A friend of mine has a problem: She gets sick a lot. I mean a whole lot. It seems as if shes sick with a bad cold or a sinus infection or a bronchial thing once a month.

Shes also a vegetarian, gets no exercise, and is clearly gaining too much weight. I sure as hell would never say any of this to her, but I am bothered. I wondered if being a vegetarian is part of the problem. So I did some research and also asked University of Connecticut nutritional sciences Professor Hedley Freake (yes, thats his real name) about the risks and benefits of being a vegetarian.

First a definition: Vegetarians eat no meat, meat products, poultry, or fish. The American Dietetic Association classifies vegetarians more specifically:

Vegans exclude all animal products (meat, poultry, fish, eggs, milk, cheese, and other dairy products).

Lactovegetarians exclude meat, poultry, fish, and eggs but include dairy products.

Lacto-ovovegetarians exclude meat, poultry, and fish but include dairy and eggs.

Most vegetarians in the U.S. are lacto-ovovegetarians. Vegetarians eat mainly fruit, vegetables, legumes, grains, seeds, and nuts.

As for my friend, Freake said, its always risky to argue that a person is sick, and therefore its because shes a vegetarian. He said its possible to design a diet that is absolutely healthy and does not include meat or meat products.

If youre a vegan excluding dairy and eggs he said, Then it gets a little harder to meet your nutritional requirements.

People worry about protein, Freake said, but with judicious choice of foods its relatively straightforward for a vegetarian to meet their protein needs.

Continued here:
Is a vegetarian diet good for your health? Research says yes

While its easy to trust that almost every Indian restaurant will have plenty for a vegetarian to eat and you can often ask for an all-vegetarian meal by request its an incomparable delight when the menu is entirely made up of vegetarian choices.

Three such places have won my heart in this respect.

Nataraj is an all-vegetarian Indian restaurant with four locations in Tokyo and one in Osaka. In operation since 1989, it calls itself the first Indian restaurant of its kind in Japan.

I visited the Ogikubo location (5-30-6 Ogikubo, Suginami Ward, Tokyo; 03-3398-5108; nataraj.co.jp), where the decor features traditional wooden Indian art against an open and inviting floorplan.

Natarajs menu is page after page of delightful-looking dishes and you truly get a thrill being able to thumb through and pick out any dish to dine on.

Vegans will be pleased, too, as most of the food is entirely vegan. In fact, the default option here is vegan and, in a subtle style swap I quite appreciated, its the vegetarian dishes (containing dairy) that receive a special marking on the menu and not the other way around.

Using Ayurvedic principles and organic vegetables, Natarajs concept is one of wholesome, healthy living that is conscientious of the environment.

The food is also utterly delicious and filling. Trying a few curries with the dinner sets, the mushroom palak was my favorite, with the mushrooms cooked to perfection in a creamy spinach base.

The vegan (or green nan) tasted just as good as regular nan, but even if youre not vegan, the color alone is worth an order.

On the east side of the city, Vege Herb Saga is another choice for beautiful vegetarian curries, with this Okachimachi-area restaurant (5-16-9, Ueno, Taito Ward, Tokyo; 03-5818-4154; vegeherbsaga.com) specializing in dishes from the south. Boasting an all-vegetarian, organic and chemical additive-free menu, Vege Herb Saga has a staggering list of curries, rice dishes and breads.

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Indian fare adds spice to vegetarian dining

Last month, Ilooked at the documentary"Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret." Among its many disheartening statistics on the agriculture industry, the film also proposed a possible way out of the mess: eating lower on the food chain, for the sake of the animals, the planet and our health.

In other words, going vegan, or at least vegetarian.

According to a2012 Gallup poll, 5 percent of American adults view themselves as vegetarian; 2 percent are vegan, eating no animal products at all. Making such a switch, or even limiting your meat consumption, can be a dramatic and difficult life adjustment.

Sr. Terry Mackenzie can attest to the struggle.

Now a seasoned vegetarian veteran, she gave up beef during themid-1970safter learning about farms in other countries having to grow grain to feed U.S. cattle.

"It was very hard but I did it over three years," said Mackenzie, who oversees theEcospiritualityResources blog. The most difficult part, she toldNCR, "was not eating beef in community without others feeling judged." Making things a bit easier, her Society of Holy Child Jesus community in Chicago offers vegetarian options at its provincial meetings, and the eco-spirituality group never includes meat in their meals.

Related: "Sister's Lenten resource brings the Earth and Jesus together"

Mackenzie isn't alone in her pursuit of a less meat-centric diet. So are other members of Sisters of Earth, an informal network of religious and lay women who are responding to ecological issues through healing and restoration work: from digging gardens and offsetting their carbon footprints, to revising their dietary choices.

At the Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat center, in Davenport, Iowa, guests often expect vegetarian meals, said its director Notre Dame School Sr. Kathleen Storms.

"On weekends when we have retreats from Friday until Sunday we may have one meal with meat," she said.

Read this article:
Tales from the garden: Sisters share stories of going vegetarian