The many benefits of becoming a vegetarian are often repeated again and again: It’s useful for weight management, decreases your carbon footprint and improves your nutrition levels.

Tuesday marks World Vegetarian Day, which kicks off Vegetarian Awareness Month, and Syracuse University is providing campus programs to help students and faculty participate in the month’s initiative.

Healthy Monday promotes “Meatless Mondays” in the dining halls across campus, aiming to push students out of their dietary comfort zones. In addition, this Wednesday, the Syracuse Animal Rights Organization will hold its World Farmed Animals Day event at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, where it plans on handing out free Tofurky vegan sandwiches as well as information about how students can take action against factory farming and go vegan.

But whether you’re planning on just picking up a few more veggies or going completely vegan, keep in mind there are various types of vegetarian diets, including pescatarian, lacto-ovo and lacto.

Going pescatarian is one of the mildest forms of vegetarianism, second to simply incorporating more vegetables into your daily diet. Pescatarians ban all forms of meat with the exception of fish. It’s a steppingstone between an omnivore and vegetarian diet.

Jane Uzcategui, a nutrition science and dietetics instructor in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, said some people choose to become pescatarian because fish contain valuable nutrients such as Omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin B12, among others, which reduce the chances of getting many chronic diseases like heart disease and certain types of cancer. However, a diet consisting of a variety of fish is important to avoid unhealthy levels of heavy metal contaminants, which are found in certain types of fish.

Another option is becoming a lacto-ovo vegetarian or lacto vegetarian. As the name suggests, a lacto-ovo vegetarian eats eggs while a lacto vegetarian does not. Both, however, do consume dairy products.

The deepest form of vegetarianism is going vegan. These dieters typically choose to neither eat nor use animal products while cooking. Choosing to go vegan takes time, regardless of what sort of diet you currently have.

“With any diet, you need to eat a variety of foods so you’re not just eating broccoli or potato chips,” said Amber Canavan, president of the Syracuse Animal Rights Organization (SARO) and ESF environmental studies senior. “But with going vegetarian or going vegan, you’re generally eating a lot more healthier food anyways. And even if you eat meat, you should be planning your diet anyway.“

Uzcategui recommends that those on a budget who are looking to go vegetarian actively search for sales on fruits and vegetables and purchase whatever is in season. In addition, she’s an advocate for frozen fruits and vegetables.

“Fruits and vegetables tend to be expensive,” Uzcategui said. “[But if you] buy frozen, it’s a very good, healthy alternative that you can have in your freezer and you don’t have as much waste since you only take out what you need.”

Students who are planning to go vegan, or even vegetarian, can utilize vegsyracuse.com, a website created by SARO that focuses on giving students and the local Syracuse community a guide to local vegetarian, vegan or vegetarian/vegan-friendly restaurants. Canavan said the website makes it easier for people to start adding vegetarian foods into their diets.

Published on October 1, 2013 at 12:20 am

Contact Margaret: mglin@syr.edu