Five Things About The Vegetarian Diet That You Should Know

The explosion in obesity and disease of lifestyle in the world is costing the economies of various countries millions of dollars. Lifestyle diseases such as obesity, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidaemias, high blood pressure, coronary artery diseases and cancers are very common in industrialised countries. Vegetarian diets could offer some positive leads towards the epidemic of lifestyle diseases.

1. Vegetarian Diet and Today's Lifestyle diseases

There is evidence that a vegetarian diet is beneficial for various lifestyle disease such as, diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary artery diseases, cancers, etc. The reason for this might be due to various factors such as low fat content of the vegatarian diet compared to the omnivores diet, there could also be lifestyle changes for the vegetarians such as non-smoking, non drinking behaviors, general heightened health consciousness of the vegetarians. The increased fibre content of the vegetarian diets also play a role especially in the prevalence of colon and breast cancers.

2. Vegetarian Diet and Diabetes

Vegetarian diets are usually rich in fibre and complex carbohydrates and are restricted in fat. Several studies have proven that this diet improves control of blood glucose, delay glucose absorption, lower insulin requirements, aid in weight control and lower blood pressure in diabetic patients.

3. Vegetarian Diet and Cardiovascular Disease

An association between a vegetarian diet and a decrease in the incidence of myocardial infarction, heart diseases, angina, has been established. This association is due to an increase in the consumption of fruit and vegetables, especially consumption of soybean, legumes, nuts. The whole reduction in these incidences are as a result of reduced fat content (hypolipidaemic effect), and also vegetarian diets reduce weight and blood pressure and cholesterol levels thus providing further cardiovascular prevention.

Vegetarian diets are also rich in anti-oxidants such as vitamin E, vitamin C, B-carotene and flavanoids as well as folic acid, which all have a protective effect to the cardiovascular system.

4. Vegetarian diet and Cancer

Vegetarian diets rich in fibre and other dietary components associated with high intake of whole grains, vegetables and fruit lead to a reduction in colorectal cancer. There is mounting evidence that this kind of diet is also beneficial in reduction of the incidence of breast and prostate cancers too.

Again the reduction in the prevalence of cancers in vegetarians is postulated as due to the presence of the same antioxidants mentioned above.

5. Other effects of Vegetarian diet

Vegetarian diets tend to be lower in Vitamin B12 and there has been several reports of VitB12 deficiencies amongst vegetarians. The major effect of vegetarian diets that are high in fibre and leguminous seeds is increased intestinal gas production, resulting in more flatulence

It is very unlikely that weight management and diseases prevention processes could be regulated or controlled instinctually as was the case in our previous times. At the moment, weight management have to be a cognitive skill and as people we need to find ways and methods of ensuring that we create an environment that supports healthy behaviors.

As a starting point in our quest to lead a long healthy life aspects of the vegetarian diet could be the first step in a thousand mile journey. We could also augment our lifestyles with a gradual increase in physical activity........throw away the TV remote control, use stairs instead of lifts, park far from the shopping mall entrance, gradually increase physical activity coupled with diet control to at least 30 minutes of vigorous exercise most days of the week, let us not use the drive thrus or better let us demand more healthy take-aways or stop take aways altogether.

Let us not supersize our meals, let us only buy foods with full information on the labels pertaining to energy and all the other 'nutritional'content.

by Hlombe Makuluma

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