How to become a vegetarian and save money

For ten years, I was vegetarian. Not a strict vegetarian, but vegetarian none the less. And while I am no longer a vegetarian, I still have great respect for people who choose to follow a vegetarian diet.

While living with a homestay family and studying in Taiwan, I adopted a diet that was predominately based on seafood, tofu and vegetables. And fruit – lots of amazing tropical fruit. My homestay family was Buddhist, and like many Taiwanese Buddhists, they have never eaten lamb in their life. They would eat vegetarian food on the 1^st and the 15^th day of the lunar calendar, flocking to specialty vegetarian restaurants. I especially like eating at Taiwanese vegetarian buffet restaurants, where you can select items from a wide range of interesting items on a buffet and then pay for what you selected by weight. This was in part a measure to curb food waste, and so different from the all you can eat philosophy of most buffet banquets.

When I returned to Australia, for a time, I found it difficult to eat red meat. I wasn’t used to the taste, and having adopted many tenements of the Buddhist belief into my life, I wanted to avoid unnecessary killing of animals.

Vegetarianism to help the planet

People have consciously chosen to follow a vegetarian path for religious reasons for thousands of years. Then there was a trend for people following a vegetarian diet for humanistic reasons. More recently, there is a rise of eco-vegetarians – those who follow a vegetarian diet for environmental reasons.

Greta Thunberg, who recently delivered an impassioned plea for action on climate change at the UN, is a committed vegan – for environmental reasons. And she is influencing a whole generation of young people to adopt a vegetarian (including plant-based) diet to reduce our environmental impact.

Eco-vegetarians argue that by reducing the amount of meat they consume, they are helping to reduce carbon emissions. Livestock produces methane gases, and an estimated 18% of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by livestock reared for food (be it meat, butter, cheese or cream).

Many authorities on climate change, including the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), suggest reducing consumption of meat and dairy is important to help mitigate climate change. The IPCC suggests consumers buy less meat, milk, cheese and butter. They also advise people to eat more locally sourced seasonal food – and throw less of it away. According to an Oxford University study, cutting meat and dairy products from your diet could reduce an individual’s carbon footprint from food by two-thirds.

But just choosing to eat plant-based food doesn’t tell the food story about modern agriculture and its impact on the environment. According to Matthew Evans, author of On Eating Meat, animals will inevitably die as part of our food production chains. For instance, mice are poisoned, and ducks are killed to protect crops. And I would add that in some areas, such as much of the region where I live, it is hard to grow crops for food but easy to rear mammals for meat. Evans advocates people still eat meat, but less of it – and instead invest in better quality meat where the animals have been raised under better conditions.

Bulk out your mains

I consider eating more vegetables and legumes, and less red meat, as being the cornerstone of my frugalista diet. I regularly incorporate inexpensive lentils and beans into meals, plus vegetables, to bulk out the meat. (Who hasn’t added zucchini or carrot to a Bolognese sauce to make the mince go further and hide vegetables from children?)

Meat-Free Mondays

I sometimes consciously cook a Meatless Monday dish, although not always. I still have a special love of vegetarian food done well, but I choose to focus on using less meat overall and wasting less.

Funnily enough, the focus on less red meat, more vegetables and legumes is consistent with a Mediterranean diet, which is often advocated as an optimal diet to promote longevity, including by promoting heart health and reducing the likelihood of medical conditions such as dementia.

Take it step by step

I find that for some people, the prospect of becoming vegetarian (or vegan) is scary. So I take an incremental approach of shifting to reduce our red meat overall. My husband Neil, who was raised on a traditional meat and three vegetables English/Australian diet, said he is eating much less red meat than he ever has. And no, that was not a complaint but rather a compliment. He likes my cooking, including this frugal and easy to make chickpea, tomato and pea curry.

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