Health Node - Your Health, Nutrition, and Weight Loss Portal

A vegetarian diet is not necessarily a weight loss diet, but it can be if done properly. Without a complete understanding of vegetarian nutrition it is easy to fall into an unhealthy way of eating. For instance, you can’t just take meat out of your diet without replacing it with a vegetable protein source. Also, if you still consume dairy products, they are loaded with saturated fats and cholesterol.

People will lose weight, whether they are vegetarian or not, if they burn more calories than they eat. The best weight-loss program involves two things: eating less and exercising more. However, don’t excessively restrict your calories because it will only cause your metabolism to slow down.

Polynesian Salad with Curry Dressing

Ingredients

Organic lettuce
1 whole banana
1/4 cup of walnuts
1/3 cucumber, sliced
1/3 carrot, sliced
A handful of raisins
1/3 stalk of celery, sliced

Curry Dressing:
1 Tablespoon curry powder
1/2 a teaspoon of sea salt
1 apple, core and chop
1 clove garlic or 1/4 teaspoon of crushed garlic
1 tablespoon of ginger
1 cup of olive oil
Lemon juice from 1 lemon

Directions:

Salad: Mix together all ingredients. Top with curry dressing. Add coconut if you like.

For the Dressing: Add the apple to a food processor and run on highest setting. Add spices, oil and lemon juice. Mix until creamy.

You can add more of the veggies to make more salad. The dressing makes enough for several servings.

Serves: 1

Tagged with: vegan diet • vegetarian diet • vegetarian diets • vegetarian weight loss • vegetarian weight loss diet

Actually it really can be. There was a pretty significant study done that was widely published. Researchers from the Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center looked at data from 10,104 adults who were eating different kinds of diets including vegetarian diets, low carbohydrate diets and high carbohydrate diets. They also studied the diets effects on BMI (body mass index (BMI) is measure of body fat based on height and weight) energy intake and diet quality.

The study concluded that those who were eating a vegetarian diet had low BMI’s and ended up eating less fat.

The study shows that there is something to be said for the health factor of a vegan diet, but one must have knowledge and pay attention to balancing nutrition. You have to be cautious when starting a vegetarian diet and you need to make sure you are knowledgeable about it.

It’s harder to get the adequate amount of B vitamins on a vegetarian diet and you have to know which foods to eat to get the right amount of vitamins and minerals to receive the proper nutrition.

If you think you would like to try and are considering a vegan diet, talk to your doctor or nutritionist about the proper foods for balanced nutrition.

Tagged with: B vitamins • balancing nutrition • BMI • vegan • vegetarian diet

By using a vegetable soup diet you can lose weight and load up on nutrients.
You can choose to do an exclusive vegetable soup diet, or you can simply replace a few of your meals. However, there are a keep a few things in mind.

Purchasing canned vegetable soup from the store is not a good way to approach a true vegetable soup diet. The sodium content is very high and the vegetable content is low.

Standard vegetable soup diet recipes tend to involve adding a lot of salt to the mix causing the broth to once again contain a high level of sodium. And many vegetable soup diet recipes call for potato’s which may not help with your goal is to lose.

For the vegetable soup diet, use a food processor and/or juicer. If you use a juicer, what happens is you get a puree juice from the vegetables, and you also get the left over “pulp” as well. This makes it perfect for a vegetable soup diet. You get both the broth and leftover vegetable chunks at the same time.

Of course for your vegetable soup diet you can also add your own cut up fresh vegetables. A tomato soup done this way with fresh broccoli and bits of green pepper is great for the vegetable soup diet. You can also add in some fresh herbs or spices and you have a very unique, tasty, and filling vegetable soup diet that you’d never find in a can.

Before starting any diet, ask your doctor.

Tagged with: cabbage soup diet • soup diet • vegetable soup diet • vegetarian diet • vegetarian weight loss

The name, low fat diet recipes, may not sound too appetizing, but they really can be.

When one is dieting and watching their fat intake, as well as calories, the food may become boring. So using exciting low fat diet recipes can be one way to help keep you eating the right foods.

Reducing bad fats in ones eating habits really isn’t a bad idea even if you don’t need to lose any weight.

These appetizers are an example of low fat diet recipes that are just yummy, good for you and low calorie.

Asparagus and Avocado Wraps

24 spears asparagus
1 ripe avocado, pitted and peeled
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups cooked cold long-grain white rice
3 tablespoons plain nonfat yogurt
3 whole wheat tortillas, 10 inches in diameter
1/3 cup fresh cilantro leaves
2 tablespoons chopped red onion

In medium saucepan over high heat, bring 2 inches water to a boil. Steam the asparagus in a steamer basket until just tender, approximately 5 minutes. Immediately rinse the asparagus in cold water. Drain thoroughly.

In a small bowl, mash the avocado, lime juice, and garlic into a coarse puree.

In another small bowl, stir together the rice and yogurt.

Heat a large dry frying pan over medium heat. One at a time, heat the tortillas in the hot pan until softened, approximately 20 seconds per side.

Lay the tortillas flat. Spread the avocado mixture equally among the tortillas. Top each with an equal amount of the rice mixture, asparagus, cilantro, and onion.

Roll to close the tortillas with ends folded in. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 1 hour, or serve immediately. Return to room temperature before serving.

To serve, cut each wrap in half crosswise.

Makes 6 servings.
Recipe originally from The Mayo Clinic, Williams-Sonoma Cookbook, by John Phillip Carroll, published by TimeLife Books.

Tagged with: low fat diet • low fat diet recipes • low fat diets • vegetarian diet • weight loss recipes