More and more people decide to stop eating meat, for health or personal reasons, and following a vegetarian diet is totally feasible and carries practically no risk to health and weight, if done correctly.
Starting a vegetarian diet is not easy if you are not used to it, and especially if you do not take into account all those mistakes you can make when starting a diet like this. Therefore, we have decided to name you seven mistakes you can make if you have decided to start a vegetarian diet.
The number of calories also counts in a vegetarian diet
Whether we eat a vegetarian diet or a Mediterranean diet, if we eat more calories than we should, we will gain weight. There is a tendency to think that going on a vegetarian diet implies eating less, but there are very caloric foods that are used in a vegetarian diet.
Therefore, it is important that we look at the calories we eat to achieve that caloric deficit, and avoid all those foods that are vegetarian but ultra-processed
Eat only foods bought or prepared outside the home
There are many prepared meals that are suitable for vegetarians, and in the same way that people who are not, the lack of time is solved with a meal that is pre-cooked or cooked outside the home.
The problem arises when you do not know what ingredients have been used to prepare that food, such as oils and preservatives, nor is the amount of calories known. Therefore, everything made outside the home or pre-cooked is always less healthy than if we cook it at home.
Increase the number of refined grains instead of vegetables
If we are not used to eating vegetables on a regular basis, starting a vegetarian diet we can make the mistake of eating many refined cereals to have a greater satiety.
This leads to an increase in calorie intake, causing the diet to not work for us to lose weight. Ideally, you should eat all kinds of food, without eliminating any of them and consuming it in a balanced and conscious way.
Eat only fruits and vegetables
In contrast to the previous one, there are people who make the mistake of eating only fruits and vegetables on a vegetarian diet, being this more restrictive and increasing the anxiety of those who decide to do it.
The problem is that, not only will it lead to failure due to the anxiety it entails, but it will also generate a nutritional imbalance due to a lack of macronutrients such as proteins, carbohydrates and fats.
Overuse of sweeteners
It is important to emphasize that this does not only happen when we go on a vegetarian diet, It happens when we do any type of diet, which is to change sugar for another type of sweetener.
In the case of vegetarians, they tend to choose sweeteners of plant origin such as agave syrup or syrup, but without taking into account that the caloric intake of this sweetener is very high.
In the same way that we reduce sugar, We also have to take sweeteners consciously and without overdoing it., since many of the products that companies offer us are not one hundred percent natural.
Do not supplement the diet with vitamin B12
Vitamin B12 is found mainly in foods of animal origin, and if you are starting a vegetarian diet you will have a deficit of this vitamin, which is something very important to take into account since it can cause serious health problems, such as anemia, generating fatigue and weakness.
Therefore, the ideal is that you try to get it from foods of plant origin such as algae, mushrooms, soybeans, wheat germ and enriched cereals. But none of them give us the necessary supply of vitamin B12, therefore, it is best to supplement with this vitamin to get the right amount for good health, which is 4mcg a day, for those over 15 years of age.
Not choosing your protein sources well
When we start a vegan diet we are not usually clear from which foods to choose our source of protein, since not eating meat is a deficiency that we are going to have.
The problem arises that protein quality decreases, since they cannot be compared with those of animal origin. To avoid this, we can combine different foods, putting them together in the same dish, such as cereals and legumes, or rice with chickpeas. If not, there are protein-rich foods such as tofu, textured soybeans, nuts, and seeds.
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