It is not essential to have a totally vegetarian diet to be healthy.  We can still enjoy foods but reduce the amounts.  The most important thing for health is that the main part of the diet should be composed of plant based foods like fruits, vegetables, cereals, pulses and small amounts of low fat dairy and meat products.  This type of eating plant is nutrient rich with vitamins, minerals, fibre, phytonutrients, complex carbohydrates and is low in salt, fat and refined sugars that will help to keep our blood pressure low, blood cholesterol low, lower our risk of heart disease and cancer.

Now its not a case of all or nothing plant based eating.  Research has shown that even adding just one extra piece of fruit lowers our stoke risk by nearly 20%, but obviously the more plant foods we consume the greater the protective health benefits.  Research by Jane Plant and Gill Tidey authors of the book The Plant Programme, revealed that one in ten of UK women will develop breast cancer however the incidence of breast cancer in China is one in ten thousand.  Some of the reasons for the high incidence of breast cancers in the west is partly due to a low fibre, high fat, high animal content diet that we consume.