Vegetarian Diet Essay

A total vegetarian diet is a plant-based diet which provides many health benefits. There exists a great variety of food choices in a vegetarian diet, and people are often healthier without meat and dairy products in their diets (Foer 458). Indeed, a total vegetarian diet provides people with the most diet-derived health benefits.

Perhaps, the most widely accepted benefit of a total vegetarian diet is it promotes cardiovascular health. Cardiovascular disease is a heart disease caused by small raised areas on the inside of arteries (Physicians committee). Poor cardiovascular health leads to strokes and heart attacks. The main factors of heart disease are high cholesterol, high blood pressure, smoking, and family history. High cholesterol leads

Currently, there are a lot of overweight people in the world. There are many different diets including the caveman, zen, magnetic, blood type, chicken soup, and three day hot dog diets. The biggest problem with these diets is that you shouldn 't stay on any of them for extended periods of time because they are generally unbalanced nutritionally (Roberson). A plant-based diet promotes weight management because it is loaded with lots of fiber, and vegetarians can eat large quantities of food without consuming large amounts of calories and fat. Fiber, which the body cannot break down, is part of plant-based foods such as grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and beans. Fiber moves through the body undigested and helps remove cholesterol from the body which helps to improve weight management (Andrews). A vegetarian diet is full of natural and unprocessed foods which are higher in fiber. A traditional American diet is full of meat, dairy, and sugar which contain little or no fiber. Furthermore, people on a vegetarian diet can eat large quantities of food without consuming large amounts of calories and fat. Vegetarians consume large amounts of whole wheat, brown rice, and whole grain bread. Vegetarians tend to eat lower calorie dense foods which allows them to eat more food with fewer calories and more nutrients (Andrews). This helps to keep weight management under control. People on a traditional American diet tend to eat large amounts of processed food because processed foods are not filling. Lots of these processed foods are high in fat and calories and low in nutrients. This leads to people overeating because they are hungry. A total vegetarian diet provides a balanced approach to weight