Vegetarians have lower blood pressure even when they eat the same amount of salt as meat eaters and exercise less. Many studies show that vegetarians have less instances of colon cancer, due in large part to the differences in the bacterial flora that is present in the colon.

There are many factors in the vegetarian diet that contribute to better health. Vegetarians consume two to three times as much fiber as do meat-eaters, which has been shown to reduce cholesterol and blood glucose levels, and protect against colon cancer. They also consume more antioxidants, which are found in a wide variety of plant foods and protect cells from oxygen-induced damage and reduce the risk for heart disease, arthritis, cancer, and other diseases.

Vegetarians eat more isoflavones than do meat eaters. These compounds, found mostly in soy foods,are a type of phytochemical. Research shows that isoflavones may reduce the risk for prostate cancer and may improve bone health. Vegetarians also consume much less saturated fat and cholesterol than do meat eaters, resulting in significantly lower levels of blood cholesterol, decreased instances of heart disease and possibly for diabetes and cancer.

Vegetarian diets are naturally low in saturated fat, high in fiber, and replete with cancer-protective phytochemicals helps to prevent cancer. Large studies in England and Germany have shown that vegetarians are about 40 percent less likely to develop cancer compared to meat-eaters. In the U.S., studies of Seventh-Day Adventists, who are largely lacto-ovo vegetarians, have shown significant reductions in cancer risk among those who avoided meat.

Today, in our affluent society, we use grain to fatten the cattle stock! Many critics say this is a wasteful uses of resources, as it takes less grain to feed a person directly than it takes to fatten animals to feed that person. More and more of our population has become vegetarian not only for the reason mentioned above, the reason being that vegetarians are less likely to be obese or have heart or kidney disease and/or diabetes. It is a known fact that vegetarians have lower blood pressure, and much fewer incidents of digestive tract diseases. As well, vegetarians healthy recipes are a more economical use of the earth’s resources.

Healthy vegetarian recipes must combine grains, seeds and legumes in order to get the amount of protein they need with all the essential amino acids. There are numerous amounts of healthy vegetarian recipes. Some examples of these are; rice and beans, bean-vegetable chili served with tortillas, baked beans and corn bread, hummus, cheese rolled in chopped nuts, bread sticks with sesame seeds, macaroni and cheese, and split pea soup. These are complimentary proteins.

A healthy vegetarian diet must contain enough iron as the iron from plant sources serves only 1/4 as much as meat does. Every healthy vegetarian recipe should include a high amount of Vitamin C as the Vitamin C helps the to promote iron absorption. Good food high in Vitamin C are citrus fruits, potatoes, cruciferous vegetables, peppers melons and strawberries. Vitamin D is needed for calcium absorption and is contained in the foods egg yolks, fortified milk and fatty fish. Also, exposure to sunlight enables the body to manufacture Vitamin D.

The facts remain: eating healthy vegetarian recipes has many health benefits, one of which being the avoidance of obesity – the reason being their healthy vegetarian recipes are bulky, filling, high in fiber, low in fat and therefore, low in calories. Studies have shown that a cholesterol free plant based diet is also low in saturated fats and can reduce the risk of atherosclerosis, heart disease and stroke. Healthy vegetarian recipes also have proved to show less osteoporosis, kidney stones, gallstones, and adult-onset diabetes.