Helen Peacocke extols the virtues of meat-free diets - and the taste

If I’d been asked to choose the date for a national vegetarian week, I think I would have selected one of the first weeks of June, which is the point in the year when Spring merges into summer and so many fruits and vegetables begin to appear.

Instead the Vegetarian Society has gone for May 19-25, which I feel is a couple of weeks too early. However what’s a couple of weeks among friends, particularly when asparagus is at its peak. Besides, the North American Vegetarian Society have declared the seven days from October 1-7 the World Vegetarian Week which offers us all another chance to celebrate vegetarian cuisine.

The Vegetarian Society was founded in 1847, though meat-free diets go back to the days of the ancient Greeks and beyond. Many famous people gave up eating the flesh of animals centuries before the society made its debut, including Pythagoras, Leonardo de Vinci, George Bernard Shaw, Leo Tolstoy, Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein. Some include Adolf Hitler on this list, but that fact is frequently disputed.

The society classify vegetarians as those who live on a diet of grains, pulses, nuts, seeds, vegetables and fruits, with or without, the addition of dairy products. A vegetarian does not eat any meat, game, fish, shellfish or products of slaughter.

However, here are different types of vegetarian. Lacto-ovo vegetarians, who include both dairy products and eggs in their diets, are the most common vegetarians. Lacto-vegetarians eat dairy products but avoid eggs and vegans — the strictest of all — avoid dairy products, eggs or any other products that are derived from animals. There are also some people who describe themselves as fish-vegetarians, which means they avoid meat but do accept fish.

There are several reasons why people become vegetarian. I have friends who changed their diets after watching an Italian farmer dragging his pig uphill to the slaughter house. They say it was obvious that the distressed animal appeared to sense his forthcoming fate and pathetically fought against it. Neither of them have eaten meat since. Others choose vegetarian diet for health reasons, seeing it as a well-balanced diet founded on those fruit and vegetables we are advised to eat.

Oxford Mail:

Fruit, nuts and vegetables provide essential vitamins and protein

Many are distressed by the sheer magnitude of meat eating — each year we slaughter two million cattle, eight million pigs, nine million sheep, 750 million birds and 650 tons of fish for human consumption in the UK, and that does not include imported meat we consume. A meat-free diet can be full of protein. Pulses such as peas, beans, lentils are a great source of protein, so are peanuts which contain many of the minerals we need to keep us healthy such as iron, zinc and calcium.

Free range eggs, milk, yoghurt and cheese as well as nuts and seeds contribute to a person’s protein intake too and soya projects and Quorn are also excellent sources of protein.

Essential fats the body needs are available in nuts and seeds, particularly walnuts, linseed and rapeseed as well omega-enriched eggs. Pasta, stir-fry dishes, curries, also vegetable pies and soufflés . . . all make extremely tasty substitutes for meat and fish.

For inspiration, if embarking on a vegetarian lifestyle, go to the Vegetar-ian Society’s website www.vegsoc.org where you will discover a wealth of tasty recipes celebrating all that’s good about fruit and vegetables, which are easy to cook. I am not a vegetarian but I am eating less and less meat these days and am really enjoying the many meat-free meals I now prepare.