Vegetarians make up approximately 2.5 percent of the U.S. population, according to Colorado State University Extension. The reasons people choose to follow a vegetarian diet vary as much as styles of vegetarianism.

Niacin is also known as vitamin B-3 and helps your body convert food into energy, plays a role in sex and stress hormone production, reduces cholesterol and improves circulation. A niacin deficiency is rare, but a vegetarian diet poses a higher risk since many meats are good sources of this vitamin.

The issue of whether vegetarians are healthier than people who eat meat is a complicated one. Many people who turn vegetarian do so for health reasons or to follow their doctors’ recommendations. Others do so for ethical reasons, with health benefits being an afterthought.

Store-bought mayonnaise is no substitute for rich, velvety homemade mayo. The beauty of homemade mayonnaise is that you can make it thick to use as a sandwich spread, or thin to use on a salad or as the base for a sauce. Making the mayonnaise is trickier than you might believe, however.

Your thyroid is a small gland located just below your Adam's apple. It produces hormones that help regulate your metabolism. Hypothyroidism is a condition in which your body does not produce enough of the necessary hormones, causing your metabolism to slow down. There is no specific vegetarian diet for hypothyroidism.

People who enjoy a vegetarian lifestyle are often healthier than those who eat meat. The foods that ideally make up a vegetarian diet are full of vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals that affect the body in many different ways.

You may be thinking about following a vegetarian diet to reap certain health benefits. In fact, meat-free diets are low in saturated fat and cholesterol and high in fiber, antioxidants and phytonutrients, which can help prevent digestive conditions, heart disease, high blood pressure and even certain cancers.

A vegetarian diet focuses on plant-based foods, such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans and grains. Many types of vegetarian diets exist and include lacto-vegetarian diets, in which lacto-vegetarians consume dairy products, and lacto-ovo vegetarians, who eat dairy and eggs.

You may perceive the typical low-carb dieter as one who dines on bacon, beef and chicken with gusto, shunning starches and grains, such as bread or pasta. But, low-carb isn't restricted to meat-eaters only. You can be a vegetarian and still follow a low-carb lifestyle; you may just need to be a little more creative.

You can give up meat and avoid a protein deficiency with the proper knowledge about vegetarian diets. After all, the animals people often eat, such as cows and pigs, have protein to give because the animals received it from their diets, which naturally consist of plant-based foods.

Vital wheat gluten and gluten flour, also sometimes simply called wheat gluten, refer to the same thing: an extraction of the protein in wheat flour with no starch.

If you adopt a vegetarian diet to maintain a healthy weight or lose weight, you should see the effects within a week. However, not all vegetarian diets produce the same results or do so at the same rate.