You may have heard about all the wonderful benefits of changing your diet to include more vegetables and less meat. If you plan to actually do this then you will need some help right off the bat to ensure that you are getting adequate nutrition. This is where I can help you.
Your first lesson in becoming a vegetarian is about the different types of nutrients and in what foods they are found.
Types of Nutrients
There are six major classes of nutrients you will find in foods. Some foods only provide one major class whereas some foods overlap over the classes.
The Six Classes are:
Carbohydrates
Fats
Minerals
Protein
Vitamins
Water
Carbohydrates are found in foods that should take up the larger part of your diet. These include rice, bread, noodles, pasta and other food products with a grain base. This group also includes foods that are high in sugar, fiber and starch.
Fats are another of the six and come with two broad subcategories; unsaturated and saturated fats. Unsaturated fats are those found in plants and are generally liquid at room temperature. The Saturated fats are from animal sources and they are solid or semi solid at room temperature.
Proteins: this can be found in foods such as legumes, tofu, soy products, dairy products and eggs.
Minerals are example iron, calcium, iodine, potassium etc.
Vitamins are considered essential for various body processes and for the overall maintenance of good health. The only vitamin that is not necessary in the diet is vitamin D which is made in the skin when you are exposed to sunlight.
Water is the sixth class and makes up 2/3rds of the human body. We get 20 percent of our daily water intake from the food we eat and the remainder should come from water we drink as well as other beverages also.
Basic Nutrition Concepts
Your body can get all the nutrients it needs for proper functioning from food.
Having a balanced diet means eating a combination of foods from the different food groups in the right proportions.
There is no one food item that can provide the body with all the nutrients that are necessary for growth and good health.
Different nutrients have different and specific uses in the body.
The majority of nutrients that are necessary for good health cannot work by themselves but instead work along with other nutrients in the body.
No matter your age, we all need the same nutrients just in different amounts at different stages of life.
The amounts of nutrients that you need for your body is dependent on your level of physical activity, your age, your gender and your overall state of health.