Vegetarian Month

Gila Brand at en.wikipedia [CC BY 2.5 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)]

October is Vegetarian Month in the United States.

Vegetarianism is, at its root, the abstention from eating meat and the flesh of any other animal, eating only plants instead. However, there are degrees of vegetarianism.

The strictest form is vegan, which not only abstains from eating animal flesh, it also abstains from using any animal by-products; this includes such as eggs, milk and honey.

Ovo-lacto vegetarian includes the consumption of eggs and dairy. Variants of thus are ovo-vegetarian which includes eggs but not milk and lacto-vegetarian which includes dairy but not eggs.

Semi-vegetarians may infrequently include the consumption of such as fish, poultry or other meats; the justification for this, for the consumers, is that vegetarianism only relates to the eating of mammals. The Vegetarian Society does not consider this to be vegetarianism.

Vegetarianism can be healthy but also contains potential health problems due to dietary deficiencies, although there can also be health benefits such as heart health and longevity. Beans, mushrooms and nuts are an important part of any vegetarian diet, as they contain a lot of protein, something generally lacking outside of meat. The most important thing is that a vegetarian diet be balanced; eating properly requires research and care.