What does it mean to eat a plant-based diet? Many people eat vegetarian or vegan diets and swear by the health benefits. But it isn’t as simple as it sounds. There are many types of vegetarian diets. Some include vegetables and fruit with no dairy or eggs. Some allow eggs but no dairy, and others the opposite. Still other diets also allow occasional use of meats, while others involve vegetables and fish but nothing else.

Those who advocate these diets say that they result in increased cardiovascular health and decreased cancer risk. However, it’s important to remember that vegetarian diets can also come up short in some areas. In fact, depending on which variety of diet one adopts, special attention must be paid so that the vegetable sources provide vitamins typically obtained from meat sources: