Vegetarians unite for the health of it
It might seem impossible that anyone who calls Buffalo home wouldn’t embrace a bucket of hot wings with pride.
But Patrick Burke, 22, knowingly gave up part of Buffalo culture when he became a vegetarian in 2003.
“You do have to give up chicken wings and you know you have to give up Sahlen’s hot dogs and Chiavetta’s chicken, but at the same time, you don’t have to give up Loganberry. You don’t have to give up Frank’s red hot sauce. You don’t have to give up Weber’s mustard or horseradish,” Burke said.
Burke, who has lived in Williamsville since he was 12 and is a die-hard Sabres fan, first stopped eating meat because several of his friends changed their diets. But he felt the need to step up his own healthfulness a couple years later.
In August 2005, Burke embraced veganism, giving up animal products entirely.
“It was a challenge for myself,” he said. “I could do something better for my body.”
John B. Surgalla, administrator of wnyvegan.org, a Web site dedicated to guiding vegans and vegetarians to friendly area restaurants, faced a more urgent health crisis that compelled him to become a vegan 25 years ago when he was
21. Diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease during his first year of law school at the University at Buffalo, Surgalla took his sister’s recommendation and gave up meat.
“At that point in my life I was healthy,” he said. “I never smoked, and I thought, ‘Oh my God. I’m dealing with cancer.’ I wanted to do what I could proactively so that I wouldn’t simply be subject to treatments from the doctor.”
According to Dr. Sue Havala Hobbs, a member of the editorial advisory board for Vegetarian Times magazine, ceasing to eat animal products for the health benefits is common and smart.
“Vegetarianism is good for what ails you,” Hobbs said in a phone interview. “It’s all-purpose. I don’t think there is any health problem that is not benefited.”
Some of the health benefits inherent in vegetarianism are lower cholesterol levels and weight loss.
However, Hobbs, a registered dietitian and professor at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, identified social challenges as major obstacles for non-meat eaters.
“For people who are new to eating a vegetarian diet, they might not yet have the skills to navigate,” she said. “They want to eat out at a restaurant and have a good time.”
Beyond the salad
Tracy A. Murphy of Cheektowaga has faced challenges because of her diet since becoming a vegetarian a year and a half ago.
“I have to attend work dinners — the place that we frequent is a steak house,” Murphy said. “There really aren’t other options on that menu except a salad.”
Murphy became a vegetarian after learning about the treatment of animals on factory farms. She said that none of her co-workers or friends is a vegetarian, and at times it makes her feel isolated so she decided to look for a group in Buffalo in which she could find community. “I felt very alone,” she said.
So she started the Buffalo Vegetarian Society through meetup.com, a Web site designed to bring people of similar interests together.
The response was immediate.
“People were so thankful that I started a group,” Murphy said. “Every week we would get more and more members.”
Having monthly vegan pot-lucks and nights out at vegetarian restaurants helped alleviate Murphy’s feelings of apprehension.
Surgalla, a Sabres season-ticket holder for a number of years, said he has never had his beliefs challenged by a wing-toting Sabres fan. But Burke, who has been questioned at sporting events about his dietary preference, had to learn to accept the culture he thrusts himself into.
“I deal with it by basically assuming that if I go to a sporting event, I’m not going to be able to eat that much,” Burke said.
He said other fans don’t see him as legitimately engaged.
“I think they see me as not being a real sports fan because I’m not tailgating with beer and hot dogs,” he said. “I have my sort of alternative — bottled water and grilled vegetables. “You have to respect that at least I’m still a Bills fan and a Sabres fan.”
Learning process
Meanwhile, Robert J. Syracuse, owner of the Pizza Plant restaurants, doesn’t think that respect always extends to restaurant patrons with alternative eating habits. President of the WNY Chapter of the New York State Restaurant Association and a member of the board of directors for Buffalo First, Syracuse has been learning about vegetarianism since the 1970s when he met his wife, an “extreme vegetarian,” and took cooking lessons at a vegetarian co-op called the Greenfield Street Restaurant.
“We’ve found that there are a lot of places that think catering to a vegetarian, being sensitive to a vegetarian — those are two different things — is a salad,” Syracuse said. “That’s why we have tofu on the menu. That’s why we make our own soy sausage.”
Pizza Plant has a wide selection of vegetarian and vegan items on the menu — including vegan hot wings — distinctly marked by a carrot next to their description.
Local options
Luckily, Pizza Plant is not the only restaurant openly welcoming vegans and vegetarians. Burke suggested Amy’s Place at 3234 Main St. and both Surgalla and Syracuse mentioned Betty’s Restaurant at 370 Virginia St. All three named Elmwood and Allentown as places with particularly friendly climates for vegans and vegetarians.
Most places are not completely meat-free, but Burke thinks that’s fair.
“I’m not going to bother anybody about their lifestyle if they aren’t going to bother me about mine,” he said. “And I would hope that it would work the opposite way as well.”
Murphy said bigger cities, specifically naming Boston and parts of California, have a much broader array of restaurants and products geared toward vegetarians.
“Wegmans and Tops have vegetarian options but I think that there needs to be more stores, more restaurants,” she said. “But I think we are slowly moving toward that.”
