Meet the new kid: the flexitarian

Jesse Hayes, 23, has been a vegetarian for six years. The Berklee School of Music student, who is a drummer in a local band, makes sure he eats legumes two or three times a week as well as a lot of greens and other vegetables. Several times a month, Hayes has eggs.

''I was a vegan for a year," says Hayes, but he returned to lacto-ovo vegetarianism. ''I couldn't handle missing the cheese," he says. Sometimes, though it's rare, he even eats fish.

The battle used to be framed as meat-eaters vs. vegetarians, as much an ideological division as one of diet. Meat-eaters couldn't imagine a meal without a slab of animal protein in the center, while the other side went for dried legumes. Today, the lines have blurred: Shopping carts are piled with tofu, soy milk, and veggie burgers, along with chicken breasts and plenty of vegetables. Vegetarian Times, the venerable magazine celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, mentioned its appeal to ''flexitarians" in the preface of next month's issue. So add another word to the list of modern diners. Joining vegetarians are vegans, who don't allow meat, dairy, or eggs into their diet; raw foodists, vegans who will not heat anything above 116 degrees; and now flexitarians, vegetarians who dabble in fish and poultry.

In fact, ''flexitarian" was voted the most useful word of 2003 by the American Dialect Society, which defines it as a ''vegetarian who occasionally eats meat." Val Weaver, editor-in-chief of Vegetarian Times, says that in revamping the magazine, the staff did extensive focus groups and on-line surveys last spring. ''It was very clear that a lot of the readers are not full-time vegetarians," she says. Health, more than animal rights issues, spurred interest in vegetarian recipes and articles, and though the number of committed vegetarians is small in the United States -- estimated at about 2 to 3 percent of the population -- interest in a vegetarian way of eating is wide, she says.

The Vegetarian Resource Group, a nonprofit vegetarian education organization, estimates that 30 to 40 percent of consumers are interested in or buy vegetarian products. And in a 2003 report, the consulting company the Mintel Group estimated that the market for vegetarian foods has grown from about $646 million in 1998 to about $1.6 billion in 2003. ''People are incorporating more veggie type foods," says Charles Stahler, a co-director of Vegetarian Resource. He points out that there's soy milk in every supermarket now and large companies are buying out producers of veggie burgers and other plant- and soy-based foods.

''What's happening is that the foods are becoming mainstream," Stahler says. In the 1970s when about one percent of the population was vegetarian, he says, the question would have been ''why?" when someone announced a shift to vegetarianism. Now, no one is quizzed about a change in diet. ''It's really been an extreme shift," Stahler says.

And while formerly strict vegetarians are adding meat and fish to their menus, another population has embraced vegetarian foods -- this time for health reasons. Stahler says the American Cancer Society ''had as much to do with change" as anyone else. The society recommends five servings of fruit and vegetables a day to help prevent cancer. Younger people, particularly girls, embrace vegetarianism as a ''trend" thing, says Vegetarian Times's Weaver, and that can draw in everyone else at the table. ''The family often becomes flexitarian, and sees it as a healthy thing," she says.

Nutritionists also often advise patients to cut back on meat. This is a recommendation that Roberta Pearle Lamb, a dietitian on the staff of the MGH Weight Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, sometimes makes. ''A mostly vegetarian diet is a good way of maintaining health," Lamb says. Reducing calories and getting antioxidants from more fruits and vegetables are added benefits.

But, she adds, you have to be flexible, and for some people a satisfying diet has to include meat. As a guide, Lamb points to the United States Department of Agriculture food pyramid, which places meats and dairy products toward the top -- meaning fewer servings a day are recommended. ''We try to show them a whole other way of building their plates around plant-based foods when appropriate," she says.

The pace of life today can make a totally vegetarian diet difficult, some nutritionists think. Adding more vegetables to the diet isn't always practical. Joy McCallum, a nutritionist for Healthworks in Cambridge, thinks that dedicated vegetarians are more health conscious than others, and she does see a benefit in meat or fish supplementing a mostly vegetarian diet. ''Today, I think vegetarianism is doable, but difficult if you're not cooking yourself." The fact that many don't grow up learning to cook makes it formidable to figure out how to add plant-based foods to daily menus. McCallum is planning grocery store tours to help her club members develop weekly shopping lists for better nutrition.

College students often become vegetarian for the wrong reasons, says one nutritionist. Ann Litt, who advises college food services and is the author of ''Eating Well on Campus," says that ''young women especially think they'll lose weight by cutting out meat." She has noticed that they fall into the trap of eating ''a lot of pasta and junk" instead of adding beans, tofu, or dairy products to make up for lost protein. ''I think the perfect protein is fish," says the nutritionist, who encourages young people to be open to foods they might not have tried before. ''We can safely say this is first generation of kids who grew up in households where no one cooked," Litt says.

Megan Rising, who is 25 and works for InFact, a public interest organization, says that when she was growing up, she was the only vegetarian in her family. Recently her father had a heart attack and was told to eat free-range chicken, wild salmon, and cut back on beef and pork. ''My Dad wouldn't try tofu," she says. Rising, who eats seafood, would more correctly be called flexitarian, although she hadn't heard the term. ''I grew up on the water" in Connecticut, she says, and seafood was often on the family table. Her parents would have been upset if she avoided all fish.

Rising does cook and can rattle off her grocery list: eggs, spinach, snap peas, baby carrots, seitan (wheat gluten), veggie burgers, yogurt, cottage cheese, and whole grain breads. Although she and co-worker Bryan Hirsch, 24, say they don't follow strict vegan guidelines, both are fascinated by a wedding of vegans Hirsch attended. At the banquet, the major attraction was a mushroom bar.

The vegan movement is growing exponentially, says Joseph Connelly, editor-in-chief of VegNews magazine. Although the number of vegetarians in this country has been stable, he says, ''relatively more of those are becoming vegan." He thinks that's logical as people become aware of where their milk and dairy products come from and what happens to animals after their productive lives end. Since there are more meat- and dairy-free products on the market now, says Connelly, he thinks its easier than ever to follow a vegan plan. He finds the raw food movement has a lot to teach vegans, and that it's ''certainly healthy" to eat as much raw and unprocessed food as possible.

The new interest in meatless menus, for whatever reason, seems welcome. ''Most of us would say that wherever you are in the continuum," says Vegetarian Resources's Stahler, even if it's just eating less red meat, it's good. Weaver says her magazine is ''trying to find a way to fit both health and earth-friendly values."

As a society, we tend to go to the right and the left, says Stahler, and finally end up somewhere in the middle. ''I think eventually everyone will be vegetarian," he predicts. ''But not in my lifetime."