Fw: [SoFlaVegans] Asheville leads as vegetarian city

[Guest guest]

Great news about my home town. It's really has grown since I left there in 1972. Asheville was always extraordinarily beautiful seated in the the mountains but now, it's been named the most Vegetarian Friendly City. There are a number of Co-Ops an Orgnic Markets in Asheville now and I never a problem finding organic and healthy food and resturants that cater to Raw when I go home. It's really nice. Check it out if you can especially in the Fall of the year.

Remain Focused and Good Health to You

Elaine

 

 

Asheville leads as vegetarian cityBy Nanci BompeyMay 19, 2009http://www.citizen- times.com/ apps/pbcs. dll/article? AID=/20090519/ LIVINGWELL/ 905190320http://www.citizen- times.com/ apps/pbcs. dll/article? AID=/20090519/ LIVINGWELL/ 905190320 & template= printart[Read comments:http://www.citizen- times.com/ apps/pbcs. dll/section? Category= pluckcomments & key=20090519. citizen-times. B0905190320. article.LIVINGWE LL & s=d ]When Leslie Armstrong

walks around Asheville wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the word “vegan,†she undoubtedly gets stares.But most people don't stop the 53-year-old to ask her what her shirt means or give her strange looks — instead she gets a lot of comments like “right on,†“good for you†or “me, too.â€â€œAsheville is an incredibly vegetarian-friendly town,†said Armstrong, who owns Rosebud Video. “Every restaurant you go to knows what you are talking about when you say vegan. … I haven't been to a restaurant in town that really couldn't accommodate me, and not just accommodate me, but I enjoy what I am getting.â€About 2 percent of adults identified themselves as vegetarian in a 2006 poll by the Vegetarian Resource Group, and that number may be closer to 4 percent today, according to Amy Lanou, assistant professor of health and wellness at UNC Asheville.“I think it is my sense that more young people are choosing

vegetarianism,†she said. “I do think the numbers are increasing.â€Joe Walsh, who runs a local vegetarian support group, ashevilleveg. com, said the percentage of vegetarians in Asheville may be even higher, around 10 percent. The city was named the No. 1 Best Vegetarian-friendly Small City in the United States by GoVeg.com a few years ago, based on its abundance of meat-free restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries and markets.Walsh's group, which hosts events and potlucks, has grown from a handful of people four years ago to more than 400 today, and he said that he knows of members of his group who have chosen to move to Asheville because of its vegetarian-friendly reputation.Ingles Dietitian Leah McGrath said she has seen a recent increase in e-mails and phone calls from customers inquiring about vegetarian and vegan products the supermarkets carry, and that some

stores, especially those in parts of Asheville, now carry many vegan and vegetarian products in response to what people are asking for.“I think there is a convergence of factors,†Lanou said. “Asheville is known as a health center, there are a lot of people concerned about the environment, there is a big arts community — all are communities that will look to vegetarianism as an eating style for various reasons.â€Lanou said another factor driving Asheville's reputation as a vegetarian haven is the city's restaurant scene. Downtown boasts two vegetarian restaurants, Rosetta's Kitchen and Laughing Seed Café, and most of the independent restaurants accommodate vegetarians and vegans easily.Rosetta Star, who opened Rosetta's Kitchen in 2002, said it makes sense that Asheville is known as a vegetarian-friendly town.“One of the things that makes Asheville what it is, is sort of that questioning of the norm,†she

said. “Asheville questions norms all over the place as a community, so it makes sense that food is one place that people would do that.â€It was that alternative base that Laughing Seed Café initially catered to when the vegetarian and vegan restaurant opened in the basement of the YMCA in 1991, said Joe Eckert, the restaurant's co-owner.“We were appealing to the alternative people who were here,†he said. “It was a small number, but they were here and that was who our customer base was.â€Concerns for health, environment, leading causesToday, Eckert said many of the restaurant's patrons are not necessarily vegetarians, but are interested in eating healthier as well as local and organic. Star also said most of the customers coming through her doors are not strict vegetarians and the restaurant has even stopped billing itself as a vegetarian restaurant, preferring to say that it focuses on serving whole

foods.“I think what's happening on a bigger picture is that people are becoming more conscious or aware of vegetarian food as an alternative,†Eckert said.While animal welfare was traditionally the reason for many people to stop eating meat, some people are becoming vegetarians and vegans today for environmental and health concerns.Lanou said many young people are concerned about the impacts of livestock agriculture on the earth.“Even though we have known about it for a long time, it has been brought to the public's attention in a bigger, broader way over the last couple of years,†she said. “That message is trickling down through to people, and people are changing the way they are eating.â€Lanou said for older adults, concerns about health may be a bigger factor in choosing a vegetarian diet. Walsh said many senior citizens who join his group cite health as one reason they decided to eat a plant-based

diet.McGrath said she also is hearing about more people becoming flexetarians, or eating a mainly vegetarian diet with the freedom to eat meat, poultry or fish at times.She said there also may be an economic reason for switching to a plant-based diet: The most expensive item in a shopping cart is often an animal-based protein.“I think more people have that idea in their head that maybe they'll not eat quite as much meat,†she said.Live Simply So ThatOthers May Simply Livehttp://groups. / group/Yoga- With-Nancy/http://groups. / group/SignSoFla/http://groups. / group/SoFlaVegan s/http://groups. / group/SoFlaSchoo ls/