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Don't forget your vital minerals and nutrients(B12 and iron):

As a nutrition major and strong believer that you do not need meat in your diet to survive....there is some truth in the fact that I vegetarian diet does not provide all of the nutrients. B12 deficiencies are common in normal dieters and can become severe in vegetarians. The sources of B12 are the following: liver, kidney, yogurt, dairy products, fish, clams, oysters, nonfat dry milk, salmon, sardines. B12 is an essential vitaming in the body that contributes to the health of your red blood cells and the nerve cells, so even if you think that you re getting enough just take the supplement to be safe!

So you if you are a vegetarian(there are over 10,00 types of vegetarians...you wouldn't believe the theories people come up with)that consumes dairy(a lacto-vegatarians) and/or eggs(Lacto-ovo-vegetarian/ovo- vegetarian) then you should be ok but it does not hurt to take a multi-vitamin because you really can't OD on B12 because it is water-soluble and whatever your body does use will be excreted through the urine.

Vegetarians also need to be taking an iron supplement because you cannot get enough iron through a vegetarian diet alone.The term Vegetarian to me equals a person the does not consume any meat products but does eat dairy and eggs. So where can you get iron if you do not want to take a supplement:whole wheat bread, spinach, and beans.The DRI(Daily Reference Intake) value for women 19-30 is 18mg/day and for men it is 8mg/day. Men have a much easier time getting that because a cup of chickpeas will give you about 13mg of iron...but women have a harder time especially when you are trying to keep a varied diet with lots of food sources. Most other non-meat sources beside legumes do not provide an adequate amount of iron.

I say suck it up and throw some seafood in your diet...especially if you are the protect the animal type because fish and shellfish do not have a CNS where feeling and thought is located. If you are the type that just doesn't really like it, then try spicing up that meat with cayenne pepper and lemon juice...I promise that you will not taste it one bit.

Learn more about this author, Summer Stewart.
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