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.

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.

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.

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.

I’ll always remember the last night I ate meat. We went out for a twelve-course tasting menu at one of the best restaurants in the world. She had a vegan tasting menu, twelve courses. I had everything―foie gras, veal. You name it, I had it.

We went back to her apartment and she said, “Douglas, I just want you to watch something.” I said, “I’m game, I’m a very open minded person. I would love to.”

So I watched, “Meet Your Meat” ―the PETA video. [WARNING: link goes to a very graphic video.] What I saw, I couldn’t get the images out of my mind for the rest of my life and that night I decided to go vegetarian. I just couldn’t believe I saw pigs being kicked in the face, chickens being spit on, screamed at, yelled at. I said, I’m not going to contribute to this anymore.

[In New York], there are over a hundred vegan restaurants there. Anything you can imagine, from nachos with cheese sauce to hot dogs and hamburgers―all the way up to fine dining.

What I started to see was these guys are using the same techniques and the same flavours that I know how to use, just different ingredients.

I would go back to my ACC  job at the time, and I would play around. I would bring in okra. I would bring in mushrooms. I would bring in quinoa. I started playing around with flavours and I would just create. It came to a point where I was largely into animal rights…but I was responsible for cooking fifteen racks of veal back in the catering restaurant.

I decided to stop being a hypocrite. I took a paycut. I went down to half of what I was making and I went to work in a vegan café, Urban Herbivore. I decided to see what it was like to be in a professional setting, but totally using only vegetables. I loved it.

After about a year of being there, I was offered the head chef position at Live Organic Food Bar. I have nothing but the best to say about Live. They helped me grow as a chef, as a leader, as a manager…I loved it.

In this industry, you have to move around. You have to always be learning and always on the newest things. I am fully into raw food right now, I love it. [When] I was offered a head chef position at Raw Aura in Mississauga, I jumped on it. That’s where I am now.

You mentioned that when you were in New York, you were exposed to this form of cooking that was similar to what you were doing, but used different ingredients. What did you learn in your training as a chef that you apply today?

The whole idea about good cooking, when you go to a restaurant, is utilizing fat. In French cooking, it’s butter, it’s using cheese and egg.

I was able to say, a rich sauce is delicious on the palette. How can I take that alfredo sauce that I know how to do using cream and butter, how can I substitute that using other fats? It was very simple.

When we think of vegan food, or vegetarian food, we often have these stereotypes that it’s hippie food, or that vegetarians eat chicken and fish. Why is that?

I think, looking into the past, we were much more primitive in the way we looked at food. As we go further into technology, different people are becoming more ethical and have more money to spend on research. New products are being developed all the time. With the advent of factory farming, more and more people are realizing that is isn’t the way to eat or treat the world or animal and that there are other options.

I think the end answer is more and more people are going towards this road. More and more people are choosing to become vegetarian. More and more people are choosing to become ethical.

It’s the same idea, if you were to compare granola to cell phones. Back in the late eighties, cell phones were the size of a telephone book. People had to spend the money and the time to realize these things are amazing; these things change your life.

If you look at it now, it’s the same thing. There’s all this vegetarian and vegan food that is leaps and bounds ahead. It’s the same thing as an iPhone or a BlackBerry. Look what you can do now; it’s like carrying a little personal computer with you.

I think that’s a big thing, a lot of people are making the choices that turn into change. Whether it’s ethics, whether it’s health, whether it’s that you just look better―that’s the bottom line is people are choosing to eat more vegetables and I think it’s a great thing.

Familiarizing food to people is important as well.

When it comes to familiarizing food and this cuisine to people, what do you say to the skeptics who say that a meal isn’t complete without meat?

I say, it’s time to open up the box. Look outside what we’ve been taught our whole lives.

Look around you. People are getting diabetes People are getting cancer. People are getting diseases at such young ages and in such large numbers.

Let’s take it back to that idea and think, what if I don’t put meat as the centerpiece? What if I start to understand that iron and calcium and especially protein can come from other sources?

It’s definitely a difficult one. People are set in their ways. Change is not an easy thing. That’s the biggest thing in choosing to go vegetarian or vegan or anything at all. Anytime you want to change your life, it’s not easy. It’s not an easy task. You have to be a go-getter, you have to be open minded.

I think flavour is a big thing: “I want my food to taste good.” Food still tastes good without meat. I don’t know. Go to a vegetarian restaurant, go to a vegan restaurant with a friend―order something you would not normally order. It’d be exciting and blow your mind.

Featuring a menu of raw and cooked foods, the evening will teach you how to “Woo Your Valentine” with a sensual vegan dinner. Doug will be showcasing a full menu complete with appetizers, mains, and dessert.

The event takes place Sunday, February 7th at 6:00. Advance registration is required. You can book your seat by calling 416-461-4612, or e-mailing Pulp Kitchen at gethealthy@pulpkitchen.ca

Event: Woo Your Valentine Cooking Demo with Doug McNish
Where: Pulp Kitchen, 1129 Queen Street East
When: Saturday, February 7th @ 6:00pm
Cost: $40 per person

Bring someone you love – and your appetite.

Have you heard of Meat Free Mondays? Most vegetarians have, but for those who aren’t familiar, Meat Free Mondays is exactly what it sounds like: A challenge to folks who eat meat to change their diet for just one day.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it?

Of course, this isn’t the first time switching up your three squares has been suggested, but the catchy name makes it perfect for, if not remembering to grab some broccoli for dinner, tweeting about your new found love of veggie foods. (Yes, you can hashtag it)

The movement, founded by Paul McCartney, campaigns on the premise that everyone can be veg for a day. While Meat Free Mondays originated in Europe (yes, Sir Paul even took his message to the European Union), the movement has been gaining supporters across the globe.

On the Meat Free Monday website, Paul McCartney explains what it’s all about:

“I think many of us feel helpless in the face of environmental challenges, and it can be hard to know how to sort through the advice about what we can do to make a meaningful contribution to a cleaner, more sustainable, healthier world.

Having one designated meat free day a week is actually a meaningful change that everyone can make, that goes to the heart of several important political, environmental and ethical issues all at once. For instance it not only addresses pollution, but better health, the ethical treatment of animals, global hunger and community and political activism.”

Though I’m sure there are some veginazis who think Meat Free Mondays are a bit of a sellout, I love the idea. It may not make a meat-eater renounce steaks altogether, but it clues people into a healthy diet and demystifies vegetarianism – even if just for one day.

I personally see such so-called half measures as a good thing. Sure, the impact of a pure vegetarian may be more pronounced, but anything that gets people to eat less meat, in my eyes, is a bonus. Not just for vegetarians (who are often at pains to explain their choices and can profit from some allies on the other side) but also for the participants, who can benefit from healthier lifestyle choices. The bottom line is simple, more people eating less meat is a good thing.

What do you think? Do you participate in Meat Free Mondays? Do you think meat-eaters are macking on our thing by going veg once in a while, or is it good to be veg—if only occasionally?