Thanks to generous donors, in 2025 The Vegetarian Resource Group will be awarding $30,000 in college scholarships! Deadline is FEBRUARY 20, 2025.

We will accept applications postmarked on or before FEBRUARY 20, 2025. Early submission is encouraged.

Applicants will be judged on having shown compassion, courage, and a strong commitment to promoting a peaceful world through a vegetarian (vegan) diet/lifestyle. Payment will be made to the student’s college (U.S. based only). Winners of the scholarships give permission to release their names to the media. Applications and essays become property of The Vegetarian Resource Group. We may ask finalists for more information. Scholarship winners are contacted by e-mail or telephone. Please look at your e-mail.

If you would like to donate to additional scholarships or internships, go to www.vrg.org/donate

Applications

Please click here to download a PDF of the application. However, applicants are not required to use an application form. A neatly typed document containing the information below will also be accepted as a valid application.

Please send application and attachments to [email protected] (Scholarship application and your name in subject line) or mail to The Vegetarian Resource Group, P.O. Box 1463, Baltimore, MD 21203.

If emailing, please put your essay in a separate attachment with your first name and last initial. A PDF or Word document is preferred, but if you send a Google document, make sure permission is given so readers can access it. For more information call (410) 366-8343 or email [email protected].

photo from Rojo’s Mexican Food

The Vegetarian Resource Group maintains an online Guide to Vegan/Vegetarian Restaurants in the USA and Canada. Here are some recent vegan restaurant additions. The entire guide can be found here: www.vrg.org/restaurant

To support the updating of this online restaurant guide, please donate at: www.vrg.org/donate

Here are some new additions to VRG’s guide:

Devil’s Lettuce, 9050 ​West Broad St., Glen Allen, VA 23294

Devil’s Lettuce is a standout restaurant in the grater Richmond metropolitan area, renowned for its rich, flavor-packed vegan comfort food that includes items consistently celebrated as the best meat replacement offerings anywhere nearby. Some particular favorites of both customers and the owner are the Sloppy Mac Wrap and Killer Tofu Toastie. However, the extensive menu showcases many more options, with an inventive blend of cuisines that ranges from Italian and American to Southwestern and Cajun. Such a fusion not only results in delicious dishes but also contributes to an eclectic restaurant culture that sets Devil’s Lettuce apart, encouraging vegans and non-vegans alike to discover how indulgent vegan foods can be.

Feast & Fallow, 305 W. 41st Ave., Vancouver, BC V5Y 2S5 Canada

Offering a comfortable, spacious café setting perfect for catching up with friends or getting some work done, Feast & Fallow aims to feed its community with fresh-baked bread, local coffee, sandwiches, and a Saturday all-day brunch, while also feeding the greater good, with education, advocacy work, and a volunteer program. Individuals who can commit the time can sign up for volunteer shifts and in return will receive training in areas including kitchen preparation and barista skills. The menu varies but prioritizes delicious baked goods, like their sourdough bread, cinnamon buns, and banana bread. Special attention is given to the quality of their coffee and espresso, and for some the coffee alone is enough to make them repeat customers. Oat milk is the default milk in their coffee drinks, but other plant-based milks are available.

Heal Mpls, 4171 N. Lyndale Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55412

Heal Mpls is a self-described faith-based, plant-based café that aims not only to nourish its diners with healthy, delicious food but also to offer a space for the community to gather and socialize. Heal is actually an acronym for “Herbs. Eats. All Love.” With a robust menu offering good-for-you options including smoothies, tacos, and bowls, you will want to visit this community time and again in order to try them all. Some of the most popular dishes include the Holistic Bae Bowl, made with pineapple Caribbean-inspired chickpeas, sautéed collard greens, and fried plantain, and the Fried Oyster Mushrooms, which are served with a choice of any of their six house made sauces (ranch, avocado, nacho, hot, mango habanero, and pesto). Smoothie options include the Tropical Mami, made with mango, pineapple, strawberry, peaches, papaya and an agave drizzle, and you can also build your own smoothie from a variety of fruit and veggie options. The coffee and tea options come with extra boosts, like the Golden Mylk Latte with anti-inflammatory turmeric, black pepper, coconut mylk, and agave, or the Hormonal Bae, which is described as a “maca cacao elixir.” Whether you go for the food and stay for the community or the other way around, Heal Mpls will certainly be able to feed both your body and soul. `

Les Mauvaises Herbes, 585 rue Saint-Jean, Quebec, QC G1R 1P5 Canada

Les Mauvaises Herbes offers a bistronomic experience—bistro foods prepared with gastronomic cooking methods—with an Asian influence. This is probably better understood by sampling their menu, which offers dishes such as a watermelon gazpacho with vegan feta and basil; Korean Pogos (corn dogs) served with a spicy ketchup and vegan Parmesan; and fried gnocchi in a coconut-curry sauce. If you are prioritizing the bar portion over the bistro, you will not be disappointed, with a selection of beers and cocktails, including a Pear Vodka and a Grapefruit Gin. But whether you are there for the food or for the spirits, don’t skip dessert: churros with maple cream.

