Whether or not Oprah had anything to do with it, more U.S. diets are meat-free these days. According to the latest poll by Baltimore-based Vegetarian Resource Group, 2.5 percent of U.S. residents are vegetarians, an increase of nearly 1.5 percent since 1997. Asians are most partial to the leafy green stuff – 8.1 percent avoid meat. Blacks at 3.5 percent and whites at 1.6 percent follow at a considerable distance. Women shun meat more often than men, with 3.2 percent steering clear versus just 1.7 percent of guys. Residents of the East (3.5 percent) and West (4.2 percent) clearly outpace the rest of the nation when it comes to going veggie. Vegetarians in the South and Midwest comprise just 1.8 percent and 1.3 percent of their region’s populations, respectively.
Network
