Do you abstain from meat, sweets or alcohol until Easter? Welcome to the club. I have decided to give up sweets, as this is the "worst" for me. Many Austrians, on the other hand, try to avoid meat for six weeks, ie until Easter. This comes as close as we eat an average of 65 kilos of pork, beef, chicken & co. But how do you manage to do without meat and eat a healthy and balanced diet? Hermann Neuburger, who introduced the first premium alternative to meat with Hermann Fleischlos, and the Tyrolean nutrition expert Daniela Pfeifer give tips on how real meat fans endure the anti-meat intent:

proteins

It is very important to cover the individual protein needs with high-quality, usable protein sources, so that the muscle mass does not suffer from meat abstinence. Therefore, you should necessarily rely on eggs in the meatless time. But not only that. Even high-quality cheese, fish or seafood are high-quality sources of protein.
If you like vegetables, you should focus on mushrooms and legumes. But according to the two experts, during Lent (if you normally eat a lot of meat), the plant should always be combined with an animal component in order to optimize the biological value – meaning the use of important amino acids.

Find alternatives that fill you up

No, you do not have to go hungry if you do without meat. But it is important to pay attention to which alternatives are healthy and filling. Although proteins saturate well, even better satiety can be obtained from high-quality fats. Therefore, you are allowed in Lent to grab plenty of olive oil. Also in the morning nothing speaks against a nice sandwich. The mistake that many make is to increasingly resort to sweets and carbohydrates, because you are "but it gets enough." The nutrition expert recommends: "It is advisable to forego sugar and refined, readily available carbohydrates, such as white flour or baked goods, and instead resort to vegetables, fish and eggs."

Pay attention to the health!

In addition to important B vitamins, meat also provides high-quality and easily absorbable iron, which is very important for blood formation. In order to avoid any deficiency symptoms, you should regularly eat plant-based alternatives such as nuts, seeds and seeds (for the B vitamins) as well as fresh dark green leafy vegetables such as Swiss chard, spinach, kale, sprouts and seedlings. Legumes are also suitable as an iron supplier. However, you should take them in combination with vitamin C, as this improves the absorption of iron.