Vegetarianism seems more popular than ever. Veggie burgers grace menus
and barbecues across the country. Children and teenagers declare
themselves
Vegetarian to assert dietary independence from their
parents. Vegetarian cosmetics and cruelty-free clothes fill corner
drugstores and high-end shops. But although
Vegetarianism is trendy,
sometimes rebellious and decidedly modern, it''s actually one of the
earliest diets. Some cultures have subsisted without meat for
millennia. Socrates, Plato, Leonardo da Vinci, Charles Darwin and
Thomas Edison were all
vegetarians .
The vegetarian diet
is straightforward enough: Vegetarians do not eat meat. Some people who
avoid beef and pork but still eat poultry or fish mistakenly consider
themselves vegetarians. Although vegetarianism has varying degrees, the
diet''s core principle is abstention from all meat. Most vegetarians are
lacto-ovo-vegetarians -- they do not eat meat but they allow dairy products and eggs. Lacto-vegetarians allow dairy, and ovo-vegetarians allow eggs. Vegans avoid all animal products -- meat, dairy, eggs, leather, wool, silk and even honey.
There
is, however, plenty for vegetarians to eat. Lacto-ovo vegetarians eat
fruit, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, dairy and eggs. They
eat meat substitutes like soybean-based tofu and tempeh, and seitan, a wheat protein. Ethnic cooking''s growing popularity has also opened up a world of new vegetarian foods
to vegetarians and meat-eaters alike. Middle Eastern, North African,
Indian and Asian foods are often vegetarian or easily can be made so.
In this article, we''ll learn about why people become vegetarians, the degrees of vegetarianism and how the movement has evolved.
More abstracts about the How Vegetarians Work