Veggie Trend Captures Overweight, Underfunded Americans

Vegetarianism is getting enough attention lately that it may become the next bastion of the environmental movement. A Harris poll in December found that five percent of the country is fully vegetarian, eating no meat, fish or poultry. But 33 percent are eating vegetarian a significant amount of the time. The increase since 2008 when only 3.2 percent of American adults were vegetarian demonstrates that the practice is on the rise.

Forty-seven percent of non-vegetarian Americans were trying to reduce their red meat consumption as of last year, USA Today reported. They seem to have succeeded. USDA projects a sharp drop in domestic meat consumption in 2012, following on progressive declines from the past few years, Pork Network said. USDA figures American meat consumption in 2012 will be down 12.2 percent from five years earlier. But as positive as that news is for the pro-vegetarian movement, it counters international trends where meat consumption is increasing. That's largely because of the tendency of residents of developing countries to up their meat consumption as their incomes rise.

Several factors may be contributing to this new American trend toward vegetarianism:

* Meatless Mondays has publicized the health benefits of reducing meat consumption. Going meatless once a week can reduce a person's chances of getting cancer, heart disease or diabetes, it says. It also helps to ward off obesity. Besides the alliteration, making Monday the meatless day sets a trend for the upcoming week, the group says, relying on research showing that behaviors initiated on Mondays are more likely than those begun on other days to be maintained during the week.

* Celebrities have drawn positive attention to the humane aspects of the vegetarian lifestyle. One example is Natalie Portman who is in the early stages of turning the book Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer, into a movie, according to Ecorazzi. Portman cites the book as the inspiration behind her own decision to become a vegetarian. Eating Animals depicts the journey of a new father choosing to commit to vegetarianism after deep contemplation that included visits to factory farms and deconstruction of childhood food memories.

* A recent review of 87 studies shows a vegetarian diet to promote weight loss, Science Blog says. Independent of exercise and calorie-counting, a vegetarian diet will produce one pound weight loss per week.

* The Chicago Tribune reported in December that the down economy is also influencing the trend toward lower-cost vegetarianism.