If I look back a few years ago, I remember having known someone who turned into an organic raw vegan diet. For me, back then, the term was eccentric and even without any logic. What was that about? Eating only vegetables that were raw and only organic? Yes, I admit, cow’s mil has never been my favorite option for the morning’s cereal, but I didn’t imagine either choosing a ‘plant-based’ hamburger pattie.
Under the banner of climate change, animal suffering, or overexploitation of the sea -just to mention a few causes-, our dishes have reached an incredible amount of options that just ten years ago that those of us who try to have a balanced diet would have imagined without leaving behind animal-based products. And, if Alain Passard was the first accoladed chef to offer a fully vegetarian menu at his well-reputed restaurant Arpège 20 years ago, the eco is just starting to be mainstreamed in spruced up places such as Eleven Madison Park in New York, whose latest menu is 100% vegan or Normade Veggie in the city of Tijuana in Baja, Mexico, a place which also wants to have a smaller environmental footprint and therefore serves everything in banana leaves; a marvelous practice that many could adopt and which is not exclusive for ‘plantivores’.
The U.S. has always been the most popular neck of the woods for hamburgers, BBQ, and grilled steaks. However, in April, 2021, Sentient Media, a San Francisco-based journalism NGO in the United States of America, in its effort to create transparency around the role of animals in our daily life reported finding a decrease in the country’s “meat eaters” from 85% in 2019 to 71% in 2021. And even when the number of vegans is still unknown, they did find a 300% increase in the population following this regime between 2004 and 2019.
Evidently, this trend is not exclusive of the United States. Every country has its own rhythm. However, it is nowadays undeniable that there is more interest to adopt lifestyles favoring vegetables as well as plant-based proteins. Also, in-between steps such as the flexitarian diet have arisen. The objective of this regime is to favor vegetables, but be flexible, and every so often be open to eating fish, eggs, and some dairy and not feel guilty about it.
