Just for fun
Here are some cartoons about vegetarians I thought I’d share. And I’ll leave you with that.
America’s Best Vegetarian Friendly Large Cities (Austin’s #8)
On GoVeg’s list of America’s Best Vegetarian-Friendly Large Cities, Austin makes the top 10 as No. 8. The site calls the city a “vegetarian-friendly oasis” and references various restaurants and grocery stores: NuAge Cafe, Mother’s Cafe (“perhaps the city’s most popular all-vegetarian establishment,” which actually had a serious fire a little over a year ago and has since reopened), Mr. Natural, Casa de Luz (which is macrobiotic food) and Wheatsville Co-Op.
The rest of the list:
1. Portland
2. Seattle
3. San Francisco
4. New York City
5. Atlanta
6. Washington, D.C.
7. Minneapolis
8. AUSTIN
9. Philadelphia
10. Chicago
Five (interesting) reasons to go veg
Since I’ve urged non-vegetarians to try cutting the cows (and chickens and fishes and all animals) out of their diets, I suppose I should do some more convincing. Online magazine Vegetarian Times provides several reasons for going veg; here are my top five favorites:
1. You’ll live longer. You can add 13 years to your life by quitting the meat habit and going veggie, says Michael F. Roizen, MD, author of “The RealAge Diet: Make Yourself Younger with What You Eat.” Also, residents of Okinawa, Japan have the longest life span of the Japanese and attribute it to their diets of unrefined carbs, fruits, vegetables and soy.
2. You’ll be more “regular.” Vegetables are full of fiber; meat is not. Fiber pushes waste out of the body. Enough said.
3. You’ll avoid toxic chemicals. Beef, fish and chicken have all been busted for having chemicals in them. And these can’t all necessarily be removed in cooking. Better just to be safe.
4. You’ll save money. Meat makes up 10 percent of Americans’ food spending. Replacing the meat budget with vegetarian-friendly foods, an individual could save an average of $4,000 a year.
5. Your dinner plate will be full of color. Who wouldn’t be happy to eat a dinner full of reds, greens and yellows? Bright colors make people happy and vegetables and other vegetarian dishes are quite colorful. Therefore, being vegetarian will make you happy.
Happy Vegetarian Awareness Month!
Oct. 1 was World Vegetarian Day and kicked off Vegetarian Awareness Month. Hooray! And, no this does not mean to simply be “aware of vegetarians.” It serves as a time for vegetarians to celebrate their awesomeness and to endorse the benefits of practicing vegetarianism.
The North American Vegetarian Society, a nonprofit organization support network primarily for vegetarians, established the day and awareness month in 1977. The celebration was then endorsed a year later by the International Vegetarian Union.
It has been nearly impossible to find events around Austin to commemorate Vegetarian Awareness Month, but there is one special event coming up in November: the 2008 Lone Star Vegetarian Chili Cook-Off on Nov. 9 at the Austin Farmer’s Market. Vegetarius will update you with more information later.
Maybe it’s because of Austin’s large vegetarian/vegan community that there doesn’t seem to be much celebration this month, but there are plenty of other ways to observe being or going vegetarian.
Visit: World Vegetarian Day for suggestions. They are pretty cheesy, but ideas nonetheless.
The biggest challenge posed, though, goes to NON-VEGETARIANS: We’re already into October, but for the rest of the month, try to limiting meat intake day by day and then for at least one week, only eat vegetarian. Can you meat-lovers do it?
What kind of vegetarian are you?
We all know people who claim to be vegetarian: “Yeah, I’m a vegetarian … except for fish … and birds.”
Reasons aside, true vegetarians don’t eat any meat from any animal. One is either vegetarian or not. There are categories of vegetarians and there are categories of semi-vegetarians.
Most vegetarians just shun the meat and consume dairy products and eggs. These vegetarians are called lacto-ovo-vegetarians. Lacto-vegetarians include dairy in their diets, but can’t fathom eating an egg. Ovo-vegetarians don’t mind the scrambled, fried, hard-boiled, etc., but scoff at dairy as if they’re lactose intolerant.
And then there are vegans, who shun any any of the above-mentioned vegetarians. Vegans leave out of their grocery shopping lists (and stomachs) any and all animal products (no poultry, meat, fish, dairy, eggs or honey).
Now on to the vegetarian imposters! The “semi”-vegetarians. A straight semi-vegetarian especially excludes red meat, but leaves room for other animal meats in some instances. Pescetarians say bleh to all animals, except of course those that live in water (fish and shellfish). Pollotarians are almost opposite to pescetarians; pollotarians only eat animals with wings.
And for some reason the category of flexitarian exists. Flexitarians for the most part don’t eat any animal meat, but allow for occasional exceptions … like what? National Eat Meat Day? It seems kind of ridiculous. As an 2004 AP story lead describes flexitarian: “Even after five years, Christy Pugh has no trouble sticking to her vegetarian regimen. The secret to her success? Eating meat.”
So … what kind of vegetarian are you?
G’Day Veggie Mate!
Today marks the first day of the second annual National Vegetarian Week in Australia. Yeah, I know, why do we really care about Australia, but it’s a vegetarian “celebration” and that’s all that matters.
A Monday article in the Toowoomba Chronicle mentions that Australia, traditionally one of the most meat-loving countries in the world, is gearing more toward vegetarianism. A recent poll found four out of 10 adult Australians are eating more vegetarian meals than they were a couple of years ago.
So there’s hope…even for the most meat-eating of people.
For any of you who for some reason are reading this from Australia, here are some links to more information about National Vegetarian Week:
Australia’s National Vegetarian Week
Check for more posts this week about vegetarian holidays.
A note from your blogger
Hello! Welcome to Vegetarius, a vegetarian’s take on vegetarians, vegetarianism, veggie culture, food, health and trends…and anything else veggie-friendly.
Clearly Vegetarius is a play on signs of the zodiac such as Sagittarius and Aquarius. So, in proper zodiac tradition, here are the sign’s associations:
Color: green (obviously)
Gemstone: moss agate
Element: earth
Flower: green spray pom-pom button chrysanthemums
(I’ll try not to overdo the zodiac sign references.)
I hope you enjoy the blog, the links and all the insightful things to come!
Vegetarius 