I felt compelled to write in response to this week's news about horse meat and the undercover slaughterhouse videos that have left some meat-eaters I know rather shocked and revolted. Before I get going I'd like to make it clear that this isn't a moral lecture. My intention here is not to write an essay on the philosophical and ethical arguments for and against eating meat. Nor am I going to try to scare or guilt you into giving up meat. There are plenty of well-researched and evidence-backed articles that make a compelling case for giving up meat if you want to find them. What I'd like to do is share my experience, for those of you who are interested, of giving up meat, in a non-judgemental way. I'm certainly in no position to get on my high horse - I ate meat for years and I still eat eggs & some items with milk in. I know there are people who say that veganism is the only correct choice and that it's all or nothing but I'm of the belief that everyone doing something is better than nothing at all. We're not just going to wake up one morning to find the entire human race is suddenly vegan so we have to start somewhere. What's more, I'm not sure how effective angry moral lectures are. I suppose you could say, (I apologise in advance for the tragically unfunny play on words), I'm going to attempt to lead the horse to water. It's up to you whether or not you drink.
As an animal-lover, eating meat had long been at the back of my mind as a source of guilt. However, living in a world where eating meat is the norm, and with the sights & sounds of how that meat is produced being well hidden, it's not difficult for one to bury that guilt. Like many people, I had convinced myself that 'humane slaughter' wasn't an oxymoron & that if eating meat was part of our evolutionary history, who was I to question it? Right? Well, wrong. Unless I was about to start living in a cave then the only logical conclusion was for me to realise that human evolution is all about change and adaptability. Our success as a species has been largely down to the fact we're omnivores, and that not only can we survive on a wide range of energy sources, we can actually thrive on them. I'm sure there are proponents of certain nutritional approaches who will argue that their way of eating is the only way. To those people I'd ask this: If humans really are only capable of thriving on a single nutritional approach, why the heck are there 7 billion of us and counting? To sum it up, there's more than one way to skin a potato and it's quite possible to thrive on a vegetarian diet.
Worries & fears
Having decided that morally I could no longer live with myself eating meat, and having realised that there was no danger of me wasting away if I gave up my beloved steak dinners I had another question to answer: What on earth was I going to eat? This might sound quite simple and in practice it actually was. However, as somebody who doesn't eat salad at all, who can't bear the smell of cheese let alone the taste of it, and as one of those ridiculous people who can't even eat certain vegetables because they feel funny in my mouth; I was a genuinely worried that I would fail quite quickly and loathe myself even more than I did for having eaten meat all of my life up until that point. I had a lot of concerns that life wouldn't be the same. I was worried that life would be pretty boring and restrictive (although I did beat myself up for having such selfish thoughts). Was I going to be able to eat out with friends still? My local area isn't exactly a hotbed of vegetarian cafes & bistros. What about all the restaurants I liked going to? What about all my favourite recipes that I had perfected over the years? Was shopping going to become more expensive? (I admit, I had always puzzled at that one but so many people cited it as a reason for not becoming a vegetarian, I did consider it). As a fussy eater, going to other people's houses for food was already a source of anxiety for me and I worried this might make it even worse. What about summer BBQs?
I needn't have worried though. Becoming vegetarian has been a colourful adventure of tastes and flavours. I can still eat at lots of the restaurants I used to love going to and there are plenty of new ones that I like as well. So many restaurants offer vegetarian options these days and for those who don't, well they're losing out on business from a growing section of the population so they'll hopefully catch up. I've managed to adapt most of my favourite recipes and have come up with lots of new and delicious ones too. I've cooked vegetarian foods for meat-loving friends and loved ones who've surprised themselves at how much they enjoyed it. I've even enjoyed going to friends' houses to eat. If anything, explaining that I'm a vegetarian as opposed to just a weird, fussy eater seems to be easier. Food shopping is definitely cheaper. BBQs are just as much fun. In fact my food is usually cooked before everyone else's so I get to eat first yay!
Foods that helped me get there
Whilst I wouldn't wish to bore you with an entire list of all the foods I eat I thought perhaps it might be helpful to explain the foods I ate to start with and how they helped me on my way. Like a lot of people starting as a vegetarian, I began by mostly replacing the meat in my meals with substitutes. I ate a lot of Quorn. Some of it delicious, some not quite to my taste. I know there are people who will say that eating Quorn most days probably isn't that good for you, after all relying too much on any single food type isn't the optimum approach to eating. However, it felt like a good, safe, stepping stone that meant I could hold on to a lot of my comfort meals without feeling too deprived. Next, I started looking at the menus of all my favourite restaurants and working out which of those had options that meant I could still eat there. I went out and ate at those restaurants and realised I could still enjoy myself just as much and it actually made a refreshing change to eat something different to what I usually ordered. I even started discovering restaurants I had previously overlooked and finding lots of delicious options I could eat. Weeks went by and I gradually reworked most of my old recipes to use vegetables instead of meat. I also started experimenting with lots of new flavours and recipes. One of the great things about having no meat in a meal is that you do tend to focus more on the flavour. I've always adored herbs & spices but my diet is definitely more fragrant and flavourful now than it ever was.
I still eat some meat-replacements and some Quorn products. However I quite happily eat meals made solely of vegetables most days. Some of my favourite foods of the moment include butternut squash, spinach, and chickpeas. Oh and tomatoes of course! Starting with those four ingredients I can make curries, stews, tagines, chillies, burgers, soups and more. I can easily blend flavours from around corner of the globe with those four ingredients and have a different delicious meal each night of the week.
The downsides?
Now I realise, I'm probably making this all seem rosy and wonderful. You might be thinking, 'There must have been something that was difficult about it' and you'd be right. Surprisingly, the most difficult thing I've had to face about becoming a vegetarian is other people's attitudes. Never before in my life have I had people I know, people who I'm not even particularly close to, so concerned that I'm managing to meet my nutritional needs! In all the years I ate meat, I don't remember any of my vegetarian friends giving me lectures about what I should eat. However, since giving up meat I've had no end of meat-eaters giving me lectures about why I'm stupid, why I'm being dangerous with my health. Some of these are people who didn't bat an eyelid when I was drunkenly filling my face with a greasy kebab. Some are people who eat lots of cheese, sugar, white bread, and grain-fed, antibiotic-riddled meat. For some people, my very presence at the table is an affront to their liberty and their right to eat whichever creature they so choose.
Everyone starts with a story
Looking back on my meat-eating days, I do kind of understand their fear (although I don't ever remember giving people grumpy lectures about it). Being confronted with the presence of a living, breathing, thriving, vegetarian was evidence that everything I had managed to convince myself in the past about eating meat being necessary might not be quite true. That guilt which I had so successfully buried started to poke its fingers through the surface of the ground, reminding me that it was still there, still holding on, biding its time until it managed to escape. One day that guilt became too much. Most of the vegetarians I've spoken to have a story about the day the guilt became too much. For me, it was a video of two cows in a slaughterhouse. Which makes me think, I wonder how many people's story will start with a video of some horses in an abattoir on the news?
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