Q. I have recently become vegetarian. What should I watch for so I don't miss out on nutrients?
A. If you have only just started cooking vegetarian meals and looking for meatless swaps, here's how to avoid the 3 most common nutrition pitfalls:
1. Iron is poorly absorbed from vegetables and grains, so add a vitamin C-rich food to your meals such as citrus fruit (eg orange juice, a good squeeze of lemon), tomato juice, a green salad, capsicum or berries. Vitamin C improves the absorption of iron from non-meat sources.
2. Fat can still be as high as from a meat-based diet if you eat deep-fried foods (spring rolls, fried tofu) or choose pasta or baked vegetable dishes with a creamy or cheese sauce (cheesy lasagne, creamy pasta) or pies (cheese and spinach pie). Keep those to a minimum especially if you're watching your weight - which is often one of the key reasons people start eating vegetarian in the first place.
Consider the high fat count in an average serve of four popular vegetarian dishes:
| Vegetarian lasagne | 35 g |
| Cheese and vegetable flan | 40 g |
| Spinach and fetta cheese filo triangles | 38 g |
| Vegetable laksa with fried tofu cubes | 36 g |
3. Protein from meat and chicken could be replaced with protein from lentils, chick peas, tofu, soy beans as well as eggs and cheese if you eat these. Don't just cook up veggies for dinner! A plate of veges on their own doesn't make a balanced meal.
Canned beans or canned lentils are convenient and are nutritionally equivalent to beans you've soaked and cooked yourself.
The bottom line
Don't make these mistakes when you become vegetarian.