Rojo’s Mexican Food, 217 James St., Seattle, WA 98104

Rojo’s Mexican Food offers plant-based, classic Mexican dishes made from scratch with in-house salsas, marinades, spice blends, and more. They serve Tacos (corn tortilla), Burritos (flour tortilla or bowl), Chimichangas (deep fried flour tortilla), and Quesadillas, most with rice, beans (refried or regular), salsa, and your choice of plant protein; some come with avocado, “cheese”, cilantro, and or nut-based sour cream which can also be ordered as Sides. Beverages include Aguas frescas, which are always made fresh in-house in seasonal flavors that rotate frequently.

Rico Rico Vegano, 677 Rand Ave., Oakland, CA 94610

Located in north-central Oakland, just across from Eastshore Park (near Lake Park Avenue and MacArthur Freeway), Rico Rico Vegano serves up a wide variety of Mexican fare featuring plant-based proteins (soy chorizo, soy chicken, and seitan-wheat gluten, among others) and veggies such as marinated hibiscus, sautéed zucchini, crispy fried cauliflower, sautéed cactus, and king oyster mushroom. Menu items include tacos and burritos galore, as well as a burrito bowl, salads, quesadillas, and other Mexican standards (rice, beans, chips, salsa, etc.).

Un Solo Sol, 1818 E. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90033

Inspired by reverence for the earth, sustainability, and health, Un Solo Sol creatively blends Latin American, Indian, Mexican, Middle Eastern, and Chinese cuisines. Small Courses/Appetizers include Bowls like organic quinoa, buckwheat, and millet House Porridge with almond milk, and maple or agave syrup, or Kheer–organic brown rice almond milk pudding with raisins, green cardamom, cinnamon, and vanilla. Both come with fresh fruit mix, seeds, and nuts. There’s also Pupusa, organic corn tortilla stuffed with various options including organic black beans and loroco, (an edible flower bud) with curtido (pickled cabbage) and choice of house salsa, Lebanese-style Tabboule with parsley, organic quinoa-millet-buckwheat mix, tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions, lemon juice, and fresh spearmint as well as many Soft Taco choices such as Al pastor made with Shiitake mushroom. Two of several Main Courses are Ghormeh Sabzi Persian herb stew with sautéed parsley, green onions, cilantro, spinach, fenugreek greens, kidney beans, and dried lemon, or Cholay North Indian curried organic chickpeas with tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and various herbs. Both incorporate Portobello mushrooms or organic tofu. Choose from several Salads and Soups such as Nopalitos Salad of pear cactus, tomatoes, onions, and cilantro, Bok Choy Soup, and Pozole soup with hominy (dried corn with a bean-like texture), green leafy vegetables or dried peppers, salsa, spices, and white mushrooms or organic tofu. Sides offer Baked Plantains and many other choices. For Dessert there’s Steamed Sweet Potato with dark brown sugar, Kheer Indian organic brown rice pudding made with almond milk, and Stuffed Baked Plantain with brown sugar or mango jam.  There are some herbal teas, coffee and a few fresh fruit drinks too.

Food As Medicine – Santa Cruz is a premier one-day in-person and virtual conference uniting healthcare professionals, researchers, and experts to delve into the transformative power of plant-based diets.

Date: Sunday, October 20, 2024

Location: Santa Cruz, CA and Virtually

More information: foodasmedicinesantacruz.org

Explore the latest scientific findings on plant-based nutrition, the effects of diet on chronic disease prevention and control, and about designing an optimum plant-based diet for patients and clients in a clinical setting.

Food As Medicine – Santa Cruz includes a slate of presentations from healthcare providers who are experts in the use of food as a tool for healing. Speakers include Dr. Michael Klaper, Dr. Columbus Batiste, and many others. The event also includes opportunities for networking, a resource fair, a delicious whole food plant-based lunch, and a culinary medicine demonstration.

This conference is designed for healthcare professionals, but others with strong interests in nutrition and health are welcome to attend. Adventist Health Ukiah Valley designates this live activity for a maximum of 7.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. The Commission on Dietetic Registration has approved 7.25 CPEU hours for dietitians for this conference.

