The benefits of vegetarian cooking and living

More and more people are turning to vegetarian foods for all kinds of reasons. It's a known fact that a vegetarian lifestyle doesn't just offer culinary diversity, but also a wide range of health benefits.

• People who eat a varied and ovo-lacto vegetarian diet (i.e. with dairy products) ensure that their bodies are getting all the vital vitamins they need to stay healthy and fit. That's because the high proportion of cereals, vegetables and fruit in a vegetarian diet ensure that the body gets plenty of roughage, vitamins and secondary plant compounds, which are very beneficial to health.

• It makes no difference whether you are a strict vegetarian or simply enjoy eating vegetarian foods - if you think about what you eat, you are usually more discerning in your choice of food and value natural ingredients. Vegetarians tend to avoid products with artificial colours and flavour enhancers, which are used in many ready-to-eat meals and seasonings, because flavour enhancers distort the perception of taste and mask the natural flavour of the ingredients. Kikkoman's tip - Try out the products in the Kikkoman Seasoning Family. All products are based on naturally brewed soy sauce which is produced in an approximately six month long natural brewing process and contains no flavour enhancers, preservatives or colour additives. Around 300 natural aromas develop in the natural brewing process and it is these aromas which make Kikkoman Naturally Brewed Soy Sauce taste so uniquely special.  These natural aromas make it unnecessary to use colour additives and flavour enhancers in the brewing process.

• People who often or exclusively eat vegetarian foods are less susceptible to obesity and diet-related diseases. That's because not eating meat automatically reduces the quantities of animal fat that they consume, which also reduces the number of calories they consume and has a positive effect on cholesterol level.

Be careful, though, if you intend to go without meat and fish entirely by making sure that the foods you consume give you all the nutrients you need. This is especially important for vegetarian children and adolescents who are still growing and have more demanding nutritional needs. Protein is very important (contained in milk, eggs and plant-based foods such as grain, pulses, nuts, potatoes, seeds and mushrooms), as is vitamin B12 (contained in dairy products such as milk, yoghurt, kefir and cheese), iron (in green vegetables, legumes and wholegrain products), vitamin D (contained in fish or generated by UV light exposure), iodine (in iodine salt) and in omega 3 fatty acids (soy or rapeseed oil).