More than seven million Americans follow a vegetarian diet, says a new report entitled “Vegetarianism in America.” With 3.2 percent of Americans identifying themselves as vegetarians, and 0.5 percent calling themselves vegans (vegetarians who consume no animal products, including, dairy, eggs, and sometimes honey) the demand for veg-friendly products and services is up, and the supply is growing. With changing attitudes about the environment, animal welfare, and health, this trend is heading to become a mainstream lifestyle.

 

Even individuals who do not define themselves as vegetarians are beginning to lean toward a more plant-based diet, as 10 percent of U.S. adults, or 22.8 million people surveyed, said that they largely follow a vegetarian-based diet. Of the non-vegetarians surveyed, 5.2 percent or 11.9 million people, stated that they are “definitely interested” in following a vegetarian-based diet in the future.

 

The poll, commissioned by Vegetarian Times magazine and conducted by Harris Interactive Service Bureau, surveyed 5,050 respondents, a statistically representative sample of the total U.S. population. RRC Associates, a research firm in Boulder, Colo., performed the data analysis.

Just who and how old are today’s vegetarians? More women than men identify as veg, (59 versus 41 percent) with the highest number of vegetarians falling between the ages of 18 and 34 (42.0 percent). Individuals between 35 and 54 aren’t far behind (40.7 percent), with the least number of vegetarians aged over 55 (17.4 percent).

 

Well over half of vegetarians have eschewed meat for over a decade (57.1 percent) while just under one-fifth (18 percent) have been veg for between five to ten years. Just over one in ten have been vegetarian for two to five years, and 14.1 percent are still veggie newbies, at under two years.

 

Reasons for going vegetarian vary from improving one’s overall health (53 percent) to environmental concerns (47 percent). Many vegetarian respondents stated a desire to practice a “natural approach to wellness” (39 percent), while nearly one-third cited concerns over food safety. One quarter of vegetarian participants cited weight loss as a goal (25 percent), and nearly the same number (24 percent) stated that they maintain their weight with a vegetarian diet. Over half of respondents (54 percent) cited compassion for animals as their chief reason for following a vegetarian or a vegan diet.

 

Paul Shapiro, senior director of The Humane Society of the United States' Factory Farming Campaign, tells demo dirt that there are three legitimate reasons for the recent surge in vegetarianism: concern for animal welfare, public health issues, and global warming.

 

“The more Americans learn about the way animals are treated, the more outraged they become,” Shapiro explains. “The recent news about the dairy cow slaughter led to the largest recall in U.S. history. It shed a bright light on the dark world of factory farming.”

 

Shapiro is referring to the heartbreaking video of sickening dairy cow abuse at Westland/Hallmark Meat Co., taped by a Humane Society investigator, which led to widespread moral outrage and suspicion of meat industry standards.

 

“The second reason,” Shapiro continues, “is that public health advocates have announced that Americans are eating far too many animals. Americans eat far more animals per person than almost any other country.”

 

Public health officials have announced that switching to a more plant-based diet presents great health benefits; even Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has promoted Meatless Monday, a campaign to encourage less meat consumption, Shapiro notes.

 

“In addition to a rise in vegetarianism, there are now a lot of ‘flexitarians,’ people who are vegetarian-inclined,” Shapiro explains. “Even eating flexitarian has a positive impact on animal welfare because it decreases the number of animals being killed for food.”

 

Rather than a trendy eating fad, vegetarianism has become more mainstream, Shapiro, a longtime vegetarian, notes. “Fifteen years ago when I became a vegetarian, availability of vegetarian food was sparse. Now, you can find vegetarian food from everywhere from fast food to four-star restaurants.”

 

The reason? “They are catering to the vegetarian demand. People are reducing and eliminating their meat consumption, so there has been growth in vegetarian [cuisine] over the last fifteen years,” Shapiro, who founded animal advocacy organization Compassion Over Killing in 1995, explains.

 

Finally, Shapiro explains, growing concern over global warming has made meat-eating even less attractive to many Americans. “Raising and killing animals for food is an inefficient use of our resources and a leading contributor to global warming,” Shapiro explains. “The United Nations report announced that animal agriculture is responsible for more gas emissions than all transportation combined. People need to acknowledge the elephant in the room: food choices have a greater effect on the environment than cars.”

 

One flexitarian, trend expert Amanda Freeman, co-founder of health and wellness online source Vital Juice Daily, says that this surge of interest in vegetarianism and its subsets is the result of “a perfect storm of environmental awareness combined with studies on health”  which have touted the benefits of vegetarian diets. Vital Juice Daily focuses on fitness, nutrition, healing, beauty, green living and social responsibility (http://www.vitaljuicedaily.com).

 

With concern over the sanitary conditions and quality of meat and other non-vegetarian foods, says Freeman, “people try to stick with what they know is organic and good and natural, so vegetarianism and vegan diets” have become more popular.

 

Books like New York Times bestseller Skinny Bitch by vegan authors Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, and Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma have heightened awareness of how meat is obtained, as well as the pitfalls of processed and conventional foods, Freeman adds.

 

One major contributor to the increasing popularity of vegetarianism and its cousins, veganism, raw foodism and macrobiotic diets, is the fact that “more chefs are taking those types of diets seriously, and are making it more high-end,” Freeman says.

 

Vegetarian cuisine “is no longer the ugly stepsister of the food world,” Freeman adds, citing upscale Manhattan raw food restaurant Pure as an example of haute-raw eating.

