Going Vegetarian The Transition

That’s the question meat-eaters ask vegetarians all the time. It’s a good question too, because if you look at the Standard American Diet (remember, it’s abbreviated “SAD”), there’s a lot of meat to be sure. But even among vegetarian foods, there aren’t very many commonly eaten things that aren’t dependent in some way on animal products. If something doesn’t have chickens’ eggs or cows’ milk mixed into it, it probably has mayonnaise or butter or cheese on top of it. Tell a meat-eater you’re a vegan and you don’t eat any animal products, and he or she will probably ask the question twice: “But what do you eat? What on Earth do you eat?” Fortunately, there are some easy answers to both of these questions.

              

People have become so used to throwing meat into everything and so accustomed to heavy, high-fat dishes that they’ve forgotten what real food tastes like. Spaghetti sauce doesn’t need a bunch of ground beef in it to make it taste good. Soup doesn’t need chicken broth, and stir-fry doesn’t need chunks of pork hiding under the vegetables. Without all that meat, foods are lighter, more flavorful and lower in calories. Best of all, you can eat more of them!

There are lots of vegetarian foods out there that you haven’t tried. And with new, lighter, tastier vegetarian foods in your diet, your meals won’t have to be defined by a single dish. (“Mom, what’s for dinner? Pork chops? Is that all?”)

Not if you don’t want to, anyway. There are vegetarian substitutes for everything! You’ve heard of veggie burgers; you’ve heard of tofu dogs. (Don’t laugh—dress them up, and even hard-core meat eaters usually can’t tell the difference.)

There are great vegetarian substitutes to satisfy any animal food craving you might have—from steak to Reuben sandwiches. If you want to stuff yourself to the gills every night with a big pot roast and gravy (and a hot fudge sundae for dessert!), you can, and still eat a 100% vegetarian diet.

Take a survey of all the foods you and your family have eaten in the last week—both at home and away. Be honest, now. It’s not all broccoli and skim milk. Look in your refrigerator and take note of all the stuff that’s bad for you, bad for the environment and bad for our furry and feathered friends. Not just the meat and the frozen pepperoni pizzas, but the milk, the cheese, the carton of eggs, the jar of mayonnaise and those frozen cheese pockets.

Take all that bad stuff out of your refrigerator and throw it in the trash. No, just kidding! But at least consider not buying any more of it.

Now, think about all the bad things in your diet that nobody really likes anyway—the boiled hot dogs you make only because they’re fast, the Lard-O-Rama® breakfast scrapple, and the dry chickens’ breasts you eat because you once thought they were healthy—and get rid of them from your diet. OK, now we’re making progress.

Once you’ve eliminated all the animal products that are both boring and unhealthy, trot right down to your local natural foods grocery and find an appropriate meat substitute.

The same thing goes for dairy products. We’ve got substitutes for everything from the cow’s milk on your breakfast cereal to the chickens’ eggs in your cookies. They taste great, and they’re much better for you than something that came from a farm animal.