HI all. I am brand new to this thread and a brand new vegetarian. 13 years ago I quit eating meat for ethical reasons.I fell of the wagon after 18 months and never did it properly anyway. I am now doing it both for ethical AND health reasons. I love working out and feeling healthy. Cutting out meat was a logical choice. Ethically I am not sure if I feel its enough. can someone tell me the difference between the different vegetarian definitions?? I don't eat much in the way of carbs..at least I try..can I cut out eggs and survive on a low carb eating plan?
thanks for all the help!!

:hi: welcome to VB.

You've got lots of questions in there so I'll break them down one by one, ok?

Different veg definations:

* Lacto vegetarian - No meat (which means nothing from cow/bull, pig, bird, sea creatures or reptiles either land or sea), no eggs but allows milk and milk products.

* Ovo vegetarian - No meat, no milk but allows eggs and egg products.

* Strict vegetarian - eats like a vegan but doesn't have the lifestyle like a vegan.

There's a lot more to it than that, but those are the basic definations. :)


Carbs: CARBS ARE NOT EVIL!!! Sorry, I'm not yelling at you, I'm just a tad frustrated because people seem to think that carbs are the enemy. They are not. Refined carbs (white flour, white rice except for jasmine, etc) are the enemy. They're full of nothing but empty calories that hold little-to-no nutrition but a whole lot of problems. Can you be ovo vegetarian and survive on a low-carb plan? Probably, but I personally wouldn't want to try. I think life is much better with whole grains, beans, onion, tomatoes, potatoes and all the other things that the low-carb dogma preaches against.

Carbs are a healthy part of a healthy diet. We need carbs to get on. They're one of our energy sources that our body needs. Cutting the good carbs is a bad way to go, IMO.

Ethically, I would say, research all you can about vegan nutrition (weather you plan to go fully vegan or not), then research about the other side of it (the AR/AW side). After you read and research fully, then take a nice deep soul-search to see if you're doing enough or not. That's a question that only you can answer fully within yourself. No one can answer it for you. :)

I want to invite you to take a look-see at the the Physical Fitness forum in the Health area. There's a group in there called "The Hamsters" and I believe it's a good group that would be wonderful for you if you love working out and feeling healthy. There's a lot of really good and encouraging people there and they're pretty accepting of people in all levels of activity. :)

Hope that helps a bit. :)

This is from a raw food magazine I like to read:

Q: If fruits are high in carbohydrates, don't they run counter to the "low-carb" mania inspired by the Atkins diet?

A: With respect to Dr. Atkins, his thesis missed the mark. His first error was that he failed to distinguish between the two types of carbohydrates: simple and complex. Fruit provides simple carbohydrates from a whole food source, and cooked grains products such as bread, pasta and cereals are complex carbohydrates usually served as refined foods. Simple carbohydrates are easily digested, and their sugars are readily absorbed by the cells of the body for the use as fuel. Complex carbohydrates are more difficult to digest than simple carbohydrates. They require substantial amounts of energy in the conversion to sugar. The cooking process denatures them, making them difficult to assimulate, and toxic byproducts are created, making assimilation even more difficult. In short, they are fattening and unhealthy. By eliminating nearly all carbohydrates from the diet, Dr. Atkins ensured that the true villian, the complex carbohydrates, would not be available. By reducing total caloric intake his followers will, in fact, lose weight. The problem, however, is he threw the proverbial baby out with the bath water.
Had Dr. Atkins excluded only complex carbohydrates, and not simple ones, he would have been closer to the mark. By drastically reducing the intake of all carbohydrates, he left only proteins and fats as the primary sources of calories. Neither of these two caloronutrients provide the basis for a healthy diet when taken in such excess. Taking more than ten percent of daily calories from protein leads to acid toxemia; more than ten percent of calories from fat leads to diabetes and cardiovascular disease. If we keep those two macronutrients at about 10%, where, then, should the other 80% of calories come from? The obvious answer is fruit, the simple carbohydrate. It burns cleanly, leaving only water as residue, which is easily expelled from the body. Dr. Atkins' biggest error, however, was the goal of his diet: weight loss, instead of optimum health. Proper body weight is a beneficial byproduct of optimum health, but optimum health is not necessarily the result of a diet designed solely for weight loss. The followers of Dr. Atkins' diet will achieve their goal of weight loss, but in the process, will imperil their long-term health. His ideas about the consumption of large amounts of animal protein and fat will create millions of cases of diabetes, cancer, kidney failure and heart disease in the years to come. People will die, but at least they will die thin.

--Dr. Douglas Graham (from "Living Nutrition" Vol.16 Spring 2004)
Note from page 3 of "Living Nutrition": The information in Living Nutrition is presented solely for health education purposes. We are educators; we do not offer medical advice, and we are not responsible for the readers' actions. The readers are advised to educate themselves, and when health guidance is needed, enlist guidance from qualified health professionals.

Reducing simple sugars such as white sugar, soda and candy is great, but the body needs complex carbs to function properly. Long-term low-carb diets cause kidney damage for meat-eaters. If vegetarians cut out complex carbs, they can't mix breads and legumes (beans) to get the complete protien they need, and can cause serious health problems. For more info, try searching the websites of the American Heart Association and the American Dietetic Association.