Research Paper on the Vegetarian Diets and its Benefits (Research Paper Sample)

Vegetarian Diet and Benefits
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Vegetarian Diet and Benefits
Introduction
People do not efficiently differentiate between eating to live and living to eat. Either one of the two; living or eating is dependent of the other. However the practices of people on what they eat and the effects of the food eaten will classify them as either eating to live or living to eat. The body, requires food to continue functioning. If it cannot function well because of the deficiency in food, it will demand that one feeds it first (American Dietetic Association, 2003). It is this feeding that has confused a large number of people. Most people falter in what they eat. They have less information about the foods they take and the dangers of the same. For such purposes, this paper has examined some aspects of diet. The research comes at a time when human beings face challenges in maintaining health conditions that are contributed by unhealthy foods.
The foods that people take have effects, both good and bad. The minerals that people get from foods are beneficial but excess of them is dangerous. For such reasons, there are two types of diets; the vegetarian diet and the all-inclusive diet. The all-inclusive diet has all the foods that are possible for consumption by human beings (American Dietetic Association, 2003). The vegetarian diet is more of the greens and fruits. Most people have argued in the past that the vegetarian diet has more benefits compared to the all-inclusive diet. To examine the details of this hypothesis an analysis are on diets and needs of the body, benefits of each diet, vegetarian diet and its need and finally a comparison of the two types of diets.
Diet
A diet is the sum of foods consumed by an individual or an animal. It captures what somebody combines n his table for a long period of time. Majorly, the term comes to use when somebody has made it a routine. It is worth noting that a diet is different from a meal. A meal is the food that one takes collectively for a specific time of the day (Nanney et al., 2016). In major practices there are breakfast, lunch, supper. A collection of these meals forms the diet. People are not under any obligation to maintain a specific design for meals. However, a diet may be prescribed by a health officer or doctor. A body may become used to some types of foods and meals if subjected to the same for a long period of time (Nanney et al., 2016). What are the contents, therefore of diets?
A diet should be able to provide the body with as many nutrients as possible. Nutrients, in this context, are combination of minerals and other chemicals that are in food. The nutrients in food have different functions in the body (Nanney et al., 2016). Some are meant to fight diseases, to give energy and to build the body. Those that provide the body with enough ammunition to tackle any diseases are called vitamins (Kemp et al., 2016). The ones that provide energy and build the body are carbohydrates and proteins respectively. The combination of these foods in the right proportion is called a balanced diet. The body should be provided with such foods to remain healthy. When one of the types of foods above exceed the other, the situation will be complex and the body will show response to it.
Foods that provide vitamins are vegetables and fruits. Different vegetables and fruits have different types of vitamins. There are different types of vitamins like A, B, C, D, E, K and more. Sunlight aids in the formation of vitamin D (Nanney et al., 2016). Fruits also have the same vitamins that are found in vegetables. Examples include mangoes, oranges, berries, apples, kales, cabbages and more. The saying that an apple a day keeps the doctor away is a justification that a diet needs to be able to provide for these minerals to keep it ready to fight diseases.
Human beings need energy to carry out their activities. Energy is the driving force of everybody. Foods that provide energy for the body have chemicals that the body changes to provide calories (Vanderly & Campbell, 2006). Within the body, there are chemical reactions that will convert the foods to calories of energy that are stored in the body. During body activities, these calories get burned to enable one to work. Some foods that are full of carbohydrates are sugars, bread, whole grains and nuts (Vanderly & Campbell, 2006). There are recommendations that people take natural carbohydrate-giving foods. When the calories are not converted to energy, they get transformed to other products that are used by the body. They can turn easily to proteins. In the body, the sugar levels are kept in control by insulin which either steps up or down the amounts that are therein.
Proteins build our bodies. From childhood to adulthood, people keep on increasing in weight. The increases in weight is du to build up of flesh and muscles. These are contributed by intake of proteins. Proteins have oils and fats that help in building flesh in the body. They are majorly from animals and few animals products. Some plant substances also have proteins to help in the same provision (Zhang et al., 2016). An excess of proteins have led to problems of overweight. Complications of overweight are numerous and lead to some other diseases.
Types of Diets and Needs of the Human Body
Human diet is not limited. Most people make their choices on the types of foods to take on a daily basis. It has led to the classification of a human diet as either vegetarian or non-vegetarian. A vegetarian diet does not include any flesh in their meals. The non-vegetarian is the converse and includes flesh and other animal products in their diets. Non vegetarian diet is majorly defined by the inclusion of meat and fish. Meat is from various animals like cows, majorly known as beef. Other liquid foods and animal products also qualify to be in this category. Examples are white sugars, yogurts and more.
A vegetarian diet has more to do with the fruits and vegetables compared to the non-vegetarian diet. It is considered one of the healthy diets in the current days. It forms the major focus of this paper on what to include in such a diet. The different foods and the proportions that should be taken are necessary (Lekarski, 2016). It is also wise to note that there are alternative vegetarian foods that can replace the foods that are in the non-vegetarian diets. The foods will not be replaced in their entire exact nature but interest will be in minerals that a vegetarian diet will get from what he eats. There are advantages and disadvantages of the diet as well.
Benefits of Each Meal
Before one chooses a vegetarian diet, there is need to look at the benefits of a non-vegetarian diet. There are wide advantages of a non-vegetarian diet when it is correctly managed. The ranges of food from which they can choose from is wide. To every place they are likely to be under the sun, they will be able to find the foods they need. It makes their adaptation easy in those places. There are arguments that the non-vegetarian foods are excellent sources of minerals. Some minerals are in flesh and other food products compared to the vegetarian diets. Proteins and fats come naturally from the dies (Lekarski, 2016). For a vegetarian diet it would require conversion of the taken foods to get what one needs for their body. Such a process may tax the system and corrupt the normal functioning of the body.
The dangers of such a diet is on the health effects that currently rock a large population of the world. Most people who have found is interesting to depend on this type of diet will have a lot of responsibility trying to keep themselves healthy. They will have to deal with the sugar levels, the weight and fats. If not well controlled, the diseases that can come forth range from diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer (Zhang et al., 2016). These are diseases that nobody can face head n in this age and era. People would do everything possible to ensure they keep off such diseases. Only exceptions are the genetic cases.
Vegetarian Diet
Most people have believed that a vegetarian diet is not balanced. Maybe, it is because of the little research they have done about the diet. All the nutrients from proteins, carbohydrates and vitamins are available in vegetables. The nutrients above have food samples attached to them from which they will be obtained. It includes only foods from plants. People who follow such type of diet are called vegans or vegetarians (Sutnick, 1975). Fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, seeds and nuts are major sources. They can replace and provide every benefit that is in the non-vegan diet. The most important thing about this diet is to understand the biological nature of each sources and what the body needs.
Before one embarks on a vegetarian diet, he or she has considerations on the nutrients to get from these sources. Proteins is one of the nutrients that will bring in worries to somebody before they leave the fleshy type of diet to a vegetarian type. The sources, originally may be flesh and meats. However, replacements exist in a variety of forms. To avoid such problems, people are advised to consider the intake of plans sources (Eiden & Welte, 2016). Beans and grains are sources of such foods. They have proteins and other sources of such nutrients in them. The evaluation one needs is to keep the same levels of calorie and acid intakes in the right proportions. A dangerous case could be the combination of acidic foods like legumes, whole grains and vegetables. Their amino acid contents are high and can endanger the body. The proportions should vary at different intervals not to overburden the body system.
Soy protein is an example that originates from plants but has a high level of nutrients when compared with the animal source. It completes the provision of iron which most people do not find easily in a ...