Being a vegetarian means eating vegetables? Eat vegetarian food without getting fat, stay away from two major landmines

There are many benefits to being a vegetarian. Many people eat vegetarian food in order to lose weight, get rid of diseases, or pursue health. However, some people get fatter and fatter and have a lot of problems. According to outpatient observations, many vegetarians often have the misconception that "being a vegetarian means eating vegetables". Once their diet is out of control, they are prone to accumulate fat and become obese.

Hou Yi-cheng, a nutritionist at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital, pointed out that vegetarianism is very popular in Taiwan. In addition to religious reasons, most people still eat vegetarian food to make their bodies healthier. However, many vegetarian dishes on the market do not actually conform to the concept of healthy vegetarianism. Once nutritional management is out of control, it is easy to fall into the obesity trap.

Eat vegetarian food without getting fat and avoid 2 landmines

In fact, there is a lot of knowledge about being a vegetarian. Studies have shown that being a vegetarian can prevent high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and even cancer. However, when it comes to nutritional intake, you must first stay away from two major "obesity landmines", namely "1 excess and 1 imbalance":

1. Too much oil: Many artificial vegetarian foods are high in oil. If you eat a large amount, it will be converted into excess fat in the body and cause obesity.

2. Fatty acid imbalance: Vegetarians who love snacks are prone to consume too much saturated fatty acids, such as coconut oil and palm oil, which can easily cause inflammation in the body and increase the inflammatory hormone IL-6 in the body, making it more likely to cause obesity, edema, arthritis, etc.

Delicate and tasty, it is easy to gain weight the more you eat

Nutritionist Hou Yizhen emphasized that some people think that being a vegetarian means not eating meat, so as long as they don’t eat meat, they are healthy. In fact, Chinese people pay attention to the refinement and taste of vegetarian food. They eat a lot of refined carbohydrates (white rice, white noodles, bread, and even sweets) and processed vegetarian products (gluten, noodles, vegetarian tripe, vegetarian meat, etc.). Most of these foods are high in calories, and a lot of oil is added during processing, or they are fried or deep-fried to increase the flavor. Eating them for a long time can easily lead to weight gain and metabolic problems such as high blood lipids and high blood sugar.

It is recommended that vegetarians should mainly eat natural ingredients such as leafy vegetables, melons, mushrooms, fruits, etc., supplement various phytochemicals and dietary fiber, use less processed tofu, raw bean skin, dried tofu and other soy products as a source of protein, use less oil, salt and sugar in cooking, and avoid artificial vegetarian ingredients, so as to effectively achieve the effect of eating a vegetarian diet without gaining weight.