When clinical nutritionist Mellonie Furbert became a vegetarian as a teenager, her mother thought she was going to die.

"My mother, Shirley Egenolf, didn't know anything about how to feed 'this child'," said Mrs. Furbert.

But despite her mother's concern, Mrs. Furbert, now in her 50s, has now been a vegetarian for 39 years.

"It was actually a teacher at Bermuda Institute, William Browne, who talked to us about the benefits of a vegetarian diet," said Mrs. Furbert.

Later, a home economics teacher at school taught Mrs. Furbert the nutrition principles of vegetarianism, and also how to prepare meals. "So I would take the recipes home and make them," said Mrs. Furbert.

"I enjoyed them. I shared them with my friends and they enjoyed them as well."

The teacher was from Jamaica and taught them to make things like vegetarian Jamaican patties.

"She taught us how to make things from scratch using nuts, whole grains and eggs," said Mrs. Furbert.

"So we were able to eat things that had protein in them so we could get a balanced meal."

Later in life, her vegetarian lifestyle proved very important because she developed type two diabetes.

"One thing people often don't realise is that type two diabetes isn't just brought on by being overweight or obese," she said.

"It is also about stress. If you allow yourself to get stressed for a long period of time, you can develop it if you have a genetic predisposition."

But she said through her high-fibre diet, she is able to keep her cholesterol down, and is able to better control her diabetes.

She has two grown daughters, Ruth and Joy Barnum.

"I brought my children up to be vegetarian," said Mrs. Furbert. "I gave them the option to make a decision when they were old enough, and they both chose to stay vegetarian."