Vegetarianism is the dietary practice of abstaining from all meat, including poultry and fish. Unlike veganism, vegetarianism allows for the consumption of other animal products like dairy and honey. 
Despite the backlash many receive for cutting an “essential” food group out of their diets, most vegetarians are perfectly healthy, getting the same nutrients found in meat, like iron or protein, from alternative sources like soy, legumes and leafy greens.                                                                   
I have been a vegetarian for almost seven years now. For about half of that time, I’ve been an LSU student. In high school, being a vegetarian was easy. I packed my own school lunches and my mom always made sure there were meatless options for dinner. However, when I moved to Baton Rouge, I faced a rude awakening. 
My first year at the University, I lived on campus and depended on the dining halls for almost every meal. I spent most of my time selecting veggies from the salad bar, the one thing I knew for sure would be vegetarian, or pacing back and forth behind the food lines trying to find something that looked relatively healthy and meat-free. 
 The Student Union offered more variety, but the heavy crowds and my limited number of Paw Points made it an infrequent stop in my daily routine. It was often more fun to just go out to eat with friends than to go to the Union or the 459 Commons, but even off campus, my choices were limited.
One of the most beloved campus-adjacent restaurants, Cane’s, became a staple in my friend group, but unfortunately that left me eating just fries or insisting I just wasn’t that hungry to avoid repeating the awkward “I don’t eat meat” conversation.
More recently, however, the University has become more in tune with the needs of its student body, providing more variety and options in its dining halls and even in the Union with the addition of places like Build and Create, which offer plenty of vegetarian and even vegan meals.
The University’s “What’s On The Menu?” section of the on-campus dining webpage has also become an valuable resource for students with dietary restrictions trying to eat on campus. The webpage not only provides the menus for the upcoming days, but also gives details about nutritional value and marks which foods are gluten-free, vegetarian or vegan.
The culture off campus has changed rapidly in the last few years as well. Spots like MJ’s Café, The Dish in White Star Market and Vegan Friendly Foods on Bennington Avenue have opened up, preventing vegans and vegetarians alike from missing out on the dining experience.
The one thing I’ve missed since cutting meat out of my life is my mom’s traditional southern cooking, especially dishes like gumbo, shrimp étouffée and her famous jambalaya. But ever since the first time I walked into Vegan Friendly Foods, that hole in my heart, and in my stomach, has been filled.
If you’re looking to make the switch to vegetarianism, now is the time. Grocery stores like Sprouts and Trader Joe’s are popping up and new developments on and off campus are making it easier to find delicious meat-free meals.
These new places, combined with the environmental and economic benefits of cutting back on meat, make going vegetarian an easier and smarter decision than ever before.