Students pass through the lunch line getting steak fingers one day, pepperoni pizza the next, and chicken burgers the day after. Some students though, choose to be more mindful about what they eat. Instead they choose salads, fruits, vegetables, maybe even some nuts, choosing a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle instead.

Whether it’s for cultural purposes, the love of animals, or just for healthy benefits, many people at Gorzycki have gone vegan or vegetarian.
The vegan or vegetarian lifestyle is beneficial because a low-fat diet can reduce the chance of disease and it is proven that vegans and vegetarians live longer than the a person who follows the regular american diet.

The difference between a vegan and vegetarian diet is that vegetarians only cut out meat from their diets whereas vegans cut only any product produced from an animal such as meat, dairy, and eggs.

7th grader Mandy P. decided to go vegan to improve her physical and mental well-being.

“Going vegan was a long process for me. At first, I just cleaned up my diet then once I learned what types of things were in food, I just eliminated what was unnecessary for my body,” Mandy said.

Teacher assistant Julia Payne decided to go vegetarian with her son.

“My advice for people wanting to be vegetarian is to read about the diet and learn more information about food and to just give it a good try,” Payne said.

6th grader Matthew W. is vegetarian as well and has been for 3 years.

“I buy my food sometimes from Whole Foods and I like to eat nuts and tofu as sources of protein,” Matthew said.

Aside from veganism and vegetarianism, there are other diets people can equip such as a pescetarian diet. A pescetarian diet is just like a vegetarian diet except a pescitarian diet allows you to still eat fish

7th grader Emily U. was influenced to become pescitarian by a friend who was as well a pescetarian.

“Being pescetarian has affected my life because it’s now harder to find food that have enough protein to substitute meat,” Emily said.
For more information about vegan and vegetarian diets, go to www.atasteofhealth.org.