Are you looking for places to purchase vegan candy and other treats for Halloween? Here’s some online sources that sell vegan goodies with a Halloween theme, as well as items sold in stores:

Lake champlain Chocolates Vegan Salted Caramel Pumpkins, Dark Chocolate Squares, and more.

Natural Candy Store Variety of chocolate, lollipops, and more.

No Whey Chocolate Spooky Kookies, Fear Knot Pretzles, and a wide variety of vegan chocolates that are allergy-friendly as well.

Unreal Variety of bars, cups, and gems.

Yum Earth Organic lollipops, as well as hard candies.

By Neha Vivek, VRG intern

While vegetarian or plant-based diets have long been associated with a lower risk of chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, recent research focuses on how the quality of plant-based diets influences disease risk. In this study, participants were asked to describe their daily diet and a score was given using the number of servings a day from foods categorized as healthy plant foods, unhealthy plant foods, and animal foods. Participants were not explicitly stated to be vegetarian. Healthy plant foods included whole grains, fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices, tea and coffee, legumes, and nuts. Unhealthy plant foods included refined grains, sugar-sweetened beverages, potatoes, deep-fried snacks, sweets/desserts, and coconut. For this study animal foods (dairy, animal fat, eggs, fish/seafood, meat, miscellaneous animal foods, and milk-based desserts) were treated as unhealthy foods when creating the scores.

This study focused on the South Asian community, which has high rates of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease despite a larger portion of the population being vegetarian. The study included 749 individuals of South Asian descent living in the United States between 40 and 84 years old who did not have cardiovascular disease at the beginning of the study. Methods for the study include a food frequency questionnaire with a baseline examination and a five-year follow-up.

The results of this study showed that, overall, diets that were higher in plant foods were associated with lower HbA1c (average blood sugar level over 2-3 months) and HDL cholesterol. It’s also important to consider the healthiness of the diet. Higher scores for healthy plant-based foods correlated with lower levels of insulin resistance (the ability of cells to uptake glucose), inflammation, and body mass index (BMI). In contrast, higher scores for unhealthy plant-based foods were associated with higher triglycerides and lower LDL and HDL cholesterol.

Overall, the results of this study show that, in the South Asian population, eating more foods that are considered to be healthy plant foods was more beneficial in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes than eating more plant foods that are considered to be unhealthy. A healthy plant-based diet includes a variety of whole foods such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, and nuts and seeds.

Sawicki CM, Ren Y, Kanaya AM, et al.Metabolite Profiles of Plant-Based Diets and Cardiometabolic Risk in the Mediators of Atherosclerosis in South Asians Living in America Study. J Nutr. 2024; 154:2501-2513.

Ava from Minnesota said, “Did you know that if humans were killed at the same rate as animals, we’d be extinct within 17 days? This was the startling fact that influenced me to go vegan four years ago, and I haven’t looked back since. My name is Ava and I have been vegetarian my whole life. I am extremely grateful for being raised with this compassionate lifestyle and I can’t help but feel compelled to spread the word to as many people as possible.”

You can watch the video here: https://www.vrg.org/veg_videos.php#ava-muehlbauer-plant-based-diet

Be sure to follow The Vegetarian Resource Group on Instagram: @vegetarianresourcegroup

by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

“Dairy-free” seems to be showing up more commonly on food labels, in some cases it seems to be used instead of “vegan.” What does it mean when a product is labeled “dairy-free”?

Terms such as “dairy-free” or “milk free” or even “vegan” or “vegetarian” are not defined by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). According to the FDA, when claims like these are made, they must be truthful and not misleading.

The FDA recently released results of a study they conducted in which samples of dark chocolate and products containing dark chocolate, all of which were labeled as “dairy-free,” were tested for the presence of cow’s milk. Products tested included chocolate bars, chocolate chips, chocolate chip cookies and chocolate syrup. A total of 210 samples were collected in stores in Pennsylvania and Michigan in 2022 and 2023. Of these, 13 samples, made by three different companies, tested positive for cow’s milk. Names of companies were not released but 1 product was a cookie and the other 12 were chocolate bars. All of the products that tested positive for milk had “dairy-free” on the label and had advisory statements that are supposed to indicate the possible presence of milk to consumers such as “made in a facility that also processes milk.”

The cow’s milk that was detected in the samples could have been due to a labeling error or to cross-contamination from dairy ingredients being produced on the same equipment. FDA met with the three companies whose product or products tested positive. Two companies removed “dairy-free” from the label of their products. The other company agreed to remove “dairy-free” from the label if they could not determine where the milk came from and eliminate the source of milk from their products.

It seems clear that “dairy-free” on a product label is not an absolute guarantee that there is no cow’s milk in that product. The FDA suggests that consumers for whom the presence of dairy is a concern to “contact the manufacturers and inquire about how the product is made, including whether the product is made on equipment dedicated to making dairy-free chocolate, whether the ingredients used are free of milk, and whether the manufacturer tests its products with ‘dairy-free’ claims for the presence of milk.”

