Vegetarianism: the pros and cons of abandoning meat for women during pregnancy and sports

Today, there are many materials on various types of nutrition, including vegetarian food. Vegetarianism, for and against which many arguments have already gathered, excites many women.

Someone argues that, this is a very healthy and balanced diet, someone on the contrary is sure that there are many disadvantages in vegetarianism, so it is strictly not necessary to adhere to it, especially to women during pregnancy and lactation, and for athletes such nutrition is unacceptable, for example, bodybuilding and vegetarianism are incompatible. Let's try to find out whether vegetarianism is useful or not.

So, there are several types of vegetarianism:

1. The most severe form is veganism. It involves the rejection of any animal food, there are vegan raw food, that is, eat only raw vegetables, fruits, sprouted grain.
2. The most democratic type of vegetarianism is ovo-lakto-vegetarians. In their diet they add chicken, quail eggs, as well as dairy products with vegetarianism, cheese. There are also vegetables and lactovegetarians.
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So what kind of vegetarianism can be maintained during pregnancy?

Pregnancy and Vegetarianism

This question is unquestionably not solved. There are pluses and minuses of such nutrition during pregnancy. If you look at the positive side, this is undoubtedly the fact that vegetarians eat a lot of vegetables and fruits, which is good for the body. In addition, in plant foods, a lot of fiber, and this has a positive effect on the emptying of the intestine of a woman, and in pregnancy, many face such a problem. Because of plant foods in the body, women do not accumulate cholesterol, which excludes the risk of thrombosis.

There are certainly disadvantages of this power supply. First, eating only plant food, the pregnant woman does not get enough of the necessary amount of iron, many vegetarians have anemia, which adversely affects the development of the fetus. Vegetable protein is poorly digested, and protein is the main building material for the development of cells, including the fetus. Even in such a diet is not enough vitamins D, B12, calcium. If you are already practicing vegetarianism, during pregnancy it is necessary to add eggs and milk, that is, it is undesirable to adhere to the vegan diet. And be sure to add to the diet in addition preparations containing iron, calcium, try to stay out of the open air more.

Bodybuilding and Vegetarianism

Is it possible to adhere to such a diet for athletes? In fact, everything is about the same, because athletes simply need protein, and many specifically for this use nutritious protein shakes, which mainly consist of vegetable protein and eggs. Therefore, if you are engaged in bodybuilding, then the lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet is the most suitable for you. Protein of animal origin, for example, beef, splits for a long time and requires additional energy expenditure in the body, which does not always contribute to the buildup of muscle mass. Plus, there will be a lot of fiber in the vegetarian diet that does not allow the slag to stay in the body. Even in this diet there are absolutely no animal fats that can be deposited in the body of an athlete, and this is not necessary for a bodybuilder. Plus the lack of cholesterol in foods of plant origin.

As you can see, being a vegetarian is not bad at all, and in some cases even useful. It remains only to choose which type of vegetarianism is more suitable for your lifestyle.

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