Animal Aid Youth

Protein

Protein is important for your body’s growth and development. You don’t need to eat meat, though, as there are plenty of vegetarian foods that contain protein. Good sources include soya foods such as soya milk, veggie burgers and sausages, soya mince (eg Beanfeast) and tofu. Foods containing nuts are another good source, for example, nut burgers or peanut butter. Beans are a good source – foods such as baked beans, kidney beans or chickpeas (including falafel or hummus) provide lots of protein. Other good protein foods include whole grain cereals (pasta, bread, rice) and seeds. A standard 50g beef burger contains 10.2g of protein while half a can of 225g baked beans contains 11.5g of protein.

In fact, a lot of people don’t realize that if you consume a lot of meat and dairy products, you can actually take in too much protein, which is not good for you.

Vitamins

You can obtain all the vitamins and other nutrients your body needs by eating a balanced vegetarian diet and a variety of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Vitamin B12 helps maintain healthy blood and nerve function. Getting enough B12 is not a problem for veggies and vegans. Vegetarians get B12 from free-range eggs and dairy. Vegans need to eat B12-fortified foods such as yeast extract (Marmite), soya milks, non-dairy margarines and some cereals. Marmite (and other yeast spreads) are delicious on toast or added as a flavouring to gravy, spaghetti sauce, soup, stew or whatever else you are cooking.

Vitamin D is important to help your body fight infections. The easiest way to absorb vitamin D is to go outside when the sun is shining, as it is produced naturally in our bodies when our skin is exposed to sunlight. If you stay out longer than 15 minutes – which is long enough to produce vitamin D then you should think about wearing sun block. During the winter, fortified foods are a good source of vitamin D, especially margarines, breakfast cereals, soya and other plant milks.