I always wanted to be a vegetarian. It ever sounded like such a noble suit: saving the animals, the environment, and my health all in one fell swoop. But my actualized undergo with vegetarianism is slightly mixed.

In high, I quit eating meat altogether for about six months, much to the chagrin of my meat-caressing family. Yet the weight of fixing my own vegetarian dinners was too burdensome, and then I decided to incorporate chicken into my meals. A some months after that, pork barrel found its way back into my dieting. I managed to keep off beef entirely for 10 days, before I lastly broke down and had a hamburger.

A lot people are plausibly alike to me. Vegetarianism sounds like the powerful thing to do, but you're not quite trustworthy you derriere actually go the whole way.

October is also National Vegetarian Awareness Month, so for the past three weeks, my husband and I have confiscated connected a new challenge: eating a vegetarian diet. Neither of us are interested in becoming full-time vegetarians, but we also accomplished that we were perhaps relying on meat a bittie as well much. This would be our experiment to get America wont to mixing more fruits and vegetables into our meal planning.

Alike many people with diabetes, I was a little concerned that eating vegetarian might atomic number 4 a gateway to a diet full of pasta, grain and bread — which in moderation isn't a bad thing, but it's effortful to build a healthy diet based only on carbs. Fortuitously it turns out that being vegetarian doesn't necessarily mean giving up all your ducky protein options.

I discovered there are actually several assorted kinds of vegetarianism, with varying degrees of severity in dieting restrictions:

  • Ovo vegetarianism excludes all core and dairy, only includes eggs
  • Lacto vegetarianism excludes all meat and eggs, just includes dairy
  • Ovo-lacto vegetarianism excludes all meat, but includes some dairy, milk and honey — this type of vegetarian is what most people unremarkably call plain old "vegetarian"
  • Veganism excludes every meat (and animal products like leather) plus dairy, egg and love
  • Raw veganism includes only fresh and uncooked fruit, bats, seeds, and vegetables. Vegetables buttocks only be sunny-side up busy a fated temperature
  • Pescetarianism excludes all inwardness, but includes fish
  • Flexitarianism is non really a conformation of vegetarianism, but those WHO forebode themselves "flexitarians" eat a mostly vegetarian diet, with occasional inclusion of essence, dairy farm or eggs

Whew! So many options… For our little try out, my husband and I chose to go with "Ovo-lacto vegetarian." IT gave us the motivation to consume meatless and experiment with to a greater extent vegetable options, but it didn't limit us so overmuch that we couldn't have a vegetarian omelet (eggs) for brunch or cheese (dairy) on our Gardenburgers.

I also reached out to some other PWDs to learn about their experiences with vegetarianism. Chrystal, a 30-something type 2 in California, said she has recently ventured into this earthly concern as well, and is still exploring the choices.

"It's about correct and reckoning out what is the right thing to do with yourself and your body," Chrystal says. "I have really definite to take ownership of my body and become healthy. I am not doomed what type of vegetarian way of life I should follow. I ingest not decided yet if I wish to be a self-abnegating vegetable or a person that will stillness eat fish. I am leaning toward still eating fish only."

Some people have found the virtually success as flexitarians or, like Chrystal, as pescetarians, because it's as wel pliant enough to allow some indulgences at restaurants or family gatherings, only encourages folks to fill au fait fruits, veggies, beans and whole grains. This means you'll likely wipe out fewer calories, to a lesser extent saturated fat and cholesterol, and more than of the good stuff, like vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

Although a vegetarian or vegan diet won't magically "cure" your diabetes — despite some erroneous claims — scientists have got recovered that a meatless diet can do rather a bit of good for people with diabetes. A sketch in Diabetes Care showed that people with type 2 diabetes on a vegan diet lowered their cholesterol and improved their kidney function, as compared to people who were on the standard American Diabetes Association diet (hmmm). Ironically, the vegan diet was actually easier to follow for the participants, and fewer people dropped out of the vegan group compared to the common people in the ADA diet mathematical group.

Course, feeding more vegetables and carbs that are depression on the glycemic index can help make it easier to manage your blood sugars. But the gamble of consuming too many carbs is always a gainsay, and it give the sack be a slippery slope once you make out down on protein. For my month-polysyllabic experiment, I have definitely detected an increase my carb ingestion, because I'm relying more on pastas and sandwich-based entrees. Still, I can also tell I'm feeding a heap Thomas More vegetables because I'm ordering pasta with eggplant, or grilled vegetal paninis.

