Vegeterians and Nutrition

No1newts

No1newts

No1newts

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Hey all, my lass is a vegetarian shes been like that since early teens or so. Just recently shes had a heck of a lot on at work, she teaches piano most nights of the week for extra money, she has taken up dancing for her fitness, her bestfriends wedding last week and then we both have the stress of sorting our new house which we have just purchased.

To cut a long story short last friday she was at work and middle of the day she just passed out in the middle of her workplace. She came round tried to carry on and the lights went out again.

Got her to the doctors and shes been told its exhausation. Obviously best thing for this is rest, I have kept her bed bound for the weekend and have made her agree to cancel lessons (both piano and dancing) for the whole of next week.

Now I have just been wondering as a help for her are there any supplements I should get for her which she could take as she obviously does not have a balanced diet as she does not eat any form of meat or fish. So are there any set tablets/supplements etc that I can get her to take that will just help her on a daily basis to give him the correct nutrition which she may miss out on because of a meat free diet?

Hopefully this should hopefully help to avoid this happening again.

Help from some other veggies out there would be much appreciated.
 
you dont need to eat meat or fish you can get protein from other sources such as nuts and vegetarian sausages , burgers etc have tons of protein anyway.

vegetarians do not suffer from malnutrition
 
arknor said:
you dont need to eat meat or fish you can get protein from other sources such as nuts and vegetarian sausages , burgers etc have tons of protein anyway.

vegetarians do not suffer from malnutrition
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Im not suggesintg its malnutrition I am just wondering if there are certain nutrients you may be a little lower on because they come primarily through meat.

I know you can get every nutrient through pretty much anything but they come in different amounts in different things.
 
Any one can suffer from malnutrition, however vegetarians have to look at their diet in more detail. To insure everything is included.

Go back to your gp and ask to see a dietician. Failing that keep a record of everything she eats and drinks for a week or two and do some reading up.
 
Where is she getting her Vitamin B12 from?
Specifically B12, if not meat, does she eat the type of seaweed that produces it, as from what I recall very little else produces B12 at all.
 
Hikari Kisugi said:
Where is she getting her Vitamin B12 from?
Specifically B12, if not meat, does she eat the type of seaweed that produces it, as from what I recall very little else produces B12 at all.
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B12 probably from dairy products and/or eggs I'd imagine - if she were a vegan, hopefully she'd be aware of the B2/B12 issue, as it's one of the first things that usually crops up.
 
It's healthy, diet is however key as you have found out.

Get some marmite down her neck if she likes it, it's packed full of the goodies that us veggies don't normally get, iron b vits all sorts.

Soya/tofu is good stuff, oddly enough i have been feeling more tired since making the switch, perhaps it's just low blood sugar that's causing it, rustle up a jacket potato and if she eats it some sort cheese, veggie approved stuff of course.

Sounds to me it might be a vitamin d/b and iron deficiency, combined with her overdoing it a bit, ever since making the switch i've had to slow down, not much but it's noticeable.

Her time of the month won't be helping either, ask her if it happened around this time.
 
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This is a repeat of a 2007 post :)

Pitta bread (lightly toasted). Fill with Feta cheese, salad, shredded white cabbage, mild onion or spring onion, sliced tomatoes and chopped pickled chilli's to taste :)

Tarka Dhal

Rinse 3oz of yellow split peas and 3oz red lentils drain and add to pan with 1 1/4 pints of water and a teaspoon of tumeric. Simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour (til soft) then add a half teaspoon of salt.

Use a small frying pan to fry a teaspoon of cumin seeds in 3 tblsp of groundnut oil along with some crushed garlic and chilli peppers. You just need to flavour the oil and mix it into the lentils for some heat.

