One of hardest things when becoming a
vegetarian is making sure you get enough
protein.
Protein is made up of
amino acids. Most of the 20 plus amino acids can be made by your body but
for 8 of them, the
essential amino acids, your body must depend on your
diet. This is
where new vegetarians can get into trouble because the easiest way of providing your body with
these amino acids is through
meat, which is no longer an
option. If you combine your foods properly it is possible to get all the essential amino
acids and not have to
kill anybody. An example of combining the protein in plant foods to cover
all your bases is something like
legumes (dried beans) and
rice. Another easy one is peanut
butter and
whole wheat. The beans cover one side and the rice covers the other side. If you
really want to be vegetarian you have to figure out which foods provide which
essential amino
acids and then combine them. It takes work but there are lots of vegetarian cook books and websites that will help. As a side note if your pre pubescent or in the midst
of puberty its probably better to continue eating the
eggs of other animals because they are such excellent
sources of
protein as well as
vitamins and
minerals. Remember to eat different things and not
get stuck eating the same food. If you’re to lazy to research and you still want to be a vegetarian
the easiest rule is the one I mentioned above about mixing
beans and
rice (go for rice that has
not been refined and had its
fiber taken away). Make sure you get your protein or else you will get
sick and
tired. Any other ideas for getting all the proper protein would be much appreciated :)