Cosmic Cafe

The Vegetarian style of eating is a Culinary Adventure of taste. Despite what some may think, a vegetarian diet is rich with flavour, texture, colour, and is a healthy choice. An increasing number of Americans, and scientists, are embracing the idea of vegetarianism as a healthy choice. Wether you choose to do it everyday or just occasionally, your health can and will improve.

Now to some, who aren't aware that there are different types vegetarianism, I am including each type and a definiation of what each is and isn't allowed to eat.

Vegetarian A person who doesn't eat meat, fish of fowl.

Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian A person who doesn't eat meat, fish, or fowl, but does eat egg and dairy products.

Ovo-Vegetarian A person who doesn't eat meat, fish, fowl, or dairy products, but does eat eggs.

Lacto-Vegetarian A person who doesn't eat meat, fish, fowl, or egg s, but does eat dairy products.

Vegan A person who doesn't eat meat, fish, fowl,eggs, dairy products, honey, etc. Most Vegans also do not use and animal products such as silk, wool, leather, etc. as well.

Now of course that is only the basic defination of each type of vegetarian, and because of that, I am including at the end of this feature a list of books, and other resources that you may find helpful.

There are many ways you can make the change into being a vegetarian. As with any change, it can be simple or complicated, expensive or inexpensive. It mostly depends on your level of interest, and how far you wish to go. There are many commen recipes that most of us already eat that are easily made Vegan or Vegetarian, such as:

Spaghetti and other pasta dishes
Burritos, Tacos, Tostadas
Mashed Potatoes
3 Bean Salad
Grilled or Roasted Veggies
Rice, just to name a few

Another way would be to explore the different types of cuisine from around the world, such as Thai, Indian or Chinese. Some of these already exclude meat from their recipes.

The American Dieteic Association (ADA) Position Paper on Vegetarian Diets, written in 1997, helps to clarify the nutritional needs of vegetarians.
To read a full copy of the paper, visit VRG ~ ADA Paper or Eat Right ~ ADA Paper

Either of those sites will show you the results of the ADA position on Vegetarianism.

A commenly asked question for people who want to become vegetarian, is if I have food allergies, can I still be vegetarian? The answer is YES! The Food Allergy Network has handouts on foods which contain possible allergends and also offer recipes too! You can contact the Food Allergy Network at:

The Food Allergy Network
10400 Eaton Place
Suite 107
Fairfax, VA 22030-2208
or at The Food Allergy Network

There are several ways to pronounce the word Vegan, most commenly pronounced as "VEE-gun" or "VAY-gun". Most USA vegetarian and vegan groups use the British pronunciation of "vee-gun". Though round the world, there are also other pronunciations.

Out of interest heres a list of a few famous vegetarians:

Sir Paul McCartney
Lindsay Wagner
Fiona Apple
The B-52's
Casey Kasem
Steve Jobs
And probably the most important Pythagoreans
(Vegetarian History~~ The term vegeratian first used in 1847 ~ prior to that they were defined as "Pythagoreans" after the ancient Greek philosopher who advocated vegetarianism.)

Wether or not you realize it, there are many products we use everyday, such as soap and shampoo, that contain animal or animal by-products, or that were tested on animals. As a vegan these would be products that you would wish to avoid. The National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) has a guide to personal care products, PERSONAL CARE WITH PRINCIPLE, that lists animal-derived ingredients, companies that make cruelty-free products, as well as companies that do test on animals. For more information, you can contact:

NAVS
53 W. Jackson Blvd.
Suite 1552
Chicago, IL 60604
(800) 888-NAVS
(312) 427-6065
NAVS.org

Another product that you may not suspect would be medications. Many medications contain animal products in them, or were tested on animals. The flu shot, for example, is grown in eggs. Therefore, it is possible that these can cause an allergic reaction, or be against your principle of vegetarian eating. There are 2 organizations that you can contact for more information, PETA and PCRM (Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine).

You can contact them at:

PETA
501 Front St.
Norfolk, VA 23510
(757) 622-PETA
PETA

PCRM
5100 Wisconsin Ave.
Suite 404
Washington, DC 20016
(202) 686-2210
PCRM

A newer more important question to the vegetarian society came about with the Genetically Modified Foods (GMO), Can Organic Foods contain GMO's?

The answer to that is NO. The law for orgainc standards and the inclusion of GMO'S was finalized in late 2000. That ruling prohibits the use of GMO's in foods carrying the Organic label. For more information on GMO's you may visit: USDA'S Natural Orgainc Program or Mothers for Natural Law

Upon my choosing to do this feature on Vegetarianism, I decided I need some serious help. Not the kind where my head gets examined ... hehehe....., but the kind where I really needed to do some research as before I started this project, I really knew nothing at all about vegetarianism. My first resource of choice was the VRG (Vegetarian Resource Group). They are a non-profit organization dedicated to edcuating the public on vegetarianism and the interrelated issues of health, nutrition, ecology, ethics, and world hunger. They publish the VEGETARIAN JOURNAL, produces and sells cookboods, as well as other books, pamphlets and other related information. If you would like to contact them to recieve brochures or other materials, you can write to:

VRG
P.O. Box 1463
Baltimore, MD 21203
(410) 366-8343
vrg@vrg.org
or visit them on the web at VRG

I have found such a large quantity of information, that this will end out being a several part feature in order to include all the revelevant information, without including too much all at once, so think of this feature as an introduction with more to come. Between publication of March, and April's editions, please feel free to post or email questions, comments, recipes, and any other relevant information either to the message board to email to empireezine@hotmail.com I will try my best to cover this topic thoroughly and without exclusion of any relevant information. Remember I'm new to this topic and this is a learning experience for me. If I have said or posted anything that is in error, PLEASE do corrent me, and let me know where Im in error.

Before I add the recipes to this, I'd like to take a moment to list off some resources that I have gathered to this point.

Books:

Simply Vegan (Debra Wasserman and Reed Mangels, PHD, RD)
The Vegetarian Way (Virginia Masseina, MPH, RD and Mark Massina, PHD)
Becoming Vegetarian (Vesanto Melina, MS, RD and Brenda Davis, RD)
Vegetarian Cooking for People with Allergies (Published by Book Publishing Company)
A Heretic's Feast (Colin Spencer)
The Vegetarian Sourcebook (Keith Akers)
Vegan and Vegetarian FAQ (Davida Gypse Breier, Nutrition section by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD)

Websites:

Food Alrernative Resource List:

Ener-G Foods, Inc

Ener-G Foods, Inc

These are only partial lists as I have yet more to add as I go. I will update this each time with new information. Do you have a resource I dont have listed? Let me know so I can add it to the list!

Ok without further adue, here are some vegetarian recipes, glossary of terms, and other relevant information:

Vegetarian Glossary

Vegetarian Food Substitutions

Vegetable Medley with Basmati Rice

Hoppin’ John

Curried Sweet Potatoes with Spinach and Chickpeas

Fettuccine with Green Chile and Corn Sauce

Mexican Pizza

Please note that clicking on any of the above links will take you directly to that information. I have chosen to make each of these a seperate page as there is already alot of information to this feature.