Barbara Ellington AS THE years go by, more and more people in Jamaica and the world, are adopting a vegetarian lifestyle. Statistics on chronic diseases continue to rise and this year in the United States, an estimated 14 million new cases of cancer be diagnosed. (EarthSave, Healthy People Healthy Planet).
The group further states that in spite of alarming statistics, people still have not grasped the full impact of their food choices.
To this end, the non-profit educational group. EarthSave is celebrating October as Vegetarian Awareness Month, with its "Save Your Health - One Bite at a Time" campaign.
The theme of the campaign suggests eating less animal foods and more plant food during the month and hopefully, always. Medical evidence shows that significantly reducing the consumption of meat and dairy products and focus on fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes, will lead to improved health. The risk of heart disease, colon and lung cancer, diabetes, hypertension and obesity will decrease.
For over 30 years, Yvonne Hope has been a vegetarian. Flair spoke to the dynamic woman whose monthly vegetarian brunches have become a much talked about event.
Yvonne became a vegetarian for health and spiritual reasons. "I believe the body is the temple of the Creator, if you love it, you have to preserve it in terms of a healthy diet and lifestyle which will lead to a healthy mind," she said. They're no meat, fish, eggs or dairy products in this Rasta woman's diet. And when Flair asked how she does it, she shared an example of a day's meal, with ease. Breakfast for Yvonne is usually plantain or some other porridge made with soya milk, with some fresh fruit on the side.
Lunch consists of healthy servings of brown rice with corn run-up and vegetables. Desserts vary; she may have some banana ice cream with raisins and at Christmas, she is able to make a delicious eggless fruit cake.
Both her children and her grandchild are vegetarians and although she has had no formal training in the field, hotels and other organisations consult with her on the subject.
"I love to feed people, I get satisfaction from seeing people enjoy healthy vegetarian food so I read extensively on the subject and experiment," she told Flair.
She said hotels have called her to teach their chefs some of her recipes because of the growing number of vegetarian tourists who are coming to the island.
Yvonne would love to see more Jamaicans adopt the vegetarian lifestyle because, "... we are what we eat and we would be less hostile to each other if we had a healthy outlook on life, she said.
For the last five months the monthly vegetarian brunches at Ashanti Foods have offered an alternative to vegetarians who had nowhere to go on a Sunday when they didn't want to cook.
"I asked a few friends to come and "jam" with me on the day and it has proved successful," she said. To celebrate Vegetarian Awareness Month, October's brunch I will have speakers addressing guests on issues pertaining to fibre.
And why are her dishes so popular? "I use tofu and soy products with a Jamaican flavour, I modify African, American dishes, I use pasta in interesting ways and my signature run-up is special!"
Yvonne is currently working on a Jamaican Vegetarian recipe book and in her spare time she works with children. She will be among the group of Women Working for Transformation when they march from Half-Way-Tree to Liguanea Park next Monday.
"It's time for women to build back the nation from the homes and give man a chance to work beside us so that Jamaica can be safe and comfortable once again," she said.
