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Saturday Morning News

The Benefits of Living Vegetarian

Aired March 17, 2001 - 9:14 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Some people believe that concerns about foot-and-mouth disease may prompt people to consider a vegetarian diet. Joining me from Pittsburgh to talk about the vegetarian lifestyle is nutritionist Leslie Bonci. Leslie, thanks for being with us.

LESLIE BONCI, NUTRITIONIST: Good morning.

O'BRIEN: All right. How long have you been a vegetarian, and do you feel good?

BONCI: I feel fabulous, and I've been a vegetarian for almost 25 years, feeling great.

O'BRIEN: And you don't miss those hamburgers, huh?

BONCI: No, I don't miss the hamburgers. And I think people need to realize there's a lot of choices out there as a vegetarian. It can be a great way of living.

O'BRIEN: Well, now, let me -- before we get into that, what prompted you to give up meat? Was there -- is it religious, philosophical, or just you felt it was more healthy?

BONCI: A little bit of the healthy issue and also not really liking it all that much. And realizing that there might be some other things out there that might be a little bit more enjoyable. Those were primarily my reasons.

O'BRIEN: All right, let's start with our premise here. Do you think that there is growing interest in this eating lifestyle, if that's the correct term, as a result of all the problems we're seeing with the cattle herds in Europe?

BONCI: I think that certainly the issues right now about -- concerns about meat supply are prompting people to explore some other options. And vegetarianism has always been popular, but I think now there's another reason, people are looking for what is that alternative that you can put on the plate if you don't want to put meat on your plate?

O'BRIEN: Do you know the numbers, how many people percentage- wise in the U.S. are vegetarians? BONCI: We're looking at the adult population, currently it's somewhere between 6 to 8 percent. The interesting thing is that in children, that number is increasing, especially in teens, more teens that are adopting a vegetarian lifestyle, probably upwards of 12 to 13 percent.

O'BRIEN: Hmm, interesting. All right. So if you're interested in making the move toward a vegetarian diet, it's not always so easy in this country, because we are a country, after all, sort of built around fast food drive-throughs. How do you work around that problem?

BONCI: Well, for instance, even if somebody goes to a fast food restaurant, the one thing you probably need to do is to go in, instead of through the drive-through. But you can always have the hamburger, hold the meat. They can do that, they can give you the lettuce, tomato on there, a piece of cheese if you want it, or not the cheese. We can go to a fast food restaurant that has potatoes with broccoli on it, is always available.

A lot of places have salad bars. And there's lots of things on the salad bars that would be very, very appropriate that don't take a lot of time. And one of my favorites, peanut butter and jelly on bread. That's vegetarian, it tastes great, it's fast.

O'BRIEN: It's one of my favorite foods, as a matter of fact. It's probably the best food there is.

BONCI: It's a great food. But hamburger without the meat, come on, I mean, do you ever get some strange stares in the drive-through? You know, I'll have my hamburger, but could you hold the meat?

BONCI: Well, I think the biggest thing is, it creates a crisis about, How do we charge for that? But, you know, other than that, it's OK. If we don't ever voice that, we're never going to get what we want. And it really is OK to make some options out there. It works, it works to do that.

O'BRIEN: Is there a stigma that you have felt over the years? This is a meat-eating country, after all. You just gave us the numbers. Is there a stigma that you've felt that people think -- look at you like you're -- well, kind of a nuts-and-berries person, you know?

BONCI: Oh, I think that part of that is there. I work with a lot of athletes, and they always get very concerned that I'm going to starve them to death because they're not getting the meat that they need. But I'll tell you that across the board, because it is growing in acceptance, people are more aware of that. And people are seeing the health benefits of people who are vegetarian realizing that the rates of heart disease, the rates of stroke, the rates of cancer are lower, people who are vegetarian tend to be leaner.

So maybe it's not so bad to consider this lifestyle.

O'BRIEN: Is there anything you miss from your meat-eating days? BONCI: No, not at all. And I think one of the concerns people have is, you can't have the -- you -- where will you get the protein? There's a lot of plant-based foods that provide the protein. The goal is, if we're taking the meat off the plate, we put something else on it to replace it.

O'BRIEN: All rightie, then, thank you very much, Leslie Bonci, for giving us some insights into the world of vegetarianism, and we appreciate your joining us on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

BONCI: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Pass the tofu, I guess.

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