People are afraid to make dinner for Cherub Mackner.

“They think that because you’re a vegetarian you can’t eat much, so they try to figure out what to make and they’re fumbling in the kitchen going ‘well, I have carrots…’ but then I look in their kitchen and they have all this other stuff they can use,” she said.

Mackner became a vegan vegetarian 13 years ago when she became pregnant and realized she wanted to raise her child vegan. She’s not alone on South Whidbey, where dining vegetarian, at times, Is not just an “option.” While the American Dietetic Association of America notes that 30 million Americans, like Mackner, have explored a vegetarian eating pattern, it’s difficult to say how many of them live on the island.

“I’ve had just about every eating habit there is,” said Mackner, who has since lightened up to considering herself a “regular” vegetarian.

According to the International Vegetarian Union, the term “vegetarian” was coined in 1847, at the first meeting of the Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom. The word came from the Latin “vegetus,” meaning whole, sound, fresh and lively. Prior to 1847 non-meat eaters were generally known as “Pythagoreans” after the ancient Greek vegetarian Pythagoras.

Generally, vegetarians exclude beef, poultry, pork, and fish from their diets, with the possible exclusion of dairy and eggs.

Lacto-ovo vegetarians eat milk and eggs, while lacto vegetarians only allow themselves to ingest milk products.

Strict vegetarians, also referred to as vegans, exclude all animal products of any kind, including for most honey. The strictest of this bunch also expand the exclusion of animal products in their diet to what they wear and other products they use on a daily basis.

Even beyond these typical groups under the vegetarian diet, there are other diets similar to but not to be confused with vegetarians. Fruitarians only eat foods that don’t kill plants. Pescetarians are similar to vegetarians but also eat fish.

All these definitions are important, especially at Whidbey General Hospital. Erin Simms, a registered dietician and a clinical nutritionist manager at Whidbey General, is one person who always has a need to know what a person eats.

“When people come in here and say they are vegetarian we have to ramble a list of questions at them to find out if they are a true vegetarian,” she said.

In her work, Simms has found that eating vegetarian can be a healthy thing, especially for some patients with specific, food-aggravated illnesses.

“The vegetarian diet can be beneficial, and most of the leading health organizations suggest a plant-based diet to lower blood pressure,” she said. “I see people all the time that are changing their diet because they’ve been diagnosed with diabetes or have cardiac health problems.”

But most often, choosing to go vegetarian has little to do with a pressing health concern. For Mackner’s family, being a vegetarian is a choice. Her children, Jachen, 12, and Elohim, 7, are life-long vegetarians, though of varying degrees over time.

During Jachen’s first years, Mackner ate and served vegan at home. But, eventually, she decided to give her kids choices when she found a 5-year-old Jachen making a wish on a flower for plastic toys, a Barbie and cake.

“I decided to be a little more laxed and let her make choices,” she said. “The first step was to let her grandparents take her for ice cream.”

Because of her and her children’s vegetarian eating, Mackner believes they’ve had fewer health problems. However, she admits becoming vegetarian doesn’t guarantee health.

“If you’re vegan or anything else, it’s very easy to be imbalanced,” she said. “People get into snacky, processed foods.”

Nutritionist Simms notes that vegans need to make sure to get enough fortified Vitamin B12, along with iron, zinc, and vitamin D.

Mackner said this requires some effort.

“A lot of kids out there want to be vegetarians, but they don’t want to eat vegetables,” she said. “If you’re gonna be a vegetarian you have to eat vegetables.”

Freeland resident Julie Brookes, 31, who has been a vegetarian since she was a 15-year-old living in Connecticut agrees. Brookes never liked tacos or lasagnas until she tried the vegetarian versions.

“When I started my reasoning was different. I did it to be cool, and I thought it would help manage my weight,” Brookes said.

After 16 years of vegetarian eating, she says her reasons are equally distributed between health, environment, animal rights, physical and mental reasons.

Sometimes, the reason to be come a vegetarian can come down to a single factor or influence. Luc d’Aignault, 22, grew up in Boulder, Colo., eating pretty healthy, but converted to eating vegetarian after meeting girlfriend Candice Burt, 21, in 2001. The couple lives in Langley now.

“I took a look at my beliefs and realized they weren’t reflected in my actions. I change for health reasons and to support Candice,” he said.

Burt became vegetarian after reading an article in health class that listed the number of animals the average American ate in a lifetime.

“Now my reasoning whenever I choose something to eat is about respecting the life force in things,” Bert said.

At one point, she was a “raw foodist” for six months. Now she eats about 70 percent raw food, but doesn’t like being classified as one type of eater or another.

A reformed meat eater, d’Aignault said he hasn’t found much of a downside to his new diet — and certainly not when it comes to living up to the American male ideal. He said being a man has nothing to do with eating meat: He has more muscle since going veggie.

It’s the influence of someone else in their life such as a girlfriend, or having to make a life change for health reasons that d’Aignault sees as why most men change to vegetarian. But he also said that if it wasn’t for his own beliefs he wouldn’t have stuck with it.

The same goes for Burt.

“It’s important people don’t just go vegetarian for external reasons,” she said. “Know why you’re doing it, not just for your friends, and research it. It’s the external reasons that usually make people derail from continuing to eat this way.”

d’Aignault said he knew he was a vegetarian when he got to the point that he could eat tofu raw without flinching at the taste. Changing his tastes in food took patience, something Julie Brookes said new vegetarians must have. People attempting to eat vegetarian can’t take a meateater’s mentality to the table.

“If you go bite into a vegetable or tofu and expect it to taste like steak you aren’t going to be happy,” she said.