Some people follow a vegetarian diet because they believe it is healthier.
However, just as some diets that contain meat are good and others are unbalanced, you can also have a healthy or unhealthy vegetarian diet. If you are embarking on a vegetarian diet, you must eat a range of foods to provide the nutrients normally found in meat. If you do choose a well-balanced vegetarian diet, you are following in the footsteps of many notable people. Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Tolstoy, Bertrand Russell, St. Francis of Assisi and some top modern athletes have all avoided eating animal flesh. These foods supply valuable nutrients such as iron, zinc and calcium.