“What should I eat?” You have “gone vegetarian” and now you don’t know what you can eat…the choices are rather limited in the American cuisine. One simple answer—look to other cultures for a wider variety of choices. Most American fare, such as hot dogs, hamburgers, steaks, etc; do not offer a wide variety for the vegetarian. Most restaurants offer a few vegetarian options, such as macaroni and cheese, salad, some soups, and maybe they might take out meat from a former meat dish. But then, you may never be sure that what you are getting is totally meatless…

Before I met my husband, I really didn’t like foods from other cultures. That was mostly because my parents didn’t eat foods from other cultures, and I only grew up with typical American fare. (Of course, this was fine, because we all ate meat, and that is, essentially, what constitutes the American diet.) After I met my husband, who is a vegetarian from birth, he started introducing me to different cultures, and I saw that though other cultures ate meat too, it was with way less frequency than Americans. We started eating Chinese food, Greek, Italian, Thai, etc. And would you believe—I actually liked it? Different cultures can offer the vegetarian so much more than American cuisine, and it offers the variety that you wouldn’t get with just one culture.

So, what cultures are you interested in? If you want to eat a nutritionally sound diet from other cultures, you can view the different food pyramids from different cultures. If you ignore the meat, and replace that with tofu, beans, nuts, and other protein sources, then the pyramid should be complete.

But what if you have kids and they still want those chicken nuggets? Make eating from different cultures fun—in other words, besides just “making” them eat culturally diverse foods, show them what other cultures are like in other ways. Create activities according to their age and development stage. For example, if you have preschoolers, they like to know what kids do for fun “over there”. Find games that children play, show them what other kids wear, etc. For kids in school, teach them a little more, like where the country is on the globe, for example. Make it fun, and your kids may not even notice they are actually eating culturally diverse food.

Do you actually give up something when you give up meat? Well, you are giving up diseases that animals have, hormone injected food, and the possible threat of the mad cow disease. What are you gaining? Freedom! Freedom from risk of disease, freedom from the extra fat and cholesterol, and extra calories, and freedom to create something you never even though possible. Remember though, to eat a well balanced diet to get the vitamins and minerals your body needs. And have fun already!