Pamela, a 36-year-old type 1 PWD from Missouri, says that when she first started out on a vegetarian diet in high school, she ate tons of pasta and carbs to replace substance, which course successful it harder to manage her blood glucose.

"As I became much aware of good nutrition my dieting became much more balanced," she explains. "Just because it's 'diabetic-friendly' or 'vegetarian' doesn't tight IT's salubrious. I learned more almost cooking and the principles of clean feeding. I learned I needed quality lean protein, healthy fats and nourishing-rich carbs."

Elizabeth Edelman, a 30-yr-old type 1 in Ohio and co-founder of Diabetes Each day, establish her vegan diet to be a benefit to her diabetes, simply not to her waist when she started consuming more carbs instead of protein. "I did increase my carb intake away a good deal. I'm not a rooter of tofu operating theatre the other vegan meat substitutes, so my principal source of protein was beans and nuts. I ate mostly beans and rice with oodles of fresh veggies and yield. Lots of burgoo with Prunus dulcis milk and fresh yield for breakfast and humous and tortilla chips OR vegetables for snacks."

Caroline Bohl, an RD and CDE who works as a registered dietician and educator at the Noemi Berrie Diabetes Center, says, "With diabetes, we swear on protein foods to serve keep on citizenry feeling full, replace carbs, and help stabilize blood sugars. So, being vegan Beaver State vegetarian limits the proteins available."

She says that if you're a vegetarian, merely are still eating dairy, egg, and even fish (if you'Re a pescatarian), so you're credibly good connected protein intake. If not, make a point your diet meets your biological process needs and investigate other sources of protein (some of which may include carbohydrate):

  • nuts and nut butters, which include peanut butter, sweet almond butter, and helianthus butter
  • legumes
  • quinoa
  • soy products, like bean curd and tempeh, and soybean plant substitutes like soy milk and soy cheeses

King of Great Britain says it's important to opt your carbs sagely: "The vegetarian or vegan diet is typically higher carbs so patients will want make sure to choose high-fiber carbs (whole grains, whole wheat products, beans). If not, they may notice they are seeing higher blood sugars and using more insulin."

There is No scarcity of places to find vegetarian and vegan recipes if you're up for the challenge, like The Vegetarian Multiplication and VegWeb.

"Cookbooks are your best friend, vegetarian or not," Pamela says. "I recommend the Eat Clean serial publication of books away Tosca Reno, likewise Eastern Samoa a book called La Dolce Vegan. I make my own seitan ("wheat meat") and bread from recipes in that book."

King of Great Britain recommends The South Beach Diet book, not to follow implicitly, but because "they lean towards high-quality carbs, good fat sources, and alternate proteins."

From the folks we talked to, some veggie faves include:

* Karenic, mom of a Son with type 1: "He is a really adventurous eater and loves to try new things! If I had to pick one or two things, I'd enounce roasted red peppers with fresh mozzarella, and egg drop soup with tofu and coconut rice."

* Elizabeth: "One of my favorite things to eat when I was vegan (and hush bash) is Mujadarah — which is essentially Rice, lentils and caramelized onions. I would add a cucumber and tomato salad on top. Information technology's very easy to prepare and really good left finished!"

* Pamela: "Eggs. I love tough egg and omelets."

* Chrystal: "There is a wonderful bird pea groom recipe that made ME determine that beingness vegetarian wasn't and so poor."

Ronnie Gregory, who guest blogged Here at the 'Mine survive week, is also a vegetarian who tries to deplete low-level-carb. If you're implicated nigh your carb intake, check out his sample bill of fare as a mention manoeuver. You can also find more support on diabetes sociable networks, and there's even a Facebook chemical group for low-carb diabetic vegetarians!

My in the flesh favorite thing to consume has to constitute Gardenburgers happening a whole wheat roll. Gardenburgers are very smoky, and you can arrange anything along top — from traditional simoleons and tomato, to alligator pear and cheese, to chipotle hummus. Yum! We're also big fans of heathenish foods, corresponding Asian country, Amerindian and Mexican, which all accompany very great vegetarian options.

But tell United States, Dear Readers, what are your thoughts on vegetarianism? If you ingest any recipes to divvy up, I'm every last ears — I still have 10 years to go!