To read more about this study see FDA’s Summary Report: FY 22/23 Sample Collection and Analysis of Retail Dairy-Free Dark Chocolate and Chocolate-Containing Products for Milk Allergen.

We received this information: “Riots, activist newspapers, corporations, and the back-to-the-land movement are connected to Maine’s vegetarian history. Reaching back 300 years, Maine’s Untold Vegetarian History features stories of Mainers who changed what vegetarians eat and opened access to plant-based foods. Canned and packaged foods, historic manuscripts, books, menus, maps, and photos illustrate vegetarianism’s deep roots in Maine in this exhibition that explores this untold story.”

PLAN YOUR VISIT mainehistory.org

What: MAINE’S UNTOLD VEGETARIAN HISTORY

When: Opens Tuesday September 10, 2024 through May 17, 2025

Where: Maine Historical Society, 489 Congress Street, Portland, Maine

Cost: Members/kids under 5 FREE / General $10; kids 6-17, $5

Arepas image by Freepik

by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

Folic acid is a synthetic form of folate, an essential vitamin. Folic acid is the form of folate that is used in supplements and fortified foods because it is the form that is most stable. In the 1990s, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began encouraging food manufacturers to add folic acid to ingredients and foods such as enriched breads, enriched flours, enriched pastas, enriched rice, enriched corn meal, and breakfast cereals. Corn masa flour was not included on this list. It wasn’t until 2016 that the FDA allowed corn masa flour to be fortified with folic acid.

Corn masa flour is the main ingredient in foods like corn tortillas, tamales, arepas, gorditas, tostadas, pupusas, and tortilla chips.

Manufacturers are encouraged to add folic acid to commonly eaten staple foods to reduce the risk of having a baby with a major birth defect of the brain or spine called a neural tube defect. The risk of neural tube defects is significantly reduced when people who may become pregnant consume recommended amounts of folic acid (1). Following the voluntary addition of folic acid to grain products in the late 1990s, there was a 28% reduction in neural tube defects in the United States. This translates to about 1,300 fewer births with neural tube defects each year (2).

Despite manufacturers being allowed to add folic acid to corn masa flour, many products do not have folic acid added. A study conducted between 2018 and 2022 in the United States that included 59 corn masa flour products and 476 corn tortilla products found that 8 of the corn masa flour products (14%) and none of the corn tortilla products (0%) contained folic acid. In comparison 79% of wheat flour products and 85% of wheat tortilla products contained folic acid (2). A 2024 supply chain analysis of in the United States found only 5.8% of corn masa products were fortified with folic acid (3).

Currently, in the United States, Hispanic people have the highest risk of having a child with spina bifida, a type of neural tube defect, with a rate of 3.8 births with spina bifida per 10,000 live births in Hispanics compared to 2.73 in Black or African Americans, and 3.09 in non-Hispanic whites (4). Federal agencies define “Hispanic or Latino” as “a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race.” (5) Many reasons are postulated for the higher rate of neural tube defects seen in this population. More widespread fortification of corn masa flour could help pregnant people who use products containing corn masa flour meet recommendations for folic acid.

While vegan diets are commonly high in food folate which is found in plant foods such as green leafy vegetables, dried beans, and oranges, it still appears to be important for those who could become pregnant to get folic acid from fortified foods and/or supplements. You can read more about folic acid in pregnancy here. If you use corn masa flour and products made with corn masa, check that products contain folic acid in their list of ingredients. In addition, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) urges people to take 400 micrograms of folic acid every day, starting at least one month before getting pregnant and continuing during pregnancy, to help prevent neural tube defects (1).

A recent report (2) from Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) provides additional information on corn masa flour fortification and a call to action for stakeholders ranging from manufacturers and retailers to government agencies to clinicians and consumers.

References

1. Centers for Disease Control. Facts About Folic Acid. http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/folicacid/about.html
2. Franco CM, Greenthal E, Center for Science in the Public Interest. Failure to Fortify. 2023. https://www.cspinet.org/sites/default/files/2023-02/CSPI_FailureToFortify_Eng_2023_final.pdf
3. Food Fortification Initiative. Corn Masa in the US: Supply Chain, Market, and Fortification. 2024. https://www.ffinetwork.org/united-states-of-america/?record=231
4. Centers for Disease Control. Spina Bifida. 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/spina-bifida/data/index.html
5. U.S. Census Bureau. About the Hispanic Population and Its Origin. 2022. https://www.census.gov/topics/population/hispanic-origin/about.html