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Part-Time Vegetarians Become More Common
By J.M. HIRSCH
Associated Press Writer
CONCORD, N.H. (AP)--Even after five years, Christy
Pugh has no trouble sticking to her vegetarian regimen. The secret
to her success? Eating meat.
Pugh is one of a growing number of part-time
vegetarians whose loose adherence to the meat-free diet is transforming
a decades-old movement and the industry that feeds it.
``Sometimes I feel like I'm a bad vegetarian,
that I'm not strict enough or good enough,'' the 28-year-old bookkeeper
from Concord said recently. ``I really like vegetarian food but
I'm just not 100 percent committed.''
These so-called ``flexitarians''--a term voted
most useful word of 2003 by the American Dialect Society--are
motivated less by animal rights than by a growing body of medical
data that suggests health benefits from eating more vegetarian
foods.
``There's so many reasons that people are vegetarians
... I find that nobody ever gives me a hard time when I say I
usually eat vegetarian. But I really like sausage,'' Pugh said.
In recent years the market for vegetarian friendly
foods has exploded, with items such as soy milk and veggie burgers
showing up in mainstream groceries and fast food restaurants.
But even the diet's activists say that growth
can't be attributed to committed vegetarians, who are estimated
at about 3 percent of the adult U.S. population, or about 5.7
million people never eating meat, poultry or seafood.
Charles Stahler, co-director of the Baltimore-based
Vegetarian Resource Group, credits the growth to flexitarians--vegetarians
who dabble in meat and carnivores who seek out vegetarian meals.
``This is why Burger King has a veggie burger.
It's not because of us,'' he said. ``The true vegetarians wouldn't
rush to Burger King anyway. It's because of those people in the
middle. They are the driving audience.''
Though flexitarian headcounts are imprecise,
Stahler estimates roughly 30 percent to 40 percent of the population
at least occasionally seeks out vegetarian meals.
Suzanne Havala Hobbs, a nutrition professor at
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, credits the growth
of flexitarianism to the nation's better understanding of the
diet-disease connection.
``Whether you make a commitment to eating strictly
vegetarian or not, cutting back your dependence on meat is something
most people acknowledge they know they should do,'' she said.
Mollie Katzen, a cookbook author and a founder
of the iconic vegetarian eatery Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca,
N.Y., takes another perspective. The former vegetarian thinks
people who eschew meat would be better off if they didn't.
Though she still advocates vegetable-based diets,
Katzen sees room--and for many people a need--for flexibility.
``To base our diet there, yes. Absolutely,''
she said. ``However, where the protein comes from in that diet,
I don't feel it's wrong if you've got a great big plate of vegetables
your protein is from a healthy, happy chicken, or a grass-fed
cow.''
Plenty of people seem to agree. At Wild Oats
stores, a Boulder, Colo.-based chain of natural foods grocers
that cater to vegetarians, the majority of shoppers aren't vegetarians.
Tracy Spencer, a spokeswoman for the company,
said Wild Oats shoppers are concerned about health and want the
grocer's natural and organic products, including meats.
Publishers of vegetarian magazines also are taking
notice. To target the part-timers many have softened their approach
to meatless diets, even at risk of alienating the far smaller
reader pool of true vegetarians.
Until last year Natural Health, a Woodland Hills,
Calif.-based magazine with a monthly circulation of 300,000, published
only vegan recipes, which exclude even dairy and honey.
Now the recipes regularly include meat, said
Barb Harris, the magazine's editorial director.
``There is a big interest in vegetarianism,''
she said. ``But we can also tell from our readership that these
are not people who are following a pure vegetarian lifestyle.
These are people who are integrating a vegetarian menu in their
current diets.''
A similar change occurred at the 30-year-old
Vegetarian Times, considered the standardbearer of vegetarianism.
Though still meat-free, the once mostly vegan magazine focuses
less on activism and more on recipes with broader appeal.
Carla Davis, managing editor of the Glen Allen,
Va.-based monthly, said the changes were made after a survey showed
70 percent of the magazine's 300,000-plus readers weren't vegetarian.
Even the strictest of vegetarian advocacy groups
considers the flexitarian trend a good thing.
Bruce Friedrich, spokesman for Norfolk, Va.-based
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said he doesn't see
any harm in vegetarianism focusing more on food than the issues
that spurred the movement.
``From our perspective, if people influenced
by health consequently cut back on fish and meat consumption,
that helps animals,'' he said. ``If two people cut their meat
in half it helps as much as one person going completely vegetarian.''
___
On the Net:
Natural Health: www.naturalhealth1.com
Vegetarian Resource Group: www.vrg.org
Vegetarian Times: www.vegetariantimes.com
Copyright 2004, The Associated Press.
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