Vegetarians are so fabulous in so many ways
I had fun reading this post entitled Vegetarians Are Healthier, Smarter, and Often Richer which looks at some of the statistics available about vegetarians (and other topics) with a critical eye. More specifically, Presh looks at assumptions about causation that are made whenever research shows that vegetarians are smarter or richer or thinner than the general population. It’s an interesting topic to ponder.
What do you think? Does becoming a vegetarian make you smarter? Or do smart people just tend towards vegetarianism? 
Richer, perhaps… since it costs much more to eat healthy it may simply be that you HAVE to be richer to be a Vegetarian.
Smarter? I’m always cautious at statistics that we only hear from someone trying to push their agenda. I would like to see an independent third party or government funded research that supports this. I don’t believe it’s out of the question – I just question it.
This sort of nonsense is what turns people off to being vegetarian.
I don’t buy the “it’s more expensive to be a vegetarian than an omnivore” argument. If you compare organic, whole-food vegetarian cuisine to organic, whole-food omnivore cuisine, I bet the vegetarian version is actually less expensive. And at the other end of the spectrum, crappy vegetarian fast food doesn’t cost more than crappy omnivore fast food. It’s the jump in food quality that leads to the price difference, not the jump from omnivore to vegetarian.
“Vegetables and fruits are rapidly becoming luxury goods.” – NYT (http://tinyurl.com/3bpgr3)
I buy the food in my family and can attest that it’s much more expensive to purchase ‘crappy vegetarian’ than ‘crappy omnivore’… and that doesn’t even take into consideration the shelf-life on the goods.
Trust me – I’m not ‘bashing’ vegetarian… I would love to make the switch. I’m just responding to the notion that ‘vegetarians are richer’. If I had a higher income, I would eat better. That’s just a fact with me.
I totally agree with you Douglas!
I’m 80 percent raw/100 percent vegan and spend a lot of money on quality produce and superfoods (like goji berries, maca, raw cacao nibs, kombucha raw drinks) …
Even if I’m in the mood for vegan junkfood, like a vegan burrito, that will cost almost $5 and a crappy White Castle hamburger is … what, 75 cents?
Keep in mind that even vegan junk food will practically go right through you, making you hungry again in a few hours, while a pizza can fill a person up from lunch until dinner time.
If you want to be vegan (and raw or high raw), you’ll be spending a lot of money, unless you want to look like a skeleton.
I’m not trying to discourage people from becoming vegan, just keep in mind that if you do it right, it is pricey.
Douglas – could you give me an example of products that you’re comparing when you determine that the vegetarian food costs more?
As for shelf life, I would imagine it’s comparable for most convenience foods. Does spam last longer than a can of beans?
A bean burrito at Taco Bell costs less than a dollar. Wouldn’t that be a more analogous comparison to White Castle food than a $5 vegan burrito?
As a ’seasoned veggie chic’, I’m probably going to get my butt kicked in a grocery cost duel with you, Jul. I’ll pass!
OK, but come back if you change your mind.
I probably don’t have a very good idea of what individual non-veg foods cost, since I never buy them. But the idea of finding vegetarian alternatives to meat-containing foods at various price points has me intrigued now…
I wouldn’t trust anything at Taco Bell.
A bean burrito may have cheese or milk in it and I’m sure the wrap is full of preservatives/chemicals … so actually that would count as omni junk food, not vegan junk food.
You’ve motivated me to do the same! Now all I need is a good Vegi weekly meal planner for beginners. Any recommendations?
Thanks for linking to my article, Jul. Some of the comments are interesting about what costs more. I think you can cheaply eat vegetarian or not. Overall, healthy food is going to be what’s expensive. This means health-conscious people who turn vegetarian are going to choose to spend more on food.
Douglas – I think I linked to one a while back. I’ll see if I can find it.
Presh – You’re welcome. Interesting post!
Healthy – I wouldn’t trust anything at White Castle, either.
Jul — I never said I trusted White Castle either. HELLLO, my name is “Healthy” — I don’t eat crap, period. I’m a high raw vegan.
I’m just illustrating the fact that crappy vegan food is still more expensive than crappy omni food.
End of conversation.
I agree with Jul that eating vegetarian is usually cheaper than eating meat when at the same quality level. Restaurants are often a hard place to do a comparison. Are all items on the menu of the same quality? Do they want to make the same amount of money per person regardless of what you order? Do they charge more for the items they don’t serve as often and can’t get bulk discounts on?
The NYTimes article does says that fruits and vegetables are becoming luxury foods. But the article is using them as an example of healthy foods and contrasting them with the cost of unhealthy food, which could be a vegetarian back of nacho chips.
“Healthy” seems to have confused the issue a bit by trying to make the comparison to being vegan rather than being vegetarian. And to me it sounds like when you saying “doing it right” you mean “being healthy”; so we are returning to the argument that eating healthy is what is expensive.
Healthy – I have always wondered, are the refried beans at Taco Bell actually vegetarian? Do they cook them in lard? Doesn’t that constitute as non-veg?
According to the Vegetarian Resource group, there’s plenty of vegan food at Taco Bell:
http://www.vrg.org/fastfoodinfo.htm
As for non-fast-food restaurants, in my experience vegetarian options tend to be cheaper than meat dishes. One exception to this was when I encountered the $1 extra charge to replace hamburgers with veggie burgers in Oregon:
http://www.veggiechic.com/more-for-a-veggie-burger/
Ryan, according to the list Jul provided, I guess Taco Bell beans don’t have lard. That’s rockin’ good news!
Although I don’t eat this crap as a daily diet, I do travel a lot and Taco Bell may be good in a hunger emergency … not many vegan options, but sufficient enough.
I think higher intelligence and vegetarianism are effects of the same cause: exposure and acceptance of new and different ideas.
Douglas – I haven’t been able to find the link I was thinking of, but maybe the following post will help you come up with some affordable veggie meal ideas:
http://www.veggiechic.com/brainstorming-meal-ideas/
vegetarian foods are so much cheap if you are living in a third world country like mine compared with animal based foods. I am a vegan for more than 10 years and saved a lot of food money by being a vegan. Fresh Organic fruits and vegetables are always available all year round in my region where local farmers bring their products everyday direct from the farm. I can even live and survive for 40 days without buying anything just rely from the fruits and vegetables grown in my backyard. Currently I live in dubai, a modern city where veganism is over 300% more expensive than animal based diet. its a real struggle for me.
I find that vegan or non-vegan food are just as expensive as one another. You’ll have expensive food and some cheaper. There are always sales and sometimes its more expensive. It all comes down to the same situation, I find.