Skylar Caputo
Contributing Writer
Food is very important to a person’s health, energy, and attitude towards life. Vegetarians and vegans at Costa make the choice to cancel out animal products in their diet and structure their eating habits around obtaining nutrients from other sources that an animal would otherwise provide for them.
One may be motivated to adopt a vegetarian diet for the health benefits. People who use this regime eat fruits, grains, soy and vegetables to substitute red meats, poultries, and seafood.
“I don’t eat any type of red meat, and try to eat as little other animal meat as possible,” said vegetarian in training and freshman Keala Rusher, “I wanted to limit the amount of meat I eat because it seems more humane, and animals aren’t the only way to gain protein and other nutrients.”
There are many different types of vegetarians, such as pescatarians, Lacto-ovos and vegans. Some people eat eggs with the exclusion of certain dairy products and others just stick to eating fruits, nuts and seeds.
“Lacto-ovo vegetarians still drink milk and eat eggs, but they don’t eat any meat,” health fitness specialist Brandi Marshall said. “A vegan doesn’t eat anything that comes from an animal. Some vegetarians are pescatarians and still eat fish.”
Due to the fact that vegetarians eat vegetables, grains, nuts, soy, eggs and dairy, there are more carbohydrates, fiber, magnesium, potassium folate, vitamin C, vitamin E and phytochemicals being consumed, creating a healthy diet. This eating habit also lowers one’s body mass, blood pressure and the risk of a heart disease.
“If you are a vegetarian and you eat right, it can be really healthy,” Rusher said. “To me, it feels better morally, knowing that I’m not eating harmed animals.”
One of the diets that a vegetarian can adopt is veganism. This diet consists of eliminating the use of all animal products. Some clothing and toiletries are not used by vegans due to their animal components such as beeswax and leather.
“It depends on the person’s definition of what vegan is,” Rusher said. “The way some don’t believe they can eat honey because it comes from bees can determine what kind of vegan people practice and diet on.”
Everyday items like wool, leather, silk, products with beeswax, and any animal tested items are eliminated when one becomes a vegan. Zinc, iron, riboflavin, iodine, vitamin D, vitamin B12, calcium, and omega-3 fatty acids are the major focuses in a vegan’s diet.
“One way to obtain iron in a vegan diet is to cook a vegetable stew in a cast-iron pot, the heating of the cast iron pot can start to leach some of the iron from the pot into the stew,” Marshall said.
Because the nutrition of a vegetarian and a vegan excludes certain foods, one must make sure that they are feeding their body with enough fatty acids, calcium, and vitamin B12. Depending on the diet that a vegetarian or a vegan chooses, they must alter their eating habits to ensure a healthy intake of these nutrients.
“The health concerns of a vegan and a vegetarian are that there are some nutrients that you might be missing all together if you’re not careful with what you’re consuming,” Marshall said.
Costa students and staff may choose to open themselves towards a vegetarian or a vegan diet, depending on how they would like to alter their lifestyle. Opinions are formed when discussing what is healthy or not, but the choice of what is to be eaten is based one’s decision.
“I think vegans are more extreme than vegetarians, and I assume it can be difficult to obtain all the daily needs,” Rusher said. “If done correctly, it can be a very healthy and natural lifestyle.”
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