Popularized Diet Fads Continue Part 5 - The Vegetarian Diet from Fitness Elements Express!

6 Popular Diet Fads and the Scientific Discovery behind them Part 5- The Vegetarian Diet

The How to's on Designing your own Healthy Diet


Here is a quick look on some of the most popular Diets and what has been discovered with these various type diets. This will be a six part discussion and education for you on determining and forming your own personal view. While there are literally hundreds of fad diets that have been promoted over the years that we could discuss, we will limit the discussion to the following popular diets:

The Atkins diet
The Blood Type Diet
The Ornish diet
The Macrobiotic diet
The vegetarian diet
The Zone diet

Today we will start and discuss the Vegetarian diet and what the outcomes and conclusions were. This is part five of the six part series of articles.

The Vegetarian Diet


The vegetarian diet is defined as one avoiding all animal flesh, including fish and poultry. Vegetarians who avoid flesh but do eat animal products, such as cheese, milk, and eggs, are ovo-lacto-vegetarians (ovo = egg; lacto = milk and cheese). Those who eschew all animal products are reffered to as pure vegetarians or vegans.

The vegetarian diet is often promoted as the most beneficial diet and has been advocated by people from philosophers such as Plato to political leaders such as Benjamin Franklin and Ghandi to modern pop icons such as Paul McCartney. There is also considerable scientific research showing the benefits of the vegetarian diet. In fact, it has been shown to be associated with a lower risk of virtually every chronic disease. For exampke, numerous population-based studies have shown that vegetarians are nearly 50 percent less likely to die from cancer or heart disease than are nonvegetarians. The vegetarian diet has also been shown to reduce one's chances of developing diabetes, osteoporosis, or high blood pressure or forming kidney stones or gallstones.

While each of the authors including myself a now lifetime practicing ovo-lacto-vegetarian have some time or another been a practicing vegetarian, now believe that including fish and smakk amounts of animal foods in the diet leads to a more optimal nutritional intake. Nonetheless, we recognize the central and tremenedous importance that plant foods play in an optimal human diet.

Until part six the Zone Diet have a healthy and happy day!

References: Michael Murray N.D., Joseph Pizzorno N.D., and Lara Pizzorno M.A., L.M.T

By, Natalie Pyles

NSA Speaker, Author, Medical Exercise and Post Rehab Conditioning Specialist, Licensed Nutritionist, Whole Health, Fitness, and Holistic Nutrition and Nursing Educator