More and more people are cooking and eating vegetarian food without becoming fully fledged vegetarians, writes Sylvia Thompson.
There was a time when the majority of people who became vegetarian did so as a reaction to intensive farming practices. Animal rights activists were almost by definition vegetarian.
However, in the past 10 years or so, there has been a huge growth of interest in eating and cooking vegetarian foods and some people are now becoming vegetarian for the benefit of their individual health as well as the environment at large.
"People are vegetarian at any age now whilst it used to be an under-40s thing," says Ita West, member of the Vegetarian Society of Ireland.
"It's so easy to be a vegetarian nowadays as almost every restaurant and cafe has vegetarian options and there is a large choice of frozen and dried vegetarian foods in supermarkets and health food stores."
According to West, however, university students still represent the largest group of people who are actively becoming vegetarian. "Many students are concerned about issues such as land for food production and if you consider that it takes seven kilos of grain to produce one kilo of beef, you realise why if everyone was vegetarian, we could feed five times the population of the world. So I tell them that the only way to save the planet is to stop eating meat."
So, yes, although more eco-sounding, the political messages are still part of organisations such as the Vegetarian Society of Ireland (which has about 400 members).
However, there is a much wider group of people who have simply turned to vegetarian cuisine in search of better physical health and tasty food. The question is are they really vegetarian?
Dennis Cotter runs the popular vegetarian restaurant, Café Paradiso in Cork city. Although a vegetarian himself, he says most of his customers are not exclusively vegetarian.
"It has become culturally acceptable to not eat meat all of the time and people who come here don't miss anything from their plate by eating vegetarian food," he says. "The vegetarians who come are very glad to see an entire menu dedicated to vegetarian food but there are fewer of them."
Cotter, who is also the author of vegetarian cookbooks, says that what interests him most is cooking locally grown fresh food - in particular vegetables. He is less interested in the current trend towards raw and sprouted foods.
"Personally, I think the interest in raw and sprouted vegetables and pulses is too extreme. It's part of a narcissistic interest in health which can be obsessive and possibly not very healthy at all."
He adds, "I believe some elements of the health food industry are lacking in one of the most important elements of food which is pleasure. If you take pleasure from what you are eating, you will feed yourself well," he says.
Lia de Lancey is a nutritional therapist who is also a vegan (ie, someone who doesn't eat any animal produce or their derivatives which means no eggs, milk, cheeses, etc)
She says, "I was a vegetarian first and then became a vegan about six years ago. In the last year or so, I started eating a lot more raw food and now about 95 per cent of my food is raw. My body functions better on raw food. I've better energy levels and a better sense of well-being."
In her work as a nutritional therapist, she says that vegetables and fruit are still the things that are most lacking in people's diets. "I don't expect people to become vegetarians but I do suggest that they start eating more meals based on plant foods and encourage them to have one vegetarian meal a day or a few vegetarian days a week, depending on the person."
Lia de Lancey says that in general people are much more interested in vegetarian food but many don't take the final step to becoming a vegetarian. "I see people cutting out red meat and pork but they will continue to eat fish and chicken," she says.
Nutritionally speaking, there are still concerns among dietitians that new converts to vegetarianism may not get enough protein in their diets.
"I think the protein issue has been overrated," says Cotter, who believes many people are eating far too much protein.
"I think if protein is the main focus of your diet, you are more likely to be lacking something than if, say, fresh green vegetables are the main focus of your diet," he says. "If you are eating a wide range of fresh, good quality foods, your diet will be naturally balanced nutritionally."