Alternative Diets

What are Alternative Diets?
There is no precise definition of an alternative diet. There are a broad range of various diets. For example, vegetarian, macrobiotic, organic, diets that emphasis or restrict certain nutrients or foods and many more.

Why?

 * Tradition
 * Religion
 * Healthy life
 * Economic/ethical reasons
 * Ecological considerations
 * Fashion

Are they good or bad?
The main criteria that decides whether a diet is appropriate is the spectrum of foods consumed. The broader the diet, the more adequate the diet is to fulfill the desired proportions of energy from different food groups. The desirable proportion of energy provided by proteins = 8-15%; fat = 20-30%; saccharides = 55-60%.

Examples of alternative diets
Vegetarian diets can be with or without some animal foods.
 * 1) Vegetarian diet

With some animal foods:
 * Demi-vegetarians- no red meat, but all other foods
 * Lacto-ovo-vegetarians- no meat, but milk, milk products, eggs and all vegetable foods eaten
 * Lacto-vegetarians- no meat or eggs, but milk, milk products and all vegetable food eaten

If meals within this diet are composed well, they are even adequate for children. If lots of fruit and vegetables are eaten, then more fibre, vitamins and minerals are consumed, as well as less fat and less saturated fatty acids. With this diet, one can maintain a better weight due to lower energy density than the common diet. Also, this lifestyle may be healthier because vegetarians usually do not drink alcohol or smoke.

Without any animal foods:
 * Vegans- only vegetable foods
 * Fruitarians- fruits only, including vegetables that are botanically fruits (tomatoes, cucumbers etc)
 * Vitarians- raw vegetables and fruits, no grain foods.

These diets are not considered adequate for children, especially fruitarian and vitarian diets. Children would need to consume large volumes of food, which is not feasible, in order to fulfill the desired nutrition guidelines because these diets have a low fat and protein content. High quality protein can be obtained from animal foods. The protein from animal foods is of better quality than protein from plant products.

Examples of vegetable sources of protein: Therefore it is necessary to combine plant sources in order to obtain necessary protein.
 * Grains- 6 grams of protein/ 100 grams in ready to eat products. The limiting amino acids are lysine and tryptophan.
 * Pulses (beans, peas and lentils)- ~10-20g protein/ 100g when boiled. The limiting amino acids are methionine and cysteine.
 * Nuts and seeds- ~8-19g protein/ 100g. But they have a high energy content 1300-2700kJ/100g

Other important nutrients to consider:
 * Iron- Red meat is a good source of iron. Iron in vegetable sources (green leafy vegetables) is less bioavailable but vitamin C helps to increase absorption.
 * Vitamin B12 and zinc- Meat, fish and poultry are all good sources. There is no vitamin B12 in vegetable foods. Wholegrain products do contain zinc but it is in a less bioavailable form.
 * Vitamin D- Fish oil, fatty fish, egg yolk, butter are good sources of vitamin D. There is no vitamin D in vegetable foods.

This is a low carbohydrate diet.
 * 1) Atkins' diet