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The Indiana Daily Student

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Bloomington vegan community blossoms

entLaughingPlanet

By Ashley Jenkins
ashmjenk@indiana.edu

For some, veganism isn’t just a diet. It’s also a way of life.

And it’s a lifestyle Bloomington accommodates well.

“This town is like a little oasis for alternative lifestyles,” Megan Lamar, an employee at vegan-friendly restaurant and juice bar Roots on the Square, said. “The general culture here tends to embrace lifestyles that are really different, so it makes sense that veganism is thriving here.”

Roots, where anything on the menu is either originally vegan or can be made vegan, is just one among many restaurants in town where people can go to find a list full of animal-free meals.

The Owlery, located on Sixth Street, has an entirely vegetarian menu and offers items that are always vegan.

A tofu-chicken sandwich is their most popular item, and they also serve a classic, vegan-friendly grilled cheese. For dessert, vegan cake is available in adventurous flavors like lavender, licorice or pistachio.

“Eating like this just feels right,” Toby Foster, owner of The Owlery, said. “You feel better and it’s cruelty-free.”

Keir Haley, an employee at local restaurant Laughing Planet, claimed a similar philosophy behind his new-found veganism.

“It’s about morals and health,” said Haley, who became vegan a year and a half ago. “It makes me happy not having to hurt my food. To taste something good for 30 seconds and know it was harmed, it’s just not worth it.”

He said the vegan options at Laughing Planet make it easier for him to maintain the habit, but he’s not sure if vegan-friendly restaurants in Bloomington want to generate good habits, or a good profit.

“I honestly think being vegan is becoming a fad,” he said. “I think people caught onto that, and they want to make money off of it.”

But it’s not as profitable as some might have hoped. Laughing Planet has added pork and beef to its menu since it opened, and Roots has started to offer meat options as well.

“Unfortunately, it’s just easier to get a vegan to come to a non-vegan restaurant than it is to get a meat-eater to come to a vegan place,” Lamar said.

Lamar said profits at Roots have gone up since they started selling meat. Some vegans, she said, raised concern, but others were thankful that they were finally able to bring meat-eating friends and family.

Veganism may have even lost some practitioners when the meat industry in Bloomington got started and improved, according to Heather Beery, manager of Bloomingfoods on Kirkwood Avenue.

“Once there was local, hormone-free meat available, I think a lot of vegetarians and some vegans may have tried eating it again,” Beery said.

But Lamar, who is neither vegan nor vegetarian, said she wished other people who ate meat were more willing to try an animal-free diet, even if it’s just for a week, like she did.

As a senior at Indiana University, Lamar gave up meat for Lent her freshman year. She ended up finding plenty of vegetarian and vegan food on campus, and when she got a job at Roots, she learned to love more vegan dishes.

“It’s just sad that there’s the stigma that vegans just eat nuts and twigs because there really are some great things to try,” Lamar said. “It’s easy for a vegan to be malnourished, but if you educate yourself, you can find nourishment that you would normally get from meat in other places.”

Former IU student Lara Head said she agreed.

“There are a lot of people who cut all animal products out of their diet and don’t replace it with anything, like tofu,” Head said. “So they are extremely unhealthy. That gives vegetarians and vegans a bad rap.”

But Head, who follows a mostly vegan diet, doesn’t necessarily do so because she wants to. She has Celiac disease, which makes her intolerant to gluten — a protein found in wheat, rye and barley-based foods. Eating vegan helps her stay gluten-free because the two diets are similar.

But she said sometimes finding the right food can still be a struggle, and it differs across cultures.

“In America, it is definitely harder to eat gluten-free vegan because even a lot of vegan things are gluten-based,” she said.

That includes a dish called seitan, a meat substitute made entirely from wheat gluten. In the form of a breaded and fried mock-tenderloin, seitan is often in high demand at Roots.

But Head has spent the last semester studying in Thailand, where she said a gluten-free, vegan diet was much easier to maintain.

“Being in Thailand has made my gluten-free veg diet way easier because everything is rice-based,” she said. “So it’s much easier to find food that I can eat, and I won’t get sick from it.”

For those missing out on precious proteins, Lamar said peanut butter and beans are an easy source of protein for vegans, but being vegan gets even easier in the summer.

“There’s more produce and better quality available this time of year,” she said. “So it’s a good time to try it.”

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