Whatever your reasons are for becoming a vegetarian, there are four different types of vegetarians, and you can choose the type that you want to be. There are many different types of vegetarians, as some people are not able to give up all animal products completely. The four types are:
Lacto Vegetarians: This diet consists of no animal products or eggs. They do eat dairy products such as milk, cheese and yogurt.
Ovo-Vegetarians: This diet consists of no animal or dairy, but they do eat eggs.
Lacto-Ovo Vegetarians: This diet consists of no animal products, but they do eat dairy and eggs.
Vegan: This diet consists of plant-based foods, which means that it excludes all animal products including dairy, eggs, meat and even honey.
If you haven’t figured out what type of vegetarian you are going to be, it’s okay. It takes time and experimentation with different recipes to figure out what you can’t
live without in your diet. For example, some people can’t live without milk and eggs.
You Really are What You Eat
The expression “you are what you eat” has been heard numerous times, and it is often used in advertisements. But, if you really think about what this means, you really start to think twice about your diet.
A good example of a person being what they eat can be seen in your blood plasma. Your blood plasma is clear liquid, but after eating a fast food hamburger, your blood plasma becomes cloudy with fat and cholesterol. This is what your body absorbs after eating a high-fat hamburger.
Inversely, you also become what you don’t eat. When you switch from eating a lot of meat to eating a vegetarian based diet, you lose fat. You are also less prone to various cancers and diseases. Your cholesterol can also improve. When you are lean and eating less meat products, you find that many of your health and fitness problems go away. The risk of Type II diabetes is also reduced. Blood pressure falls into normal ranges as well. When you’re healthier, you also do not have to take fewer medications.
If you have a family history of high cholesterol or blood pressure, then you are particularly dependent on what you eat, and it is easier for you to become what you eat. Moving towards a vegetarian diet can reduce the incidence of numerous diseases. Vegetarians are also statistically healthier.
What Did Our Ancestors Eat?
Do you ever wonder what our ancestors ate and how far we have diverted in our eating habits? Originally, our ancestors were hunter-gatherers and were not omnivores. They did not eat animals. When you look at predators and carnivorous animals, you can see that they have teeth designed to rip and tear. Their teeth are not designed for chewing. Animals that are designed for chewing like herbivores have flat teeth that are designed to breakdown food.
Humans evolved from creatures that were vegetarian. The digestive systems were not designed for eating and digesting meat. Eating meat is a fairly recent development in human history. It is believed that humans began to eat meat because they couldn’t find the natural foods they were used to eating. They might have assumed that eating meat would help to sustain their meat.
Initially, we were similar to creatures that evolved from animals like herbivore apes. These apes looked similar to man and walked upright with their arms and hands. They naturally foraged for food and ate roots, berries, fruits and nuts. They also lived moment to moment, constantly foraging for food. Hunting requires thought, and eating meat required fire. Until fire was discovered, man primarily ate vegetables and fruits. Vegetarian eating is a natural form of eating and much healthier.
Why Did Humans Start Eating Meat?
Necessity is the mother of invention, and prehistoric men who lived in frozen areas ate anything that they could to survive. The prehistoric man had to eat meat in order to survive. This would be the first time that they had ever eaten meat. This changed the way people would eat and health forever.
The first meat that was eaten would have been cooked by fire that was natural, started by natural forest fires. Without fire, they could have possibly eaten raw meat as well. The digestive system most likely rebelled to eating the raw meat, but as they became adjusted, meat became a part of their regular diets.
You may have heard of people who have lived vegetarian lives for a long period of time and then became violently ill afterwards. This is similar to what prehistoric men would have gone through. Biologists will tell you that we are not really designed to digest meat, but that we have adapted to it over time.
The Tradition of Eating Meat
As man developed, they began eating more and more meat. This led to whole families eating meat as a main part of their meal, and thus the tradition of eating meat began. The turkey became the staple of Thanksgiving dinner. New Year’s has always been associated with pork and sauerkraut. Ham is the traditional meal of Easter. In the summer, you can’t wait to smell the barbecue in the air. As you think about all the meat that we consume, it’s hard to believe that we were designed to live off of vegetables, fruits, nuts and berries.
When humans had to begin eating meat to survive, it became a group event. One Indian was not able to go out and hunt a buffalo alone. It took at least four people to hunt a buffalo. The same is true for a variety of other animals that we hunted and ate. The meat became the centre of attention, and it took several family or tribe members to clean, cook and even dry the meat. After the work was done, the meat was shared as a reward for hard work.
Now, we don’t have to hunt our meat, but we do buy it. We still enjoy getting together and celebrating over a ham, because this is ingrained in our nature from thousands of years of traditions. All celebrations tend to hover around some sort of food item, but imagine what your options would be if we gave up meat and imagine how much healthier our meals could be.
If you recognize that you could feel much better about yourself if you were able to eat healthier, then that should be a good enough reason to switch or at least decrease the amount of meat that you eat. You don’t have to make a complete switch. Sure, some people enjoy a nice cold glass of milk and may need it to ensure they are receiving adequate calcium and vitamin D. If you don’t think you can give meat up completely, you can simply make your meat more of a side dish and eat more healthy veggies. You will be amazed at the difference it will make.
Photo by Pablo Merchán Montes on Unsplash
