Question

Case Study Planning a Vegetarian Diet Jordan is a freshman in college. He lives in a campus residence hall and teaches martial arts in the afternoon. He eats two or three meals a day at the residence hall cafeteria and snacks between meals. Jordan and his roommate both decided to become vegetarians because they recently read an article on a fitness website describing the health benefits of a vegetarian diet. Yesterday Jordan's vegetarían diet consisted of a Danish pastry for breakfast and a tomato-rice dish (no meat) with pretzels and a diet soft drink for lunch. In the afternoon, after his martial arts class, he had a milk shake and two cookies. At dinnertime, he had a vegetarian sub sandwich consisting of lettuce, sprouts, tomatoes, cucumbers, and cheese, with two glasses of fruit punch. In the evening, he had a bowl of popcorm. Answer the following questions, and check your response a6t the end of this chapter. 1. What type of health benefits can Jordan expect from following a well planned 2. 3. Which nutrients are missing in this current diet plan? vegetarian diet? What is missing from Jordan's current diet plan in terms of foods that should be emphasized in a vegetarian diet? 4. Are there any food components in the current diet plan that should be minimized or avoided? How could he improve his new diet at each meal and snack to meet his nutritional needs and avoid undesirable food components? 5.

Answer 1

1. Jordan expected that by following a well-planned, healthy vegetarian diet plan will help him to lower the saturated fat and cholesterol and he will get more fibre and vitamins such as vitamins C and E. He thinks that if he follows a vegetarian diet , he will be more fit and maintain his body. Also he believed that this diet plan will help him to protect against various diseases like .

• Heart disease
• High blood pressure
• Type 2 diabetes
• Obesity
• Different type of cancers
• High cholesterol

2. In his current diet plan, vegetables and fruits are missing . He has taken only tomato and cucumbers which are good in fibre where as other vegetables like potatos , carrots , green leafy vegetables are missing. Also he should add more cereals and fruits for protein and vitamin.

3. In the current diet plan , the missing nutrients are iron, zinc, vitamins and minerals .

4. Yes , in the current diet plan , he should either minimize or avoid baked items like pastries and cookies and also carbonated drinks or soft drinks.

5. He can modify his meal plan by incorporating more vegetables, cereals and fruits in his diet. He can add more protein rich items like cereals , iron rich foods like green leafy vegetables and fruits for vitamin C and E . He can have vegetable salads instead of sandwich or pastries and he can drink fruit juices or more water i stead of soft drinks.