Vegetarian for a Week

The idea of becoming a vegetarian is nothing new. In fact, many religions have the idea that a vegetarian diet is the only way to live your life and fulfill your aspirations. For me however, this is a task that is something completely unfamiliar and would take the average person out of their comfort zone. Meet me, the average college freshman, doing well in school, eating well, exercising occasionally. Put someone like me in an unfamiliar place and expect them to adapt and understand and I’ll call it a challenge. Put another person in the same position and they may call it impossible.

At the first part of the week, I thought that it would be impossible for me to follow through with this task and come out feeling like I had accomplished something. There were many ways to go about conducting this experiment but the easiest way is to formulate a plan of attack and follow it carefully to ensure that nothing changes in the experiment. By formulating a plan, the experiment goes much smoother and small changes have marginally no effect on the experiment as a whole. Unfortunately, I was not able to formulate a good plan before the experiment started and was struggling to read the menu items and pick out a balanced meal that was nutritionally satisfying. After struggling without a plan for a few days, I went ahead and formulated a plan half way through the experiment by accessing the future menu options online and documenting what was vegetarian and nutritional. After making this change, the experiment went way smoother and there were relatively zero errors post plan. Overall, the staple foods that I commonly came accustom to eating were rice, noodles, and salad. The outcome was an experience that I will never forget and one that provided me with a much-desired insight into the life of different dietary restrictions and lifestyles.

            Vegetarian is a term that is common throughout the United States and many different religious practices. I became fascinated with this endeavor far before I was even asked to pick a personal inquiry experiment. It started from a young age, when I was first introduced to the term vegetarian and the vegetarian lifestyle. People who lived this lifestyle have always fascinated and I have always had so many questions surrounding how they were able to gain the nutrients they need while maintaining this diet? How does the food taste compared to the food that I was normally eating? What is the process that goes into going from a meat eater to a vegetarian? Is this process quick and easy, or long and difficult? There were so many questions surrounding this diet that I knew at some point in my life I was going to at least try it for a little bit and see if I could do it. I was particularly excited to give this change a try because it takes me out of my comfort zone and gives me a challenge that I would not be faced with during my daily routine.

            Looking at documents and research, it is shown that the USDA is accused of hiding from the public that eating meat is harmful to our bodies. In fact, in Greece, they have dietary guidelines that are formulated for a vegetarian diet with daily diet recommendations. There are many scientific studies that state that a vegetarian diet may in fact reduce many health issues that are common in our world today. Cataracts, macular degeneration, allergies, cancer, cholesterol, and arthritis, just to name a few. This article in particular goes on to state that by going on a strict vegetarian diet, one can cut out or reduce many harmful toxins from entering the body. Many toxins such as certain fats and other needless acids can be reduced by going vegetarian. Along with reducing toxins, vegetarians experience better levels of vitamins and overall better mental health than those who are not on a vegetarian diet. The article concludes with the fact that seaweed or iodized sea salt is a crucial part of the diet to make up for the lack of salts that exist in meat. Without these salts, genetic diseases can occur and potentially affect the body’s ability to make crucial compounds. To summarize this experiment, formulate a plan that you are willing to take on and make sure that you find people that are willing to support you in your transition and are willing to help you fulfill your goals and aspirations regarding your diet or any other change. Why Go Veg?(http://www.vegetariantimes.com/article/why-go-veg-learn-about-becoming-a-vegetarian)