Friendship is essential to our lives.

Friends helps provide us with laughter, joy, comfort and the knowledge that someone is there for you. Friendship can occur under the strangest situations or can be fairly normal and stable. Either way, friendship is a beautiful thing. These creative writing prompts are meant to help you think more about your friendships and will hopefully inspire beautiful work.

Yes
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by Swarna K

Created on: June 12, 2009 Last Updated: June 14, 2009

Well there has always been a debate on whether vegetarian diet provides more nutrition or non vegetarian. Undoubtedly vegetarian diet has all the nutrients necessary for a human body. even the doctors these days suggest vegetarian diet because of various diseases prevalent like bird flue, swine flu etc. moreover, those who practice yoga has stopped non vegetarian by their own because they have come to know the benefit of vegetarian diet and the amount of nutrients present in it. Moreover, when it comes to health concern, it's the vegetarians who are much healthier and fit as compared to non vegetarians. If we go back to history, in India, all the saints who lived 100 yrs, they relied only on green vegetables and nothing else. The risk of heart diseases and heart attacks are more prominent on non vegetarians at a very early age. They say vegetarians do not get some vitamins which come from animal sources. 1. Vitamin B12 which basically comes from animal sources is also present in vegetarian diet. Milk and other milk products like cheese have a great amount of vitamin B12. 2. Proteins which people say are the mostly found in meat. In vegetarian diet the best form of protein is soybean. It is the healthiest food content which makes us healthy and active 3. Iron which again is a misconception of meat eaters that isn't present in vegetarian diet. But all the leafy vegetables and mainly spinach is rich in iron. In fact it contains double the iron which is not found in animal source. 4. We find calcium in milk and milk products.

5. Fiber which is the most important component is found in almost all the vegetables like beans, peas, soybeans, Root vegetables like beetroot, carrots, onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes. All fresh and green vegetables also contain fiber 6. Sprouted grams have all the nutrients which help balance the food and more importantly digest and absorb easily. 7. Whole wheat flour and yeast provides Vitamin B complex So there is no such vegetable which is not good for health and which does not provide nutrients. In fact they provide more nutrients than a person can get in non vegetarian food. Moreover vegetarian diet contains less cholesterol as compared to non vegetarian food. More importantly, vegetarian diet helps a person suffering from any disease recover very soon and also for a pregnant woman vegetarian diet is the best. The bottom-line is vegetarian diet provides all the nutrients, in fact more nutrients, needed in by the human body. Learn more about this author, Swarna K. Click here to send this author comments or questions.

No
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by Jon Dainty Sr.

Created on: March 27, 2008 Last Updated: July 30, 2010

There are hundreds of diet products on grocery store shelves. Some of them you have tried, thinking that they sounded reasonably sane or "Judy at the office did well on it," but you still have questions about how useful they are. You will find some important guidance below. For thousands of years, humans have been eating meat, fruits and plant matter, and grains. Our bodies are well suited to this type of diet. Unfortunately, because of social pressures, religion, or the occasional "wild hare" of an idea, our modern diet is not always good for us to eat.

There are people still walking around who will swear to you that a beef steak will kill you. Others are certain that their soup diet gives them a match made in heaven. Some declare they will eat nothing that once had a face, and they give up eggs, dairy, seafood, and common sense. I fully support people's right to determine what they will and will not eat. I may even help them to do it, changing my dinner menu when they visit my home. I will not, however, go quietly into that good darkness when people about whom I care face avoidable nutritional deficiencies. Did It Smile at You? Those things that make us think of house pets have been our food for a long time. In the case of cows, we have a pretty good deal going, since meat is one of the foods that supplies essential nutrients either not found in plants or found at levels too low to be helpful to humans. Giving up meat, as vegetarians are wont to do, can complicate your life if you care to avoid potential nutrient shortages in your diet. Most of us are familiar with the concept of vitamins and their usefulness in the human diet. Are enough of them present in the vegetarian or vegan diet, without supplementation, to keep you healthy? In a word: no. Normally, adults should consume about 5,000 IU (International Units) of vitamin A each day. Ideally, that compound should come from cod liver oil, liver, butter, egg yolks, cream, or whole milk. "Cereals and skim milk, even when fortified with the nutrient, are not good sources." (Robert C. Atkins, 1998, p. 47) How about vitamin D? By now, most of us know that, in order to maintain healthy calcium ingestion, we need to get more vitamin D than anyone ever told us before about 2007. Nutritionists and doctors now call for an increase from the old standard of about 400 mg (milligrams) each day to as much as 1,000 mg per day. How do you do this?

Unless your doctor tells you to avoid the sunshine, you should go out in the sunshine for ten to fifteen minutes at least twice a week. I should mention that this exposure needs to be without sunscreen, which will defeat the purpose. By the way, since your skin manufactures vitamin D using dietary fat (cholesterol), vegetarians and those on low-fat diets may need to supplement their food intake. (Robert C. Atkins, 1998, p. 104) Vegetarians may also find that their diet has shortchanged them of copper, which is an important tool in the body's regulation of cholesterol, sugar, and uric acid levels. (Robert C. Atkins, 1998, p. 137) Finally, vegetarians and vegans should be aware that eggs and dairy products, not egg substitutes and margarines, supply essential amino acids such as lysine, thyromine, and methionine. These help you to deal with stress; if your diet does not have them or contains too little, you may need amino acid supplements to set you right. It's Your Body, Your Health The discussion above does not exhaustively cover the deficiencies likely with vegetarian and vegan dietary practices. If you or someone you care for follows this lifestyle, nutritional issues should be touched on for their safety and longevity. Since our dietary choices can sometimes be used to define us as persons, we need to ensure that we educate ourselves and take charge of this very important activity. Eating is for life, not simply for fun, and it is your health to protect. Do well at it, and you can be happy for a long time, knowing that you have done what few others could or would: you have taken proper care of you. Works Cited Robert C. Atkins(1998). Dr. Atkins' Vita-Nutrient Solution: Nature's Answer to Drugs. New York: Simon & Schuster.