Thursday, May 6, 2010

Unhealthy Vegetarian?



How can you be a vegetarian and NOT have a healthy diet? Take a look at this 24-hour dietary recall:
Breakfast: Chocolate Cheerios (yes, they exist!) with milk, coffee
Snack: Poptart
Lunch: Lean Cuisine Manicotti & Diet Coke
Snack: Microwave popcorn & tea
Dinner: Cheese quesadilla, refried beans and chips with a margarita & water
Dessert: Vanilla ice cream

Okay, we don't need to break out our calculators to add up the daily servings of fruits and veggies! This is a very typical example of an unhealthy vegetarian diet. What did I ask this person to do?
Primarily to ADD IN fruits and vegetables. Add some berries or slice a banana on those Cheerios; skip the poptart and substitute an apple; add a salad or carrot sticks to the lean cuisine entree; consider a taco salad; make it a banana split (use more banana and less ice cream!) ANY of those suggestions would improve the quality of this day's nutrition.

BOTTOM LINE: Remember that VEGETARIAN does NOT automatically = Healthy!

No comments: