The American Dietetic Association confirms that vegetarian diets, if they’re correctly planned, are healthy and can be precious allies to prevent or treat certain illnesses. Under the supervision of a specialist doctor, they can be followed during every stage of life: pregnancy, breastfeeding, early childhood or teenage years, and they’re also good for athletes.
However, there are some frequent errors you can run up against when you follow vegan or vegetarian diets. Here’s a list of rules and good advices to keep always in mind.
First, we need to point out that even people who follow omnivore diets can suffer of food shortages (sometimes the ones that are imputed to vegan and vegetarian diets). Iron, proteins, vitamins and “good” fats also exist in the plant kingdom. Actually, basing on our teeth and the structure of our digestive system, human nutrition should be mainly based on cereals, legumes, fruit and vegetables.
A good rule is to avoid an excessive consumption of pasta, bread and pizza: they might be typical for the Mediterranean diet, and also very filling, but they’re poor of main nutrients such as proteins and iron. No problem, however, if we serve them with a good mixture of veggies, legumes and fruit. We should also restrict fats: those who follow vegetarian diets should not exaggerate with butter and cheese. It’s better to choose higher quality fats: olive oil, avocado, nuts, flaxseed oil and almond milk with no added sugars.
Another key point is vitamin B12, that doesn’t exist in the world of vegetables: there are instead food with added B12 or supplements that allow us correctly balance it out in our diet.
Vegetarian and vegan diets can also be followed by those who practice any kind of sport. Carl Lewis, Edwin Moses, Martina Navratilova and the legendary Paavo Numi were also vegetarian or vegan. The main nutrient for the athletic diets is carbohydrates. They have to be eaten before and after every workout session, to replenish the sugars lost during the activity. Regarding proteins, it’s enough to consume a balanced amount of legumes, better if combined with whole wheat cereals to complete their nutritional values. [1]
Probios offers a 100% legume-based pasta line: chickpeas, black beans, lentils. Among them, the new yellow lentils spaghetti, the first long shaped legumes pasta, presented in occasion of SANA 2016. Organic, made in Italy and gluten-free guaranteed.
