MEAT BEATS HAS TY RETREAT
Wellness movement stresses value of vegetarianism as lifestyle choice
For the past six years, my husband has been a pescatarian — he eats fish but no mammals or birds.
“I’ve saved some pigs for sure,” he says, acknowledging a past and very deep love of bacon.
His decision to change his eating habits was an ethical one, solidified by a viewing of Lee Fulkerson’s documentary Forks over Knives.
“That was it — factory farms did me in,” is his stock answer when asked about his culinary choices.
A 2015 poll commissioned by the Vancouver Humane Society reports 12 million Canadians are vegetarian and/or consuming less meat.
If the increase of vegetarian offerings on grocery store shelves and anecdotal stories from food business folks is any indication, that number should continue to rise.
Jeannette Savard, founder of The Wellness Show running Friday to Sunday at the Vancouver Convention Centre, is one of those people who don’t need a pie chart to tell us our tastes have changed.
“The big trends, when the show started, was high-impact fitness, eating in moderation,” said Savard, herself a pescatarian and on-andoff vegetarian for the past three decades.
“Now it is yoga, meditation and being a lot more aware of where food comes from and what you’re eating, putting in your body. What you’re putting on your body. Being kinder to your body.
“Years ago, vegetarianism was a health issue. Now it is a lifestyle choice.”
From sunscreen to cooking with sprouts, the show, now in its 25th year, has your plant-based and animal-product-free shopping and educational needs covered.
One of the experts on hand at the show will be local author, chef and restaurateur (co-owner of Vij’s and Rangoli) Meeru Dhalwala.
“I am hearing about it from all over the place,” Dhalwala said of the increase in meat-free requests.
She said menu updates for her now mean more vegetarian dishes.
“My cookbook that just came out, Vij’s Indian, I wanted to call it Once a Week Meat, but everybody thought that was a cheesy title,” said Dhalwala, who added her publisher asked specifically for a “vegetarian-focused book.’ ”
For her Wellness Show appearance (March 4, 4 p.m.), Dhalwala will be demonstrating how to make a potato, zucchini and spinach saute.
“The best thing I tell people to do is to learn how to saute garlic, onion and potato,” said Dhalwala, adding that mastering basics is the key for your own veggie success.
Burnaby-based naturopath Albert Kim has been a vegetarian for over two decades. He began his meat-free life back in 1998, when he spent six months in a Taiwanese monastery.
He is just finishing up work on a book titled Seven Foods You Must Have on Your Dining Table.
For the record they are: mushrooms, tea/coffee, vegetables, to- matoes, seeds and pulses, spices and herbs and fruits and berries.
Kim, who will be talking joint health at the Wellness Show on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. said that in his own work issues almost always point back to diet.
Kim’s view is bolstered by re- search that supports a plant-based diet, be it for personal health (blood pressure and cholesterol levels, Type 2 diabetes) or the environment (the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that livestock is responsible for 18 per cent of greenhouse gases). He hopes the proliferation of studies and their findings will lead health practitioners to focus on prevention rather than treatment.
“Drug research is very extensive, there is funding,” said Kim.
“There isn’t a lot of funding for
broccoli research.”
So if you count yourself as one of the many who have decided to make the move away from meat, there are simple things you can do.
Meatless Mondays can grow into Save a Turkey Tuesdays or Where’s the Salad Wednesdays. You get the point.
For me, my meat consumption has dropped dramatically. There is no cow in my freezer anymore. But, in an increasing need (thank you, America) to point out facts, I will come clean and say a night of fine dining might still include the occasional filet.
Dhalwala said that is as common as California rolls.
“It’s almost like when they are out for a proper evening they want to let go of their health,” said Dhalwala.
Kim said he counsels his clients to simply rip that beef Band-Aid off and, no pun intended, go cold turkey.
“If you do slow changes like that, you have to have a very consistent mind,” said Kim.
“You have to pay a lot of attention to that diet, and who has that time or energy? What you can do is just throw yourself into it, immerse yourself. Not think about it. It is the decision-making process that is the most stressful thing in our lives. We are bombarded with more decisions then ever before. Live life simply.”
Hmmm … simple does sound appetizing.