FLEXIBLE VEGETARIAN
The Urban Vegetarian host doesn’t follow strict rules, writes.
When people are interested in vegetarianism but don’t know if they can fully commit, I say, ‘Then don’t fully commit. Could you do your breakfasts and lunches vegetarian?’ Desiree Nielsen
Melissa Hank When it comes to being a vegetarian, sometimes it’s just not that easy being green.
And it doesn’t help that saying you eat a plant-based diet can get you shunned quicker than pasta at a supermodel’s dress fitting.
Researchers at the University of Calgary and Brock University found that meat eaters judged plant eaters particularly harshly.
“Strikingly, only drug addicts were evaluated more negatively than vegetarians and vegans,” they wrote in the 2015 paper It Ain’t Easy Eating Greens.
Still, according to a Vancouver Humane Society poll that same year, eight per cent of Canadians say they’re vegetarian or mostly vegetarian, and another 25 per cent say they’re trying to eat less meat.
For Vancouver-based dietitian Desiree Nielsen, who hosts the cooking show The Urban Vegetarian (airing Fridays on Gusto), the path to vegetarianism wasn’t exactly as smooth as the cashew sauce she tenderly pours on her sweet potato noodles.
“I’d love to say that I had some amazing, noble vision for my vegetarianism, but in all honesty, I was a teenage girl and there was a boy that I liked who was vegetarian, and it was just to impress him,” she says.
“I thought that I was at the height of vegetarian health and sophistication, but in all honesty I started out like many people do.
“It was veggie dogs and macaroni and cheese, tons of potato chips and pots of raisins. I would go through these huge tubs of raisins all the time.”
Soon after going vegetarian, Nielsen tried being vegan, but without knowing what foods to eat and lacking the cooking skills, it was short lived. Hunger is a strong persuader.
Now, she says, “Whereas my diet veers closer to a vegan diet, I’m not strict about anything. But I know how to put protein on my plate and give my body what it needs.” Nielsen also knows the benefits. She says people who eat more plant-centred diets maintain a healthy weight more easily, and they tend to have a lower risk of chronic disease over time.
“The other thing a lot of people don’t really think about is sustainability, that it’s more efficient in terms of land use, particularly water usage, to get your energy from plant foods. Animal agriculture is super water intensive.”
Nielsen, author of Un-Junk Your Diet, debunked four vegetarian myths for Postmedia News:
1 You won’t get enough protein
“The literature shows that even the average vegetarian still gets way more protein than is necessary for human health. Vegans typically meet the protein requirements that are needed as well. … Vegetarians can absolutely get enough protein with legumes, nuts, tofu; it’s so easy. It just takes that little bit of awareness. Like, ‘Oh I’m making a pasta for myself, let’s do a white bean. Or let’s do a ground tofu in the sauce.’”
2 You need expensive or hard-to-find ingredients
“I think when we think healthy, we think of all the fancy stuff. We think of the $10 green juices or the goji berry granolas. But really, at their heart, vegetarian staple foods are what people the world over eat as sustenance. Beans, grains and basic veggies are incredibly inexpensive, and that’s where the cooking comes in. How do you take beans and rice and a bit of broccoli and make it amazing? It’s knowing your spices and knowing how to cook them.”
3 You can eat unlimited cheese and chips
“I think that’s a big myth around vegetarianism, that it’s instantly healthier. If you’re a healthy vegetarian, then absolutely you can be a junk-food, cheesy-carb vegetarian, or you can be an Oreo- and candyobsessed vegan. So for everyone, the focus has to be those whole plant foods. Even as a flexitarian, you can have a few vegetarian meals, but the more you’re putting those plant foods on your plate, the healthier you will be.”
4 Plant-eaters eat perfectly all the time
“I went through this when I first became a vegetarian. You get so excited about the choice that you made. You’re filled with so much information and you just want everyone in the world to know it. … It’s one of the reasons that when people are interested in vegetarianism but don’t know if they can fully commit, I say, ‘Then don’t fully commit. Could you do your breakfasts and lunches vegetarian? Or could you do three vegetarian meals a week?’
“And then it’s just about playing with the food, having fun in the kitchen and seeing what happens. Do you feel better? Do you feel healthier? Is it less expensive? Then keep moving on the path. But if you keep having that steak twice a month, and that’s what keeps you mostly vegetarian, that’s awesome, too.”