Special Considerations For Vegetarian Men
Vegetarianism brings with it dietary restrictions. When you add or remove anything from your regular diet, your nutritional intake will also change. Any diet requires the advice of a physician or other professional in order for proper balance to be achieved. Because foods are complex and all different from each other it is difficult to know when you are getting enough of each of the nutrients that you need. On a vegetarian diet there are some things that men need to pay special attention to. People do have individual nutritional needs, but men are similar to each other in a few ways. If you are a vegetarian man or if you are feeding a vegetarian man, consider the guidelines listed below.
Plenty of Protein
Most men are significantly more muscularly built than most women. Building muscle requires high levels of protein. Body builders actually eat or drink protein by itself in order to achieve maximum muscle building potential. Muscles are made out of protein. That is why animal meat is such a great thing to eat for men. If the man whose diet is in question is at all active, he needs extra protein in his diet. The protein will aid the building of muscle. Without the protein, exercise can lead to severe weight loss. The body may actually start ‘eating’ its own muscles as sources of energy. Protein is found in other animal products besides meat. Cheese, milk, yogurt and other dairy products are good sources. Also, eat plenty of eggs. It is not unhealthy for an active man to eat six eggs a week. Beans, nuts and other legumes are also good sources of protein, but they need to be combined with whole grains in order to form complete, muscle building proteins. A delicious combination is a spiced mixture of black beans and whole corn kernels. Finally, fish and shellfish are excellent, low fat sources of protein. Tuna fish is a very convenient and easy to eat form of dense protein.
‘B’ Vitamins to Be Energetic
B vitamins are difficult to get for vegetarians and non vegetarians alike. They do not occur naturally in very many foods. Spinach is a super food that contains some B vitamins as well as other essential nutrients. B vitamins are necessary for the production of tissue. Again we’re looking at muscle building. You may be thinking that if you are not a body builder that you do not need to be building muscle. The truth is that if you are not building muscle, you are losing muscle. Without enough B vitamins you will feel tired and unable to exert yourself for any long periods of time. Other vegetarian sources for B vitamins are cereals and other bread products. They are, by law, fortified. Look at the nutrition information for exact percentages contained in the box of cereal that you choose to buy. If you cannot get enough B vitamins out of your diet, do not hesitate to take a vitamin supplement. Ask your doctor if there are any specific vitamins that will be more helpful to your body before choosing your supplement. You will feel better and be healthier with sufficient quantities of the many B vitamins.
