Photo by Muffet

If vegans are the orthodoxy of the vegetarian world, lacto-ovo vegetarians – those who don’t eat meat but make allowances for eggs or dairy – take a less stringent approach to their diet. Chances are, if you meet a self-identified vegetarian, they’re one of these as lacto-ovo vegetarians make up the majority of the vegetarian population.

As mentioned above, lacto-ovo vegetarians don’t consume meat, fish or chicken, but will eat eggs and dairy products. (By extension, a lacto-vegetarian eats dairy but no eggs, an ovo-vegetarian eats eggs but no dairy.) Lacto-ovo vegetarians feel this is completely acceptable. Unlike meat where the animal is killed for food, these vegetarians see things like milk, cheese, and eggs as normal by-products of an animal’s normal life. No harm, no foul.

Of course, there are flaws with this thinking. In today’s factory-farm culture, we do know that all is not so rosy with these industries. Contrary to the smiling mug of Rosie the Cow, animals are harmed (perhaps egg-laying chickens most of all). That said, there are alternatives, such as free-range eggs, that can minimize the damage done – though to what extant is still debateable.

When it comes to health, lacto-ovo vegetarians fare better than their meat eating counterparts, but don’t have the A+ profile vegans do. This is because lacto-ovo vegetarians still expose themselves to animal-based health risks like cholesterol and saturated fats. Still, they remain healthier than the general population and the Dieticians of Canada said this about typical vegetarian diets:

“Numerous health benefits [of a vegetarian diet ]are also cited – lower levels of saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal protein and higher levels of carbohydrates, fiber, magnesium, potassium, folate and antioxidants such as vitamins C and E.

Vegetarians have been reported to have healthier body weight than non-vegetarians, as well as lower rates of death from heart disease, lower blood cholesterol levels and lower rates of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and prostate and colon cancer.”

Of the vegetarian diets, this one is probably the easiest to maintain and requires little sacrifice on the part of the individual. Most meals can be cobbled together from items at the local grocery store, and when it comes to eating out, there are often many options as most restaurants serve at least one vegetarian dish these days.

While it may not be going the whole hog (whole tofurky?), lacto-ovo vegetarianism is a solid step towards a more ethical and health conscious diet.

We talk a lot about the health components of vegetarian diets on this blog. Honestly, I think a balanced plant-based diet is really the solution to a lot of the problems we’re finding in modern society, and some scientists do, too.

For those looking to learn how to cook a healthy vegetarian meal that can also double as a preventative tonic, the Toronto Vegetarian Association has you covered. Over the next eight weeks, the TVA and Whole Foods will be presenting a series of Healthy Eating Workshops in conjunction with Evolving Appetities. The workshops will focus on improving the diet with cancer-busting menus.

Based on the Cancer Project, each class will begin with a lecture on nutrition and will then feature a simple cooking demonstration and sample session.

The seminars begin on Sunday February 28th and run every Sunday through April 18th. Single sessions are $30, a set of four is $100, and all eight sessions costs $180. Pre-registration is required and can be done by calling 416.944.0500.

More information can be found on the Toronto Vegetarian Association’s website here.

I love being vegetarian, but if I could go back and do it again, I’d make sure I knew more. You know, read more books. Get better educated about…vegetarian things.

Luckily, there’s no dearth of books on the subject of eating meat. While fashions may have changed (for the last time,  you don’t need to combine proteins), so has the analysis. With dinner moving off the family farm and foodies proclaiming grass-fed beef supreme, how does a modern vegetarian navigate the current atmosphere?

Here are five books I think are essential reading for the modern vegetarian that will help you find your place in the wider food world. Or at least make you a better conversationalist.

1. Animal Liberation by Peter Singer

Ok, this one’s old, but you have to start somewhere. And this one started it all.

Animal Liberation is philosopher Peter Singer’s seminal catalog of all that’s wrong with using animals for our own ends. This is an animal rights primer at its best. In addition to a thorough look at animal welfare across the boards, it is the premier text on how to argue with a meat eater. Yes, really.

Singer avoids appealing to sentimentality in his argument against harming animals. Instead, he cogently uses logic to guide our decisions, deftly knocking aside most objections to a vegetarian lifestyle.

BONUS: Animal Liberation solves once and for all that pesky “don’t plants hurt, too” question. If that’s the only reason you read the book, you’re still ahead of the game.

2. Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan has become a bit of a food guru and there’s a good reason for that. Through his first-person exploration of mankind’s obsession with sustenance,  Omnivore’s Dilemma brings how we eat to the forefront and chronicles Pollan’s attempts to wrestle with the morality behind our current diet.

This book, while lengthy,  is an easy read that’s well researched and completely entertaining. It’s not explicitly vegetarian, and some may take offense at some of the situations Pollan puts himself into (an early chapter finds him slaughtering a chicken,  for starters).  However, it is a must read to understand the different perspectives on food culture out there.

