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PROJECT THIRD WORLD
It is never a good idea to focus too much on one food or nutrient, if this means that you are eating a whole chicken every day or just broccoli without considering the rest of your diet or one type of vegetable all day then you’re not eating a truly balanced or healthy diet. There is no way that adding any one food to your diet is going to make you healthy, a healthy lifestyle consists of a variety of foods, if that means that meat is avoided then the range of other foods has to increase to compensate. In this case, being vegetarian with a well-balanced and compensated diet appears to have no negative consequences and can potentially have a positive health effect. Being vegetarian does not mean that you are healthy or that a vegetarian diet can’t be done, you just need to work harder to make sure you’re getting a balance of all the necessary vitamins. Whenever a whole food group is cut out there is a risk of malnutrition, therefore visiting a nutritionist or educating yourself on what you can use to replace meat is the best thing you can do as a vegetarian. There is no stand out better option here; it is what works best for you and how much effort you are able to put into your diet is how much you will get out of it. As nutritionist Jamie Mass says “A vegetarian who consumes legumes, fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts will have a different health profile than a vegetarian who consumes a diet high in refined carbohydrates like muffins, pasta, cookies, and cakes."■ Sonia Kaurah
JUNE 2015