Local vegetarians discuss food options

Oct. 1 is World Vegetarian Day, the kickoff of Vegetarian Awareness Month. An annual celebration established by the North American Vegetarian Society in 1977, World Vegetarian Day was recognized by the International Vegetarian Union in 1978 to promote the life-enhancing possibilities of plant-based diets. It encourages meat-eaters to try going vegetarian for at least one day.

Photo by Ryan Morrill

More and more people these days are beginning to show concern for the types of foods they eat. According to NAVS, a number of highly esteemed health organizations, such as the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society and the World Health Organization, as well as many doctors and dieticians, recommend reducing the consumption of animal protein and saturated fat, which are profuse in meat, and cholesterol, found only in meat and other animal products. Many health complications have been associated with a diet high in animal products, such as cardiovascular diseases, including heart attack and stroke, which are the primary causes of death for both men and women in the United States, diabetes and several different cancers.

Rob Ramos, co-owner with his wife Lauren Ramos, of Living on the Veg, a vegan cuisine restaurant in Beach Haven Gardens, has been maintaining a vegetarian diet for nearly 20 years. He said it was for health reasons that he gave up eating red meat during his senior year of high school. But it wasn’t until a few years later that he decided eating meat was a moral issue and stopped eating all types of meat, including poultry and fish.

Living on the Veg is a classified vegan restaurant. Except for minimal amounts of honey found in some of the breads and wraps served with sandwiches, no animal products, including meat, dairy or eggs are offered on the menu. Soy derivatives such as tofu and tempeh, beans and seitan, made from wheat gluten, are common animal product substitutes found on the restaurant’s list of options. Surprisingly, Ramos said more than half of the restaurant’s customers are meat eaters.

“We started the restaurant for vegans and vegetarians that either vacation on Long Beach Island or live locally because years ago, the closest vegetarian restaurant was all the way in Belmar. But even to this day I’d say 70 percent of our customers aren’t even vegetarians. I think they just like having the option to eat something different, which is pretty cool. And over the years people have become more conscious of what they’re putting in their body. So I think this restaurant here is kind of like a no-brainer for people; it just makes sense to try something a little bit different,” he added.

Photo by Ryan Morrill

During the off-season, Living on the Veg offers a “Meatless Monday” special. Its purpose is to encourage people to cut meat out of at least one meal during the week. Ramos calls it “a step in the right direction.”

Since becoming vegetarian, Ramos said he hasn’t experienced any heartburn or indigestion, his energy levels are higher and he rarely gets sick.

“Basically, your body puts out what you put in,” he explained. “Vegetarian food is lighter and easier to digest. When you’re done eating, you feel satisfied, and you’re ready to do things. You don’t have to take a nap. It makes such a difference. It’s crazy, but it makes a lot of sense,” he added.

Mike Greenblatt, co-owner with his wife, Becky Tarditi, of Pangaea Naturals Health Food Market, located in Beach Haven West, said he has been eating a vegan diet for at least 20 years. Referring to it as a “clean” diet, he said he doesn’t need to worry about supplementing with vitamins because he gets all the nutrients he needs from eating the local, certified organic produce carried in-store, as well as from other essential foods such as whole grains, nuts and beans.

“Sometimes people worry about getting enough protein, but you get protein from a lot of different stuff, not just meat,” said Greenblatt. “Leafy greens have a lot of protein. Even peas are a big source of protein. A lot of people use soy and tofu and tempeh and a lot of products that are processed from soy. I get a lot of protein from nuts, seeds and from beans.

“I don’t eat a lot of soy because soy has some negative side effects, especially in women. It can cause an imbalance of hormones in your body. So you have to be careful about the amount of soy you consume. Even during the hippie days when I was a vegan, when there wasn’t even a name for this kind of diet, I was mainly eating rice and vegetables. But soy wasn’t a big part of my diet. It’s not always necessary,” he remarked.

Photo by Ryan Morrill 

Pangaea caters to all types of vegetarians, including lacto ovo vegetarians, whose diet excludes meat, fish and poultry but includes dairy products and eggs; ovo vegetarians, who eat dairy products such as milk, yogurt and cheese, but exclude meat, fish, poultry, eggs and any foods made with eggs; pescetarians, who omit all meat except fish; vegans, who abstain from all animal products and byproducts, including those in clothing and accessories; and raw vegans, whose diet consists of unprocessed vegan foods that have not been heated above 115 degrees Fahrenheit so as not to have lost a significant amount of nutritional value.

A Pangaea employee, Alexandra Dunne, said she stopped eating meat almost a year ago. Influenced by friends and family members, she said she realized how adverse the effects of eating too much meat are on the body, as well as the ill effects of factory farming on the environment, the population and the animals themselves.

“I also had the influence of my uncle, who’s been a vegetarian for 40-something years. He made me see how worthless it is to have all of those farms devoted to growing food for the cows,” she said. “If my facts are correct, we have more cows in this country than we do humans, and that contributes greatly to the methane gas problem. When you start doing the research, you just learn more and more, and it supports what you’re doing. You feel better and cleaner, and karmically more comfortable,” she said.


This article was published in The SandPaper.