If you're vegan or vegetarian, follow the ‘replace not remove' rule and you'll be able to enjoy a well-balanced diet, assured that your body is receiving all the nutrients it needs. When you remove a food from your diet, you remove nutrients. For example, removing meat removes protein. In the main, this is okay if you're eating other animal sources, such as poultry, fish, and eggs.
However, if you exclude all animal sources of protein you need to make sure that your replacement protein, such as pulses, nuts and cheese, are eaten with some starchy carbohydrate. This is because plant sources of protein don't contain all the amino acids (the building blocks of protein) your body needs. By matching foods in pairs, the amino acids missing from one food will be compensated by its pair! Some examples are:
• Baked beans on toast
• Macaroni cheese
• Peanut butter sandwich
• Rice and dahl
• Hummus and pitta bread
A word of warning! Some vegetarians are keen on cheese. If this is you, this is great for providing you with lots of calcium, but try to limit it to a matchbox-size piece for lunch or dinner and eat other sources of protein for your other meal. Cheese is usually high in saturated fat, so you could be not only piling on the pounds, but priming your blood vessels for a heart attack or stroke. So think again before you order that extra topping on your pizza!
So, you may be thinking ‘I'm following these rules already, I must be getting all my nutrients.' Almost, but there are a few more things to remember!
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