M ore and more information is now emerging that documents the benefits of eating increased amounts of vegetables and substantially reducing consumption of red meat and other animal products.

Even the government has endorsed the healthfulness of a vegetarian diet for the first time in its nutritional guidelines.

Here are the big health benefits of a vegetarian diet—and my strategies for making the switch.

Why a Vegetarian Diet?

A plant-based diet is linked not only to lower rates of heart disease and stroke, but also to significantly lower rates of the most common cancers. These include breast and ovarian cancers in women, prostate cancer in men and colon and lung cancers.

Low-fat vegetarian diets also may reduce the incidence of osteoporosis, adult-onset diabetes, hypertension, obesity and many other illnesses.

In contrast, a meat-based diet is high in saturated fat, which your body converts to cholesterol. Such a diet is also high in iron, an oxidant that oxidizes cholesterol and makes it more likely to clog your arteries. Iron also causes the formation of free radicals, which promote cancer and aging. A meat-based diet is low in the antioxidants that help prevent this from happening.

Big Health Benefits

There is no cholesterol in a plant-based diet, and with few exceptions (avocados, seeds, nuts and oils), a plant-based diet is low in both total fat and saturated fat. A plant-based diet is also low in oxidants like iron (it has enough iron without having too much) and high in antioxidants like beta-carotene and vitamins A, C and E. Also, meat contains virtually no dietary fiber, which is high in a plant-based diet.

During the past few years, scientists have discovered and documented new classes of chemicals that help prevent illness and slow the aging process. These include bioflavonoids, carotenoids, phytochemicals and other substances that are high in a plant-based diet and low in a meat-based diet. In other words, there are more and more reasons to eat a plant-based diet.

The major reason for changing your diet and lifestyle, however, is not just to live longer or reduce the risk of illness or heart problems years later. It is to improve the quality of life right now. To me, there's no point in giving up something that I enjoy unless I get something back that is even better.

My Experience

I began making changes in my own diet when I was 19 years old. My cholesterol and blood pressure were not a problem -- they have always been low. I changed my diet and lifestyle because it helped me feel much better emotionally.

Today I have more energy and I think more clearly. I have an overall improved feeling of well-being. With a vegetarian diet, I can eat whenever I’m hungry until I'm full. I can eat delicious food -- and I don't have to worry about my weight.

How to Switch

Start by giving up meat completely. Despite conventional wisdom, it is actually easier to make big changes in diet and lifestyle all at once than to make small, gradual changes.

First, you don't have to wait very long for the benefits. Most people find they feel so much better so quickly that the choices become clearer and worth making -- not out of fear of dying but rather to increase the joy of living.

Second, your palate adjusts quickly when you make comprehensive changes in your diet so that you begin to prefer low-fat vegetarian foods. Of course, it is not all or nothing. To the degree that you move in that direction, you will have corresponding benefits.

Reduce fat in your diet. Meat and fat are acquired tastes. Have you ever switched from drinking whole milk to low-fat or skim milk? At first, most people find that skim milk tastes like water and is not very good. After a week or two, it tastes fine. If you then go out to dinner and are served whole milk, it tastes too greasy and too rich.

The cow didn't change -- your palate simply adapted. If you were always drinking some whole milk and some skim milk, the skim milk would never taste very good. It is easier if you just make a comprehensive shift and stop drinking whole milk altogether. Similarly, while eating less meat is a step in the right direction, you may find it easier to give it up completely and consume more healthful foods. Otherwise, you get the worst of both worlds -- you're eating enough to still have a taste for it, but you're not really getting all you want, and you don't feel much better.

Some people mistakenly assume that a vegetarian diet will automatically trim excess weight and prevent buildup of cholesterol in their arteries. But it is possible to eat a high-fat, high-cholesterol vegetarian diet, especially if you consume butter, whole milk, eggs, oils, avocados, seeds and nuts.

Center your diet on fruits, vegetables, grains and beans, supplemented with moderate amounts of egg whites (which are high in protein and very low in fat and cholesterol) and nonfat dairy products, such as fat-free cheeses, yogurt and skim milk.

Eliminate all oils for optimal health and weight loss. You have probably read that olive oil is good for your heart.

Reality: All kinds of oil are 100% fat, including olive oil. Olive oil is also 16% saturated fat and your body converts saturated fat into cholesterol. Olive oil is not good for you, although it is less harmful than lard, butter or oils that contain even higher amounts of saturated fat.

Also, the more oil of any type you consume, the more weight you will gain. You will likely lose weight if you do nothing more than eliminate oils and products that contain oil from your diet.

Example: Instead of using oil to make pasta sauce, use vegetable-based soup stock, tomato sauce or the "juice" you get from sautéing fresh tomatoes in a nonstick pan.

Don’t give up flavor. A common misconception is that you have to choose between gourmet high-fat, meat-based foods that are delicious, beautifully presented and unhealthful... and low-fat vegetarian foods that are boring and bland and might make you live longer or it just may seem longer.

You don't have to choose between good food and good health. High-fat meat-based meals can taste bad if they're prepared poorly... and, low-fat vegetarian foods can taste great if they're prepared well.