Cucumber slices are part of a vegetarian diet.

Victoria Beasley, left, and her vegetarian roommate, Dawn Clinard, shopped for vegetables at the Farmers Market in Cape Girardeau.

There are choices made with every trip to the refrigerator. Food combinations that spell delicious for one person may do little to whet another's appetite.

Fortunately, there are many ways to achieve a balanced diet. Nutritional choices that may seem unusual to some can be a way of life for others.

Nearly five years ago, during her senior year in high school, Jill Lukefahr of Jackson decided she would adopt a vegetarian diet. Her decision was rooted in hopes of losing weight, a motive the recent graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia now recognizes as unwarranted.

However, Lukefahr has stuck to her decision, though her reasons have changed. A funny thing happened during those first months minus the meat, poultry and fish. "Six months later, I didn't like the taste of it anymore," Lukefahr recalled.

Since those early weeks of adjusting to new eating habits, Lukefahr's interest in vegetarianism has evolved. An avid athlete -- she runs five to seven miles on days when she's not doing aerobics -- she believes her nutritional choices put her better in tune with her body.

"It's made me more conscious of what food does to your body and how to eat effectively for your body to work," she observed. "It's made me more healthy and more conscious of what is going to keep me healthy as I get older."

Dawn Clinard, also 22, decided to become a vegetarian when she was 18. Though Clinard's reasons for eating chiefly plant foods vary greatly from Lukefahr's, she, too, has become more health conscious.

"I'm starting to get more into the health factor than I was before," said Clinard, a full-time student at Southeast Missouri State University.

And there are health benefits that can be found in a vegetarian lifestyle, as there are in other nutritional avenues.

"There are lots of choices out there of ways to eat healthy. Vegetarianism can be one of them," said Anita Newcomer Smith, a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator at Southeast Missouri Hospital.

"There are some definite advantages to eating more high-carbohydrate, high-fiber foods which are primarily the vegetables and grain products -- the non-animal foods," Smith said. "A volume of research that's been done on large numbers of people has proven pretty conclusively that a low-fat, high-carbohydrate-fiber diet helps treat problems like high cholesterol levels, obesity, heart disease."

Smith explained that while a vegetarian diet can, if well done, fit into a low-fat, high-fiber approach to nutrition, it can also be a very high-fat, poorly balanced nutritional choice as well.

It is key, Smith said, for vegetarians to educate themselves, to find ways to obtain the nutrients typically acquired through the foods that have been cut from the diet. Plus, she stressed, "Anyone who has a special health condition, even a normal concern, such as pregnancy, should probably seek the advice of a dietitian before taking on a new eating style."

Clinard is candid about her dietary habits during her introduction into vegetarianism. "I was not careful at all. I just knew I didn't want to eat meat anymore," she said.

She maintains a deep interest in animal rights, her initial reason for becoming a vegetarian. Through further study of vegetarianism she has became more grounded in her convictions, finding what for her are more reasons -- from global concerns to health aspects -- for staying with the eating habit.

"There are so many reasons for me to do it -- psychological, emotional, physical, in a sense kind of social -- it's an all-encompassing kind of thing," Clinard said. "It's a personal choice you have to make for yourself, it takes a lot of thought."

These days, she's paying much more attention to making sure her vegetarian diet is a healthy diet. "Now, I'm getting more into soy meats. I'm cutting back on my dairy. I'd like to go to totally vegan," she noted.

According to the American Dietetic Association, a strict vegetarian diet, or vegan diet, means the exclusion of all animal products, such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs and milk, cheese and other dairy products. Many vegans also do not eat honey.

The publication, called "Eating Well -- The Vegetarian Way," lists two other vegetarian diet classifications.

Lactovegetarian means the exclusion of meat, poultry, fish and eggs, but includes dairy products. Lacto-ovovegetarian means the exclusion of meat, poultry and fish but includes eggs and dairy products.

Clinard and Lukefahr, who do not know one another, both say they expect to continue their vegetarian eating habits. Both say they have no desire for the foods they have eliminated from their diets.

And, both say, there are misconceptions about vegetarian eating.

"People have this image of vegetarians as being emaciated, with pale skin, sunken eyes, starving to death," Clinard said. In her experience, that's been far from the case.

When it comes to food, Lukefahr maintains she's not picky at all.

"My mom says I eat more noodles than she knows what to do with," she said, laughing. "I'll set down to a plate of spaghetti and I'll have four and five plates. Calories, I'm not scared of them."

Lukefahr includes dairy products in her diet, with the exceptions of butter and eggs.

Plus, preparing meals or eating out is no complicated affair, the two young women contend. "People just don't think about the fact that you can make anything pretty much without meat in it," Clinard said.

Lukefahr summed up how easily her eating habits adapt to any situation. "If I go to a barbecue, I eat the bun with pickles and ketchup."

Clinard said vegetarianism has led her to sample foods and seasonings she otherwise would have avoided. "Actually," she said, "asparagus isn't too bad now."