skin, whether or not you can get enough of that sunshine Vitamin D.
Calcium’s hard to get enough of if you don’t drink and consume dairy products. There are a couple of areas where your diet really can be improved with the addition of a few different types of food groups that will be included.
Another thing that’s kind of interesting is that there’s a new term called a flexitarian. A flexitarian is someone who eats mostly a plant-based diet – mostly vegetarian – but still wants to go home to mom’s and have their comfort food or go to the neighborhood barbecue and enjoy some ribs now and then.
You can sort of focus on a healthy diet close to the earth – foods that are not terribly processed, and really have a healthier diet, because it’s rich in all those vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. It’s an easy way to eat. It’s a healthy way to eat, as long as you don’t have too much saturated fat from foods like cheese, which can add a lot of saturated fat to your diet. Lots of vegetarians live off cheese.
Think more soy because soy is naturally fat free, and that will be a great way to add some protein and expand your diets.
The answer is, yes, you can have a healthy diet with animal products if you choose lean animal products. And you can have a healthy diet being a vegetarian, whether you’re a vegan or a flexitarian.
If you’re eating meat, I say try to have a couple of meatless meals, and try some vegetarian type foods because in general they can be good for you and very healthy.
Ask the Expert
Is A Vegetarian Diet Healthier?
Question: Is a vegetarian diet healthier than a meat-based diet?
Answer from: Kathleen Zelman, R.D., nutrition expert
Vegetarian? Vegan? Flexitarian? Understand the many shades of vegetarians, along with the pros and cons of a greener diet.
The content of these videos is for information only and is not intended to be medical advice. Refer to your health plan benefit guide for coverage details, and consult with your doctor to determine what is best for you.
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