The Lil’ Smokey flew across the elementary school lunchroom and struck Casey Millstein, 2007 graduate, straight in the back of the head. She sat, humiliated. Millstein wasn’t the victim of a rowdy food fight; instead, she was directly and purposefully pegged with a sausage because of her personal choice never to consume meat.

Millstein has been a vegetarian her entire life. She has never intentionally consumed a piece of meat or fish. Her parents raised her and her brother on a plant and dairy-based diet, and Millstein says she has never craved the taste of meat.

Millstein is just one of millions of Americans who have made the conscious decision to avoid meat in their diet. Whether they avoid meat for health, religious, or ethical reasons, for Millstein and many others, the benefits of vegetarianism far outweigh any pain inflicted by a flying hunk of meat. Millstein endured teasing for years in her small town elementary school. ”I would go up to get milk and come back to find turkey in my peanut butter and jelly sandwich,” Millstein says. “I was the only kid in my whole school who was vegetarian they just didn’t understand it.”

Millstein says her family first avoided meat for health reasons. Her father, who ran track for KU, became a vegetarian in college because he noticed he could work out sooner after he ate if he avoided meat. The benefits of a plant-based diet are numerous, says T. Colin Campbell, PhD, professor at Cornell University and nutrition researcher. Campbell, who was raised on a dairy farm milking cows, now avoids dairy and meat entirely, but not for ethical reasons. The research Campbell and others have completed have motivated his diet change.

In general, a vegetarian diet can create good mental and physical health, Campbell says, in addition to preventing heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. New research is suggesting that a plant-based diet can even reverse the effects of heart disease. But diet alone isn’t enough to ensure good health. Campbell adds that regular exercise, adequate water, and getting some sunshine are just as important as eating well for overall well-being.

Other people avoid eating meat for ethical reasons. Natalie Penn, Topeka junior, has been a vegetarian since age 13. Even at a young age, Penn thought it was wrong to eat animals. Now that she is older and more aware of what she thinks are inhumane killing practices, she has decided on an even stricter diet. Several months ago, Penn made the decision to switch to a vegan diet and avoid all dairy products as well. “I recently learned about the percentage of puss that manufacturers are allowed to put into dairy products,” Penn says. “So it’s about a gross-out factor too.”

Penn, who tried switching vegan last summer and didn’t stick with it, admits that the switch has been tough, and that it’s really disappointing to see everything that she is no longer allowed to eat, but that she is constantly learning about other food options she wasn’t aware of, and that part has been fun.

Not everyone who tries a vegetarian diet is happy about saying good-bye to meaty dinner options. Gideon VanRiette, Iola senior, was a strict vegetarian for three years, and often missed meat.

“I had ethical reasons for abstaining from meat,” VanRiette says. “I was never one of those vegetarians who proclaimed to not like the taste of it.”

VanRiette began eating meat again after discovering he loved Thai food. “Most Thai food is prepared in fish sauce, which is cheating for a strict vegetarian,” VanRiette says. “Then barbeque season started, and it was all over.”

VanRiette still does not eat meat every day, and says that he avoids cooking meat for himself entirely, opting only to use vegetarian recipes.

Millstein has also enjoyed learning to cook vegetarian recipes in her own house. Millstein’s father purchased the house for her and her brother her sophomore year, and offered a $50 deduction in rent to any roommate who promised not to bring meat into the house. Millstein remembers one of her roommates, who worked at a pizza shop, sitting on the driveway some nights and munching away at pizza with meat on top. She appreciated his respect for her choices.

Penn has also been impressed by the respect of campus omnivores. She and a friend sat in front of Wescoe last May with a petition to vegan-ize dining hall options the at KU. Penn obtained 350 signatures on the petition, and not all of those signatures were from vegans or vegetarians. “It was impressive to see that other people support the vegetarian cause and lifestyle.”