3. The Way We Eat by Peter Singer and Jim Mason

Yes, Singer again. But in the annals of vegetarian literature, this gem is often overlooked. Why? Maybe because it’s not overtly about vegetarian issues, nor is it something that will appeal to die-hard foodies (though it should). Nonetheless, The Way We Eat is excellent and deserves some of the spotlight.

A look at three different styles of eating on the continuum of the North American diet, everything from food miles to free-range farms fall under the microscope. The results just might surprise you. (Hint: the Wal-Mart diet is bad, but so are local tomatoes.)

If you read one book on this list, I would suggest this one as it straddles food issues everyone can relate to with an objective eye while examining how ethical our choices really are.

4. Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

I’ll be honest, I almost put this book down. I mean, if you’ve read one animal rights book, you’ve read them all: the poor conditions the pigs breed in, the noxious chicken sheds, animals being skinned alive. We get it, already. It’s brutal. Telling us again won’t make it stop.

But I kept reading, and I’m glad I did. One of the more gruesome accounts of factory farming, Eating Animals is elegantly put together, giving voice to different perspectives with clarity and insight.

This book is chock full of facts and picks up where The Omnivore’s Dilemma leaves off. Not as rigorous on the philosophy as Singer, but the genuine inquisitiveness of Eating Animals and its subsequent well-reasoned conclusions help make up for the gory bits.

5. Mad Cowboy by Howard Lyman

Remember when Oprah got sued for proclaiming her desire to abstain from meat on national television? This is the guy who made that happen.

Unlike the above books, Howard Lyman isn’t a journalist, author, or philosopher. He’s a fourth-generation cattle rancher from Montana. Also, he’s vegan. In this book, he tells you why.

Mad Cowboy lets you in on all the dirty secrets of the farming industry (antibiotics, epidemic cover-ups, etc.), and gives plenty of reasons to give up meat, especially if you care about your health.

This is a book by a man who seriously loved what he did for a living, but eventually came to a different conclusion about his lifestyle. It takes balls to shake off a heritage of cattle rustling, and if this guy can’t convince you that there’s more out there than meat, then I don’t know who will.

photo by Jo-Anne MacArthur

For those who don’t know vegan chef Doug McNish, the easiest way to describe him is as a vegetarian culinary savant.

Cooking for 12 years, he trained in French Cuisine at George Brown Chef School and  his enthusiasm for his profession is immediate to anyone in his vicinity. Currently head chef at Port Credit’s Raw Aura, a raw food and organic haven for those in the GTA, McNish has also manned the stations at Live Organic Food Bar and Urban Herbivore, putting his unique spin on vegetarian menus throughout Toronto.

Doug recently chatted with Toronto Vegetarian about his life in―and out―of the kitchen. What follows is the story of one man, a twelve-course meal, and how haute cuisine went veg.

Just starting off, the obvious question: What led you to become a chef?

I started cooking at the age of 15, I’m now 27. So, from an early on age I fell in love with the kitchen. I loved everything about it. I loved how it was different. I loved how you don’t sit behind a desk; how everyday something different can happen and does happen. And I loved the camaraderie of working with people. It’s very much a team thing when you work in a kitchen; it’s everyone coming together to create amazing food.

So at 15, I realized, I’m really good at this and I love doing it and the sky’s the limit.

I read that you made the transition to being vegan while working at the Air Canada Centre, where you were cooking a lot of meat as part of this position. What was that like? Did you take a lot of heat form your colleagues for your dietary choices?

Yes. I had my colleagues and I had my bosses; I had sous chefs; I had the chef of the Air Canada Centre―they all thought I was crazy! They looked at my tattoos and they asked me “Why?”

They all were trying to feed me chicken! I would bring in my own lentil soup and I would have salad and bread, and [they’d say], “Oh, you don’t eat chicken?”  I said, “Well, I’m vegetarian now.” They’re like, “Well that means you can still eat chicken, can’t you?”

At that time, I was young and I wasn’t as knowledgeable as I am now, so I was still eating a little bit of cheese, and every now and then I would put a little bit of salmon into my body to make sure I was still getting enough protein. I was worried about that.

But that year, the Maple Leafs didn’t make the playoffs, and the season finished early. I was no longer cooking 200 steaks a night. I was no longer responsible for the pork and chicken, so I decided to cut it all out and go vegan.

What that influenced by dietary reasons or ethical reasons?

What happens in the kitchen is you’re always eating. At an early age, I was out at the bars, I was drinking beer, I was partying. I was doing everything in excess. By the age of 21 [ed. note: he's now 27], I was about 270 pounds, and I’m only five foot seven.

I was drinking far too much. I was partying far too much. My lifestyle was awful. I said to myself, I need to smarten up and change my life now, before I get into my mid-thirties and I have to change my life.

At that time, I didn’t know what it meant. All I thought it meant was going to the gym and working out. I met a woman along the way and she lived in New York; she was vegan. I had no idea what that meant. She started talking to me about the ideas of animals having feelings. I just laughed at her. I said, listen, I’m a chef. I cook meat and dairy―that’s the only way there is to do it.
Read more »