Vegetarian Diets for Weight Management

Courtesy of the General Mills trip 2011

In the June 2011 Journal of the American Dietetic Association an article was published that discussed the potential benefits of controlling weight by switching to a vegetarian diet. If you’ve ever attempted a vegetarian diet, then you’ll know that there are times that following it can be challenging. In the past, it was harder to maintain the vegerianism, at least for me. So, the idea of following a vegetarian diet in order to lose weight seemed a little extreme.

The authors of the article say that vegetarian diets result in healthy weight loss and can result in healthy weight maintenance over the long term. They also said that even if the vegetarian diet isn’t completely adopted, increasing the fruit and vegetable content in a diet has “value beyond weight loss goals.”

One of my culinary classmates has been a vegetarian for years. He follows a virtual vegan diet at home, but at school he mostly tries to avoid meat products. He allows for butter and accidental cross contamination from meat, since we are students preparing meals.

You can check out Lyle’s blog here, and keep checking back for vegetarian recipes as the quarter goes along. Lyle and the rest of my cohort entered the 4th (of 5) quarter in class, and they’ll be doing fine dining. Should be fun! One really great feature about fine dining is that vegetarian meals can be absolutely excuisite and gourmet!