If you are choosing to follow a vegetarian or vegan diet you must be all the more aware of a balanced diet.

When you stop consuming meat and dairy products you need to replace the essential proteins, vitamins and minerals they provide. Although a vegetarian diet is essentially extremely healthy, you may unknowingly deprive your body of such essential nutrients as protein, vitamin B12, iron, calcium and zinc.

The main vegetarian sources of protein are:
• Soya
• Pulses, such as beans and lentils
• Grains
• Dairy foods, such as yoghurt, cheese and milk

Although most vegetarian foods are packed with vitamins and minerals, one vitamin, B12, is absent from non-animal foods. Vitamin B12 is important as it maintains the health of your blood and nervous system. Ensure that your diet includes either, vitamin B12-rich eggs or dairy foods.

If you're a vegan, try to include foods that have been fortified with B12, such as yeast extracts, soya products (yoghurts and mince), and margarines and breakfast cereals with added B12.

It is recommended that you eat plenty of the following iron-rich foods:
• Muesli and wholemeal bread, dark-green, leafy vegetables, particularly spinach
• Beans and lentils
• Nuts and seeds, especially pistachios, cashews, sesame seeds and pine nuts
• Oatmeal and oatcakes
• Dried fruits, particularly figs and apricots
• Eggs

As already discussed, calcium is essential for building and maintaining healthy bones and teeth. Milk, cheese, yoghurt and other dairy foods are the best sources of calcium, but if you're a vegan, you'll need to focus on dark-green, leafy vegetables (such as curly kale, spinach and watercress), seeds (sesame, sunflower seeds and linseeds) and nuts (particularly almonds and brazil nuts), dried fruit and tofu. Ensuring you consume enough of these foods will also boost your zinc levels, a nutrient that is required to keep your immune system in good order.

The Traffic Light Diet will help you plan and maintain a healthy diet.