Every year there are numerous reports that are issued and presented to the general public through various media channels that surmise the same thing: people are not eating as healthy as they used to last year. They point out way back to the time of our grandfathers and say how healthier the average person was back then and how we are hopelessly weak and undernourished in comparison.
Then come the problems with modern-day diet:Â too much-saturated fat, not enough complex carbohydrates, and all sorts of ingredients (and lack of others) that can lead to heart problems, obesity, etc. Sometimes, reading these statistics causes a lot of people to opt for vegetarianism to stay healthy. There are three major types of vegetarianism:
1. Vegans are the extreme form of vegetarians
They do not eat or use animal products. This can include meat, eggs, milk, honey, and yeast. A vegan lifestyle also eschews the use of products made out of leather, fur, or another material sourced from animals.
2. Lacto and Lacto-ovo vegans
Lacto vegans are similar to pure vegans except that they see no objection to consuming milk and other dairy products. Lacto-ovo vegans go one step ahead of lacto-vegans and add eggs to their list of permissible consumables.
3. Fruitarians are tangential vegans
They stick to the vegetable kingdom and avoid all animal foods. They are called fruitarians because their diets do not include vegetables either. They eat only fruits, seeds, and nuts.
The possible negative result of a purely vegetarian lifestyle is protein deficiency. It depends largely on how the vegetarian diet is planned but bad diets can result in the individual not getting the minimum amount of rations required daily.
Vitamin B-12 is one ingredient that is most likely to be missing from most vegetarian meals. The reason for this is that B-12 is present only in meat, poultry, and eggs. It is an essential part of the development of new red blood cells and keeping the central nervous system in top form. Because vegetarians are likely to avoid most food products containing B-12, they are more likely to be B-12 deficient.
Symptoms of B-12 deficiency include dementia, hallucination, fatigue, vision problems, and balance problems.
People who have been vegetarians since birth are at a higher risk of B-12 deficiency.
Vitamin B-12 cannot be reabsorbed. This means that people who change to vegetarians later in their lives are not likely to notice any B-12 deficiency symptoms before five or more years have passed. In most cases, B-12 deficiency is almost irreversible so it is best to avoid that situation.
It has been noted that over 20% of people who suffer from heart disease have high levels of homocysteine. This is an antioxidant that can cause toxic reactions in high quantities. B-12 deficiency has a direct impact on increased levels of homocysteine.
The body needs at least 10 micrograms of B-12 daily. If you are a vegetarian then you should get a blood test done regularly to make sure that you are not running deficient in B-12.
