The Top Five Nutrients A Vegetarian Lacks

Both vegetarian and non-vegetarian diets have advantages. Vegetarian diets tend to be rich in antioxidants, certain vitamins, and healthy fats. Non-vegetarian diets, by contrast, tend to contain more protein, iron, zinc, calcium, and vitamin B-12.

If you already decided to adopt a vegetarian diet,  it is essential you learn how to increase your intake  and absorption of these nutrients to avoid short-term  and long-term health complications.

In the next few paragraphs, I will explain how you  can regularly assimilate larger portions of these  nutrients into your regular diet:

1. Protein. Different types of protein are made up  of different permutations of amino acid chains.  In order to create a "complete protein" or a  protein that can be assimilated into the human  body as tissue, you must consume foods that contain  complementary chains of amino acids.

Wheat, nuts, and beans are three types of vegan-friendly  incomplete proteins; however, wheat is hard to  digest and up to 50% of its protein is lost  during the process.

Isolated soy protein, which you can get from a number  of sources (including soy milk), can be digested  efficiently-enough to match the animal protein yields.

2. Iron. Plant sources contain a significant amount of  iron, but in nonheme form, which is more sensitive  to inhibitors than iron that comes from animal products.  You should do two things to increase your blood-iron  levels: 1) consume more plant iron; and 2) avoid absorption  inhibitors, such as tea, coffee, and fiber.

3. Zinc. Whereas non-vegetarian diets seem to enhance  the absorption of zinc; vegetarian and vegan diets  do the exact opposite--they inhibit it.

Nutritionists suggest that you can overcome  this by consuming more foods that contain zinc,  such as soybeans, cashews, and sunflower  seeds while reducing your intake of inhibitors  by washing vegetables and grains.

4. Calcium. While vegetarians can easily consume  an adequate amount of calcium without any dietary  additions, it is important that vegetarians avoid  consuming certain foods that are high in oxalates,  which inhibit calcium absorption.

Dietitians suggest that vegetarians do not consume  spinach, beet greens, and swiss chard as the  calcium component of a meal plan. While they are  rich in calcium, they also contain high amounts of  oxalates.

Rather than consuming those foods for calcium,  vegetarians should consider other options, such as  soy yogurt, tofu, beans, almonds, and calcium-  fortified foods.

5. Vitamin B-12. Many vegetarians lack  vitamin B-12 simply because it does not exist  naturally in any non-animal forms. Vegetarians  should seek out vitamin B-12 fortified foods,  such as certain soy milks and cereals to  supplement what they lack.

As I outlined, there are a number of nutrients  vegetarians can lack of they do not research  and plan. This is not meant to discourage  people from becoming vegetarians, but instead  to encourage them to spend time planning a  health approach to their vegetarian diet  before starting it.

When planned adequately, a vegetarian diet  can not only make up for what it lacks from  animal products, but it can far exceed  the healthfulness of most non-vegetarian diets.