I usuallly use it as a dip for Naan breads but you can use it over rice as a basic veggie curry :)

food.JPG
 
Cybermyk said:
This is a repeat of a 2007 post :)

Pitta bread (lightly toasted). Fill with Feta cheese, salad, shredded white cabbage, mild onion or spring onion, sliced tomatoes and chopped pickled chilli's to taste :)

Tarka Dhal

Rinse 3oz of yellow split peas and 3oz red lentils drain and add to pan with 1 1/4 pints of water and a teaspoon of tumeric. Simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour (til soft) then add a half teaspoon of salt.

Use a small frying pan to fry a teaspoon of cumin seeds in 3 tblsp of groundnut oil along with some crushed garlic and chilli peppers. You just need to flavour the oil and mix it into the lentils for some heat.

I usuallly use it as a dip for Naan breads but you can use it over rice as a basic veggie curry :)
Click to expand...

I'll pass that on, she'll probably love the recipe, she likes her spicy food.

hux said:
It's healthy, diet is however key as you have found out.

Get some marmite down her neck if she likes it, it's packed full of the goodies that us veggies don't normally get, iron b vits all sorts.

Soya/tofu is good stuff, oddly enough i have been feeling more tired since making the switch, perhaps it's just low blood sugar that's causing it, rustle up a jacket potato and if she eats it some sort cheese, veggie approved stuff of course.

Sounds to me it might be a vitamin d/b and iron deficiency, combined with her overdoing it a bit, ever since making the switch i've had to slow down, not much but it's noticeable.

Her time of the month won't be helping either, ask her if it happened around this time.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, as I say its just the little things she may be a little lower on because they mainly come through meat.

Thanks for the help guys!
 
The only time I've passsed our unexpectedly was when I have been pregnant.................................................................................
 
Two things come to mind:

i) B12. The only sources of B12 that humans can use are meat, dairy, animal dung and a suitable lab/factory. There are no vegetable sources. Forget brewer's yeast, seaweed or anything else you might read about as containing human-usable B12 - it doesn't (EDIT: unless it's been added from other sources, as is often the case with brewer's yeast sold as a supplement). The stuff from a lab/factory should be fine for a vegetarian because it's made by bacteria. Supplement with enough of it or suffer. You only need a tiny amount (couple of micrograms a day if I recall correctly), but you really do need it.

ii) Amino acids. Getting enough protein isn't enough. Your body doesn't use protein directly. It uses the amino acids that protein is made of. Meat and fish contain them all in the appropriate proportions. Vegetable matter does not. A vegetarian can easily eat enough protein and not get enough of all the amino acids that actually matter. The key here is that different vegetable sources contain different essential amino acids in different proportions, so if a vegetarian eats a suitable variety food daily they will get enough of each essential amino acid. It takes more knowledge and more care to get enough of all of the essential amino acids without eating meat, but it's not too difficult in the modern world because of the huge variety of food that's easily available.

EDIT: I think soya and quorn contain all the essential amino acids in the right proportions, so that might be worth checking out if the varied diet option seems like too much bother.
 
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It only sounds like she needs to eat more as she's doing more.

If you take on a lot more things than you usually do, throw in abnormal stress, very long days of work plus teaching after work and sticking in a new exercise regime it is infact likely malnutrition, simply not eating enough.

If she hasn't died in the past, guessing 10+ years, she isn't eating a "bad" diet lacking in any one thing, which really does point to a very simple answer, she's not eating enough.

Unhealthy eating though is trying to stuff carbs into a diet to increase calories, because they are easy, quick and readily available, its generally not that healthy and increasing ratio of carbs in an otherwise healthy diet could give her the calories she needs but not in the best way.

Have her add an extra meal in somewhere, maybe she's taken up the exercise maybe before dinner, and so she's trying to do a lot more on the food she normally has at lunch, so a pre workout meal/snack and post workout snack to get her refueled quickly, that will probably be all it is.

Though as someone said, if she got pregnant and didn't realise it, and she coupled new extra exercise which is already a strain, with an added unknown strain of being pregnant, its worth checking on just in case.
 
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