Eating Vegetarian

These days we hear more and more that eating vegetarian and not a meat-based diet is the best for our health. A lot of people are vegetarian, or eat some vegetarian meals every week. If eating vegetarian is new to you, keep reading to learn a bit about it and the essentials of food combining for a complete protein.


First of all, a few definitions, as the term vegetarian is commonly used quite loosely.

Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian – Lacto-Ovo-Vegetarians do not eat meat, poultry, fish or seafood. Milk, dairy products and eggs are still consumed.

Most people who call themselves vegetarian are actually lacto-ovo vegetarian - ie they eat eggs and dairy products - and a little fish or chicken but no red meat.

Vegetarian – Pure Vegetarians do not eat meat, poultry, fish, seafood, milk, dairy products or eggs. The diet comprises vegetables, vegetable oils, cereals, legumes (peas and beans), nuts, fruit and seeds. Honey is usually seen as being optional.

Vegan – People who avoid all animal products: meat, fish, seafood, eggs, egg products, milk, dairy products, and honey.

Definitions from Vegetarian Network Victoria – www.vng.org.au

I would suggest that a good weekly balance of meals would be 2 fish based meals, 1 chicken/red meat based meal and the remainder vegetarian meals.

Food Combining

If you are eating vegetarian, you need to be a bit careful in regard to your protein intake. Animal sources – meat, eggs, cheese, fish, poultry, milk, cheese and yoghurt - contain all the essential amino acids that make up a protein, hence we call these foods a ‘complete’ protein.

On the other hand most non-animal sources are considered ‘incomplete’ proteins, as they do not contain all the essential amino acids necessary to make a complete protein. Luckily enough though, for eating vegetarian, all you need to do is combine a few foods and voila! You end up with a complete protein.

To make a complete protein; you need to combine 2 from these 3 food groups

Nuts & Seeds Sunflower, sesame (& tahini), pumpkin, pecans, brazil nuts, hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts, cashews, pine nuts

Pulses Peanuts, peas, beans, lentils, soybeans & soybean products like tofu, soy milk and tempeh

Grains Rice, oats, corn, wheat/flour products (eg pasta), couscous, rye barley



Some examples of food combining

Rice & beans

Dahl and rice

Hummus & pita bread

Peanut butter sandwiches

Baked beans on toast

Chickpeas and couscous

Muesli with nuts and seeds

Beans and veges

Pasta and cheese

Lentil burger on a bread roll

Rice and chickpeas

Spilt pea soup and bread

Bean salad & tabouli, felafel and pita/Lebanese bread

Dahl & pita bread

I just love all these kinds of foods. To me they are more exciting than plain old steak and veges anyhow, so I find it easy to eat the majority of my meals this way.

Check out the Vegetarian Recipes at Taste.com.au There are 91 pages of them!

Just make sure you only pick out the healthy ones...;)



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