TheKingFiphtin

I'm pretty sure fish isn't a vegetable, and eating fish negates the whole "vegetarian" title. Pescatarian is the correct term, and it is a very healthy way to live. Beware of eating seafood, though. The oceans are dangerously overfished, and the health of the seas are failing quickly. Freshwater fish are great, and usually very easy to find at the market. Bravo on cutting out red meat!

As far as not getting enough protien in a vegetarian diet, its a bunch of bunk. I've been vegetarian for almost ten years, and one of the healthiest people my doctor has ever seen. After talking with nutritionists and doing research, I found out that protein deffeciency is incredibly rare. The two big things that vegetarians risk are iron defficiency for women (not an issue for most men), and zinc defficiency in men (not an issue for most women). Vegans need to watch how much calcium and b12 they get, but otherwise are very healthy.

I'll have to track it down, but I recently read a study on the benefits on certain diets. The healthiest diet was a mostly vegetarian diet with small amounts of animal protien (2-3oz a day) and very limited dairy consumption. Next up was pescatarian (fish as only source of animal protien), followed by ovo- vegetarian (no meat, fish, or dairy, but eggs are ok). Vegan was in the top five, and rated FAR better than the average american diet. A lot of people bash the whole vegetarian thing, but there is a lot of research on the topic, and it's a pretty healthy diet overall as long as you are not stupid about it. I've known vegetarians and vegans that were very unhealthy. All they ate was junk food. They weren't any less healthy than some other friends I had with similar habits, but did eat meat. The whole thing is like biking. If you want to do it right, it takes effort and research, but is very worthwhile. I'll post the study this info came from (and correct any errors I might have made) when I find it.