TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Bay’s 12th Annual VegFest takes over Perry Harvey Sr. Park this weekend in Tampa. The vegan event brings in more than a hundred vendors, vegan cooking demonstrations and speakers.
“We want people to learn about compassionate choices,” Jacinda Shapiro, speaker coordinator for Tampa Bay VegFest explains.
The event highlights compassion for animals and environmentally sustainable food options. Shapiro says health education is a top priority for event speakers.
“It’s important that people understand that healthcare is in your home. The choices that you make for you and your children. We put helmets on our kids, we put seatbelts on our kids but they are more likely to die from heart disease and cancer, and so we don’t have a lot of thought of what’s going onto the end of their forks,” Shapiro said.
Dr. K. Angela Persaud-Reddy is a planned speaker for this year's VegFest. She’s a medical doctor and physician educator on prevention as well as the co-founder of Plant-Based Lifestyle Movement, PBLM.org.
She says her main message to attendees, is there’s a lot we can control in the fight against disease, simply by making the right food choices. Dr. Persaud-Reddy explains, “The most important is getting to an ideal body weight and there’s no fancy diet to do this. Just eating the rainbow, eating whole foods. Meaning foods that are not overly processed, but foods that you can cook in your kitchen.”
She says people should avoid sugary drinks and foods, processed foods, and saturated fats; instead opting for dark fruits and veggies like berries and cabbages, lentils, seeds and nuts.
Tampa Bay VegFest is from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. this Saturday, Nov. 4 at Perry Harvey Sr. Park on East Harrison Street. For more information on the event, click here.