The vegetarian diet or the vegetarian diet (or vegetarianism ) is a food behavior that consists of excluding meat, poultry, fish .
The reasons for this eviction can be philosophical, religious, economic or related to environmental, ethical or ecological causes. Many people also follow a vegetarian diet for health reasons or principles, fleeing the proteins from the meat.
The different types of vegetarianism
Several forms of vegetarian diet exist, and are more or less selective:
> Ovo-lacto-vegetarians who do not consume meat, poultry or fish, but allow eggs and dairy products.
> Lacto-vegetarians who also exclude eggs.
> Vegans who consume no food of animal origin: meat, poultry, fish, egg, dairy products and honey. Some even eat only one type of food: frugivores consume only fruits, raw vegetables raw vegetables, and granivores cereals.
Benefits and ... health risks
The main risk of a vegetarian diet is that of deficiency, especially in proteins. A vegetable protein is not equivalent to an animal protein. It will miss some essential amino acids (lysine, amino acids sulfur): it is necessary to multiply the protein sources to obtain all the essential amino acids.
Thus, a diet containing eggs, and sufficiently rich in fruits, vegetables, cereals, legumes and dairy products will maintain a good nutritional status.
A vegetarian diet has the advantage of being less rich in fat (especially animal, of course!) And salt that a "classic" diet. It is also often richer in minerals, fiber and vitamins. A well-run vegetarian diet therefore has certain nutritional interests.
Attention, excluding eggs and dairy products, vegans are at risk of protein malnutrition both in the quantity and quality of their protein. These people will have to be vigilant and know how to compensate for these possible problems of deficiencies.