 

“We don’t expect vegetarianism to go anywhere. We expect it to develop steam and reach the masses as people are becoming more aware of what they are putting into their bodies, especially within the ‘mom market,’” Freeman says, citing the mom culture of women who are "hyperaware and conscious of what they are putting in their children’s bodies.”  

 

Amy Lanou, PhD, senior nutritionist for the Washington DC-based, non-profit Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine (www.pcrm.org), agrees that the media attention given to vegetarian and vegan diets has increased due to books like Skinny Bitch, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and, she adds, Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable ,Miracle: A Year of Food Life.  “These books have pushed people to consider what they are eating. They call attention to the problems with the food supply, especially concerning animals,” Lanou tells demo dirt.

 

Like Shapiro, Lanou cites environmental concerns as another contributor to the rise in vegetarianism. “People want to eat green. One of the best ways to protect the environment is to eat lower on the food chain, that is, eating more plants than animals. So, people want to eat environmentally friendly, and people understand the health benefits,” Lanou, who was a top consultant for Skinny Bitch, explains.

 

Such awareness of the health benefits, Lanou explains, is partially due to a recent well-publicized study examining post-menopausal women and weight loss. The study found that when women followed a vegan diet that did not involve calorie restriction, they lost more weight than women who followed the standard, traditional lowfat diet.

 

“This was surprising. It showed that people following a diet based on plant foods could land at a healthier weight without really trying,” Lanou, who is also assistant professor of health and wellness at the University of North Carolina-Asheville, says. “This demonstrated a shift away from the high-protein diet, which you can follow if you are a vegetarian or a vegan, but would be very hard to do.”

 

Another study, which found that a vegan diet was more effective in treating and managing diabetes than the standard "best practice" diet for diabetics, also made headlines, Lanou adds, but notes that "while there is increased recognition of the research, it is not just these two studies" which have influenced people to change their habits. "More and more people are understanding that to increase quality of life, and to decrease risk of chronic disease, a diet of fruit, vegetables, grains and legumes is most beneficial," she explains.

 

For longtime vegan, investigative journalist Jane Velez-Mitchell, animal welfare was her chief reason for embracing the lifestyle. “The average person, if you consider all the chicken everyone eats, is involved in the death of 200 animals a year,” she tells demo dirt. “Put yourself in a room, surrounded by 200 animals, and think about all the lives you could save, how happy that would make you. Stop making your body a graveyard, and allow those 200 animals to live.”

 

“I really urge Americans, look into the eyes of your dog or cat and visualize a cow or a pig. Expand your compassion to farm animals. They are just like your pets. Pigs have as high an IQ as dogs or higher,” Velez-Mitchell explains. 

 

Having been raised a pescetarian, Velez-Mitchell made the decision to go vegan ten years ago, when someone described dairy to her as “liquid meat.” The choice to go vegan changed her for the better, Velez-Mitchell tells demo dirt. “My life took off. My energy level catapulted. All sorts of problems that I had been having, like sinus problems, disappeared and I felt lighter,” she says.

 

She credits increasing awareness about health as one reason for the mass move toward vegetarianism. “More and more people are becoming vegetarian and vegan because they need to do something to get healthier. We have an obesity crisis in this country and it is an epidemic. The rise of obesity parallels the rise of fast food,” Velez-Mitchell contends. “The centerpiece of fast food is meat and dairy: hamburgers, milkshakes and cheese. Before the advent of fast food in the mid-50s Americans made a lot of vegetable dishes. They ate lots of vegetables with a little piece of meat. And on Fridays, a lot of people didn’t eat meat at all.”

 

“We began becoming fatter with more consumption of fast food which is based on meat and dairy. You don’t go into a fast food joint and get Brussels sprouts,” she adds. “And the fastest food of all? An apple—nature’s fast food.”

 

Clinical nutritionist Thomas Von Ohlen, MS, NC agrees that there are many health benefits to reducing the intake of animal products, especially dairy and red meat. “Enough people are sick and tired of being sick and tired,” he tells demo dirt. “They are seeking out holistic health care practitioners and in turn these practitioners are educating the public. Now people are educated, and say 'I do want something better for my body.'”

 

Von Ohlen also mentions animal cruelty as a factor, citing the HSUS investigative report. “There are much more widespread methods to finding out what’s going on with these poor animals and how they’re being treated. If you go on the Internet you can see the video of the horrible dairy cow abuse that recently made news,” Von Ohlen says.

 

Socially, consciousness has been raised. “Right now we are in a movement where things are so extreme: war and gas, the green movement, global warming. What are we putting our life and love into? How are they mistreating the animals? Why put it into my system?” he explains.

 

Like Freeman, Von Ohlen names the mom culture’s concern with children’s health. “There is more awareness of what’s going into our food. So many people have kids in their house and they are starting to see a correlation between mucus production, bacterial and viral sinus infections, tonsillitis, swelling in the lymphatic nodes in the throat, and the consumption of dairy products. Many people have stopped the inflow of dairy products with their children and have seen the significant improvement in their health,” Von Ohlen, who himself eats dairy-free, explains.

 

As for meat, says the nutritionist, “You don’t need red meat, period. As for pork, it is not the ‘other white meat.’”

 

The benefits go beyond physical health, Velez-Mitchell maintains. “This is a spiritual shift. Every day I wake up and I say to myself, ‘I am a winner because I will go through this day and no creature has to die for me to live.’ And that’s my definition of being a winner.”

 

For more information on the Humane Society of the United States, or to make a donation, go to www.hsus.org.