Chapter 1

Vegetarianism 101: Starting with the Basics

IN THIS CHAPTER

Defining different types of vegetarianism

Explaining why meat-free makes sense

Preparing meatless meals

Adopting a new mind-set about food

Mention a vegetarian diet, and many people visualize a big hole in the center of your dinner plate. They think that to be a vegetarian, you have to like lettuce and carrot sticks - a lot. Just contemplating it leaves them gnawing on their knuckles.

Nothing could be further from the truth, however.

Vegetarian diets are diverse, with an abundance of fresh, colorful, and flavorful foods. For anyone who loves good food, vegetarian meals are a feast. That may be difficult for nonvegetarians to imagine. Vegetarian diets are common in some parts of the world, but they're outside the culture and personal experience of many other people.

That's why I start with the basics in this chapter. I tell you about the many forms a vegetarian diet can take and the reasons people choose to go meat-free. I give you a quick overview of what's involved in planning and making vegetarian meals, and I introduce some important considerations for making the transition to a meat-free diet a little easier.

Vegetarian Label Lingo: Who's Who and What They Will and Won't Eat

Most of us are pretty good at describing a person in just a few words:

• "a social media influencer"
• "a Gen-Xer"

It's like the saying goes: "A picture (or label) paints (or says) a thousand words."

People use labels to describe vegetarians, with different terms corresponding to different sets of eating habits. A lacto ovo vegetarian eats differently than a vegan eats. In some cases, the term used to describe a type of vegetarian refers to a whole range of lifestyle preferences, rather than to just the diet alone. In general, though, the specific term used to describe a vegetarian has to do with the extent to which that person avoids foods of animal origin. Read on for a primer on vegetarian label lingo, an explanation of what I call the vegetarian continuum, and an introduction to vegetarian foods.

From vegan to flexitarian: Sorting out the types of vegetarianism

In 1992, Vegetarian Times magazine sponsored a survey of vegetarianism in the United States. The results showed that almost 7 percent of Americans considered themselves vegetarians.

However, a closer look at the eating habits of those "vegetarians" found that most of them were eating chicken and fish occasionally, and many were eating red meat at least a few times each month. Most vegetarian organizations don't consider occasional flesh-eaters to be vegetarians.

As a result, the nonprofit Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG) in 1994 began sponsoring national polls on the prevalence of vegetarianism, wording the interview questions in such a way as to determine the number of people who never eat meat, fish, poultry, or byproducts of these foods. (The organization continues to conduct periodic polls, and you can find the results online at www.vrg.org/nutshell/faq.htm#poll.)

Over the years, the number of people who fit the VRG definition of vegetarian has increased from between 2 and 3 percent of the adult population in the U.S. in the 1990s to 6 percent of U.S. adults in 2020. That means the percentage of people in the U.S. who are consistently vegetarian has tripled over the past 30 years.

Of course, the U.S. population has also increased substantially in the past 30 years. So, while the percentage of vegetarians has tripled, the absolute number of vegetarians has increased even more. Consider that the U.S. adult population in 1994 was 194,484,890. Two percent of that number is 3,889, 698. The U.S. adult population in 2020 was 256,662,010. Six percent of that number is 15, 399,721. That means the actual number of vegetarians in the U.S. has quadrupled since the mid-1990s!

Many others are cutting back on meat consumption. A 2020 VRG poll found that 54 percent of American adults say that they sometimes or always eat vegetarian meals when they eat out. Does that make them "part-time" vegetarians?

The fact is, people interpret the term vegetarian in many different ways.

Many people use the term loosely to mean that they're consciously reducing their intake of meat. The word vegetarian has positive connotations in general, especially among those who know that vegetarian diets confer health benefits. In fact, the same 2020 VRG poll found that when making food choices, a majority of Americans consider the most important factors to be taste, cost, and health, in that order. Vegetarians say their primary considerations are health, animal welfare, the taste of the food, cost, ethics, and the environment.

So what about these true vegetarians? Who are they and what do they eat (or not eat)?

The definition of a vegetarian most widely accepted by vegetarian organizations is this: A vegetarian is a person who eats no meat, fish, or poultry.

Not "I eat turkey for Thanksgiving" or "I eat fish once in a while." A vegetarian consistently avoids all flesh foods, as well as byproducts of meat, fish, and poultry. A vegetarian avoids refried beans made with lard, soups made with meat stock, and foods made with gelatin, such as some kinds of candy and most marshmallows.

The big two: Lacto ovo vegetarian and vegan

Vegetarian diets vary in the extent to which they exclude animal products. The two most common types of vegetarianism are:

• Lacto ovo vegetarian: A lacto ovo vegetarian diet excludes meat, fish, and poultry but includes dairy products and eggs. According to a 2020 VRG poll, half of U.S. adult vegetarians - 3 percent of American adults - fall into this category. Lacto ovo vegetarians eat such foods as cheese, ice cream, yogurt, milk, and eggs, as well as foods made with these ingredients.
• Vegan: Technically, the term vegan (pronounced vee-gun) refers to more than just the diet alone. A vegan is a vegetarian who avoids eating or using all animal products, including meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy products, and any foods containing byproducts of these ingredients. A 2020 VRG poll found that of the 6 percent of U.S. adults who are consistently vegetarian, half of them are vegan. Vegans also use no wool, silk, leather, and any nonfood items made with animal byproducts. Some vegans avoid honey, and some don't use refined white sugar, or wine that has been processed using bone char or other animal ingredients. Needless to say, vegans also don't eat their dinner on bone china. (For more details on veganism, see the nearby sidebar.)

In academic nutrition circles, strict vegetarian is the correct term to use to describe people who avoid all animal products but who don't necessarily carry animal product avoidance into other areas of their lives. In practice, however, the term vegan is usually used by both strict vegetarians and vegans, even among those in the know. In other words, technically, the term strict vegetarian refers to diet only. The term vegan encompasses both food and other products, including clothing, toiletries, and other supplies.

MORE THAN A DIET: VEGANISM

Maintaining a vegan lifestyle in our culture can be difficult. Most vegans are strongly motivated by ethics, however, and rise to the challenge. A large part of maintaining a vegan lifestyle has to do with being aware of where animal products are used and knowing about alternatives. Vegetarian and animal rights organizations offer information and materials to help.

Sometimes vegans unwittingly use a product or eat a food that contains an animal byproduct. Knowing whether a product is free of all animal ingredients can be difficult at times. However, the intention is to strive for the vegan ideal.

So a vegan, for instance, wouldn't use hand lotion that contains lanolin, a byproduct of wool. A vegan wouldn't use margarine that contains casein, a milk protein. And a vegan wouldn't carry luggage trimmed in leather. Vegans (as well as many other vegetarians) also avoid products that have been tested on animals, such as many cosmetics and personal care products.

The list goes on: Semi-vegetarian, flexitarian, and others

Lacto ovo vegetarian and vegan are the two primary types of vegetarian diets, but there are more labels for near vegetarians, including the following:

• A semi-vegetarian is someone who's cutting back meat intake, in general.
• A flexitarian is basically the same as a semi-vegetarian. It refers to someone who's generally cutting back on meat but may eat meat from time to time, when it's more convenient or on a special occasion.
• A pescatarian is someone who avoids red meat and poultry but eats fish or seafood.
• A pesco pollo vegetarian avoids red meat but eats chicken and fish.
• A pollo vegetarian avoids red meat and fish but eats chicken.

These terms stretch the true definition of a vegetarian. None of these actually qualify as vegetarian diets, but they indicate the person is moving towards a more plant-based diet.

In fact, plant-based is a term that is used commonly now, as in "they eat a plant-based...