Tuesday, October 6, 2009

How Can I Get Enough Protein to Build Muscle if I Am a Vegetarian?

By Ricardo d Argence

Many people who are considering being vegetarian are worried that they won't be able to build muscle if they do so. Before we talk about whether or not you can build muscle as a vegetarian, though, let's talk about what the different types of vegetarianism are.

Vegans eschew animal products of any kind, including dairy products. Pesco vegetarians eat fish and dairy products, while lacto-ovo vegetarians eat eggs and milk but don't eat meat or fish. There are more sub categories of vegetarianism, but that will suffice for the purposes of this article.

Because of the nature of the food vegetarians do not eat, things like red meat and so on they have a lower risk of certain diseases including but not limited to hypertension, coronary artery disease, a variety of cancers and diabetes mellitus.

As you may agree the reasons for changing to be vegetarian are compelling indeed and that is before we even begin to discuss the idealistic side of things such as being less cruel to animals, saving food for starving others, conserving the rainforest, becoming more friendly to the environment and such like.

However, a lot of people who want to become vegetarian are worried that they aren't going to get enough protein to become very muscular. In reality, though, soy is a perfect food to do just that, given that it has more protein than beef and has all eight essential amino acids in abundance.

You can easily get soy from such sources as soymilk, tofu, and textured soy protein. However, as long as you consume enough calories in the forms of good foods like seeds, rice, beans, nuts, legumes, and vegetables, you should get enough protein, plenty to build a lot of muscle.

Alright so that is protein dealt with but what about vitamins and minerals, particularly zinc, vitamin D, calcium, iron and vitamin B12? Well, supplements should be taken by vegans for this.

Vitamin B12 is found in dairy products so is not an area of concern for other types of vegetarians. The others can easily be gotten from a decent meal replacement powder. Of course however many minerals and vitamins are easily available in the form of leafy green vegetables and fruit that you should not overlook if you wish to build muscle up vegetarian style.

In short, there are lots of benefits to being vegetarian, including for you even if you have bodybuilding is one of your goals. Eating right and planning are important for you as a vegetarian bodybuilder, but it's also important for those who eat meat. As long as you eat enough and eat properly, you should have no problem building muscle as a vegetarian bodybuilder.

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