It’s early March which means I’ve been a vegetarian for just short of 3 months. When I first became a vegetarian I was tired a lot of the time, and not knowing too much about nutrition, I didn’t know why. I was sleeping twelve hours a night and just feeling way too run down during the days. I realized that I wasn’t getting enough iron in my diet.
Then one day I was in the gym and the TV was on and there was a special on Nutrition from A-Z. The “V” was for vitamin B-12. The trainer was like YES I JUST STARTED TAKING THAT. She said she had been feeling run down and realized she was vitamin B-12 deficient. I had never even heard of vitamin B-12 before, but I started to read about it and realized that it only occurs in meat, particularly red meats. There is vitamin B-12 in eggs, but eggs also contain nutrients that block absorption of the vitamin. There is some vitamin B-12 in milk, but not very much- especially in skim milk.
Iron is also found mostly in meat. Spinach is a good source of iron too, but as far as greens go, spinach is not my favorite. I began taking supplements of both iron and vitamin b-12, as well as a multi vitamin (mostly because I like gummies and my mom told me I should take them) and I don’t feel like I am missing any nutrients.
The other nutrient many vegetarians can miss is protein. My mom was extra concerned about this when I told her I was going to become a vegetarian. She asked me to still include chicken in my diet so I could get quick protein if I needed to. I don’t eat chicken because from my reading that’s one of the main animals that I just can’t eat after reading about the American Meat Packing Industry. (I told my Granny I would eat a locally-raised-organic- free-range chicken and she thought I was insane… But it’s true – I’ll get to that in another post). I try really hard to get all of my protein, especially since I am trying to exercise a lot.
I’m having a dinner party tomorrow and I was a little nervous because none of my friends are vegetarians. I was considering making a chicken dish just because people would feel like they had a heartier meal if I did. I was discussing the menu with my roommate and she was like well “I’m just worried about you getting all your protein.” I’m not sure why people are so worried about me with that but I told her my plan was to make a quinoa with tomatoes and walnuts and a little cheese. Quinoa, as I’ve mentioned before, is a complete protein, and walnuts have lots of protein and even some Omega-3 fatty acid! I'll let you know how the recipe goes!
Protein is easy to come by if you are trying to find it. There's protein in nuts, fish, quinoa, eggs, greek yogurt, beans, hummus... and if you need more there is are drinks like Breakfast Essentials and Protein Shakes and even protein snack bars.... I try to make sure that each of my meals has a protein component, but I find that I never have to think too hard to make sure I get enough.
It’s been three months and I love my vegetarian diet and never feel malnourished. I really recommend going vegetarian for anyone who wants to eat more veggies and try something new! But don’t forget to take your vitamins!!
