VEGETARIAN FOOD DECISION
VEGETARIAN FOOD COOKING HAS NEVER BEEN more popular or easier to enjoy. You don't have to drive
a hybrid car, shop in a health food store, grow your own bean sprouts —or even
be a vegetarian!—to appreciate the flavors and combinations of people eat
vegetable foods available today. Even if your town has only a handful of zip
codes, a trip to your local market likely shall reveal an array of
taste-tempting many vegetable, many legume, many fruit, many grain, seeds and
nuts positioned right alongside protein-rich tofu and soymilk products that
many vegetarians have enjoyed for centuries.
It’s precisely the accessibility of packaged soy foods and
the well-publicized health benefits of a soy-based meatless diet that have
pushed vegetarianism into the common vernacular—and pushed traditionally
vegetarian foods straight onto grocery store shelves from coast to coast.
While only 2.5 percent of Americans are consistent
vegetarians, an estimated 25 percent of us replace meat with meat alternatives
for at least some meals. Here’s why:
• More of us increasingly understand the connection between
the food we consume and our health. Four of the top seven causes of death—heart
disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes—are related to diet.
• Concerns about cholesterol have spurred many of us to
consider making dietary changes, including reducing our meat consumption and
increasing the amount of soy and vegetables we eat.
• Food allergies and lactose intolerance are moving many of
us from dairy to nondairy beverages, cheeses and other products.
•
From mad cow disease
to genetically modified foods to bioterrorism, we’re becoming more concerned
about our food’s safety. We want to know where our food is coming from and
where it’s been.
• Natural and organic foods, once found only in
out-of-the-way or ethnic markets, have gone mainstream. About 70 percent of us
say our primary supermarket sells natural or organic foods.
• The definition of dieting has changed. People in their
midthirties and older are realizing that a diet can be about living a
healthier, more balanced life over the long term. The popularity of South
Beach-style low- carb diets as lifestyle choices—not quick weight-loss
solutions—reflects this.
• The growing ethnic diversity in the United States, our
exposure to TV chefs who highlight regional cuisine and the affordability of
interna tional travel all are driving an
interest in spicier and more flavorful foods.
Given
those facts, it’s no wonder that people of all ages, income
levels and
ethnicities are finding a vegetarian diet appealing. If
you’re not a vegetarian
by definition—that is, a person whose diet
excludes meat, poultry and
fish—you’ve probably at one time or
another thought about going meatless, or
you’ve tried doing so for
a period of time. About 5 million people in the
United States have
gone meatless for good, and they couldn’t be a more diverse
group:
musicians, politicians, actors, athletes, school kids, professors,
artists, entrepreneurs, grandmothers, chefs and countless others!
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