For many of the same reasons, vegetarians are at a lower risk for osteoporosis. Since animal products force calcium out of the body, eating meat can promote bone loss. A 1985 Swedish study demonstrated that asthmatics who practice a vegan diet for a full year have a marked decrease in their need for medications, and in their frequency and severity of asthma attacks. Some people still worry about the ease with which a vegetarian diet can provide all essential nutrients. The fact is, it is very easy to have a well-balanced diet with vegetarian foods.
Vegetarian foods provide plenty of protein.
Careful combining of foods is not necessary. Any normal variety of plant foods provides more than enough protein for the body's needs. Although there is somewhat less protein in a vegetarian diet than a meat- eater's diet, this is actually an advantage. Excess protein has been linked to kidney stones, osteoporosis, and possibly heart disease and some cancers. Calcium is easy to find in a vegetarian diet.