Lose Weight Program > All Vegetarian Diet

Theoretically, you could get adequate protein from a strictly vegetarian diet, but practically it would be extremely difficult. For one thing, it would require the eating of huge amounts of food.



Editor's note: this has been scientifically proven untrue. Vegetarian eating does require paying attention to your protein and nutrient intake, but it is not hard and you do not have to eat enormous amounts of food.

Most vegetarian diets make excellent use of eggs, milk, and cheese, and to that extent are only partly vegetarian. It is true that a cow gets all the proteins she needs from grass and hay, but a cow has four stomachs that can hold a modest haystack. Time means nothing to a cow; she can sit down at leisure, elevate some of lier stomach contents, and chew her meal all over again with such a contemplative expression that "ruminative" is a working synonym for deep thinking. Most of us would rather let the cow do the work, and accept concentrated dividends in the form of milk, steak, or eggs.

It happens that eggs, dairy products, liver, and other animal foodstuffs contain Vitamin A in its true vitamin form. Vegetable foods contain substances - precursors is the word - that can be converted into Vitamin A during digestion. To the normal healthy person it makes little difference in what form he gets this vitamin, but some reducers face a special problem if they use mineral oil in salad dressings for the perfectly sound reason that this oil has no food value- and contributes no calories. The difficulty is that mineral oil interferes with the conversion of precursors into Vitamin A, and adversely affects assimilation of other elements.

It has little effect upon pure Vitamin A, however, so as regards this vitamin you can reasonably figure that what you eat from animal foodstuffs, you get.

The minimum amount of protein that you can get along on reasonably well can be roughly figured at slightly less than 2 calories per pound of ideal weight. This amount, however, will merely take care of your replacement needs and won't have time to jump on the backs of other calories to spur them into action. It is only surplus protein calories that stimulate the specific dynamic action we have been talking about.

That is why your reducing diets provide a generous surplus. The work of selection is all done for you and the Calorie-Counting Table is so arranged that you can, if you wish, substitute your favorite protein foods in the twinkling of an eye.


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