Being vegetarian means that you refrain your self from eating meat and its byproducts as much as possible. As the term implies, you restrict your self to eating vegetables and fruits. While vegetarian foods contain a lot of vitamins and minerals for less calories and fat, they do lack some essential macronutrients such as protein. But there are certain vegetarian foods that rank among the most nutritious and here are some of them.
- Dark Chocolate
Dark chocolate contains a lot of zinc. While zinc is not really an essential nutrient to keep at standard levels, people who may look for it in their diet would find that most food that contain zinc are actually meat. So add dark choco in your diet for that extra zinc.
- Skim Mozzarella Cheese
Calcium is always important for a healthy diet to keep your bones strong. However, calcium is commonly found in milk products. As we know, most milk-based products are high in fat and carbs. Enter skim mozzarella cheese, which has a lot less calories but is still packed with calcium.
- Flaxseed
Fat-free diets would always want to stay clear from fat. But fat can also be essential to any diet especially when they are omega 3 fatty acids. Omega 3 is often found in fish particularly salmon, which is meat. To add omega 3 to your vegetarian diet, try eating flaxseed.
- Chia Seeds
Chia seeds are an excellent substitute for other grains such as rice. Moreover, chia has less calories and carbs but packs a lot of protein.
- Pumpkin Seeds
One main thing that a vegetarian diet will always lack is protein. No matter how fat-free your diet is, you’ll always want to incorporate a lot of protein in order to look lean and muscular. But protein is often found in meat and dairy products. But you can actually substitute pumpkin seeds in place of meat because they are packed with a lot of protein. Just one cup is double your daily protein needs.
