My choice in being a vegetarian

Best to start this blogpost with a big old no judgement disclaimer.

I’m not gonna lie, I know how some extreme vegetarians and vegans can come across… like they’re trying to convert you! I mean, when you think you’re onto something good, you’re gonna wanna try and get as many people involved as possible. So I get why they want to convert you. But I also get why it’s super irritating.

But that’s not what this is about. I don’t really care if your choice is eating meat. There are no facts and figures in this article to try and sway you. Quite frankly I’ve got no fucking clue how many animals I have saved in my veg conquest, and I also do not know the percentage of baby calves have been bred for food etc etc. No idea. Facts didn’t sway me.

Besides, I don’t need to convert you. You already know it’s wrong to eat meat; or at least, consume and waste as much as we do.

The truth is; and the basis of this post… eat meat all you like. But eat it knowingly. Make the conscious effort to know the impact of you eating meat. The worst person in my opinion is not a meat eater; but a meat eater who eats through ignorance, where deep down, they know it’s bad, they probably shouldn’t… but they just can’t resist the chicken nugget on the night out. I think that’s what erks me the most; the simple lack of self discipline.

So why read this post? Read this post because deep down you know there is an element to it where you know at some point you should cut out a little bit of meat from your diet; even if it’s a meat-free Monday! If you do feel guilty when watching the terrible videos on Facebook seeing little baby pigs get transported for the kill. If you know you couldn’t look at an animal and shoot it in the head, but intend to go home and eat your mum’s roast chicken…

Then read on. Because once upon a time, I was that person who just scrolled past those videos quickly and told myself it didn’t really happen. “I could never go veggie”… I muttered to myself. And I needed people in my life to ask me the questions in order for me to make a huge life changing decision.

And I want to ask you those same questions, today.

I posted this week on my social media about what bugs me regarding the ignorance of some meat-eating people.

Animals get tortured. They get hunted. They get bred, and grown to be eaten. They are seen as food for us. No emotions involved, that’s the culture we live in.

But, not your little baby kitten. Or your new french bull dog. Obviously, they’re your pet. It’s a totally different ball game. It’s emotional. Or is it… really? What is the difference? I’m still yet to find out what this difference is. There’s probably a cultural reason why we domesticated some animals and not others, and still choose to see some animals as pets and some as food.

Either way it is quite hypocritical. All animals are food, or none of them are. You choose.

Let’s look at this history and the culture behind eating meat; what is meat for?

As far as I’m concerned, we hunted meat for survival. We also picked berries and shit like that. Meat is a massive source of protein – there is no doubt about that. It was the quickest way to take in so much protein; which we could then store and use for the potentially longer periods of time where we had to go without food.

Back then; our bodies were different and more adapted to eating meat. Our jaws and teeth were bigger and stronger – we were hunters. We would hunt and kill one animal, and make it last. Realistically, you could kill a cow and it could give your family meat for the next year. Because although yes, I agree, we need protein and meat is involved in a wholesome diet; do we need to eat it every day for every meal? No not really.

“Our culture has become reliant on meat meals for luxury, which is no longer survival.”

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There are cultures which are mostly vegetarian. In fact, so much, if not all of traditional Indian and Pakistani foods are vegetarian. Culturally they would not include meat in their meals, so it was in fact the British culture that invented the “chicken korma”.

People love to ask me challenging vegetarian questions. Would I eat an animal if I were going to die otherwise? Would I eat meat if it were artificially created? Would I kill if I were going to be killed?

The answer to all of these is all yes. Ultimately what I’m trying to say; is in terms of survival, killing and eating meat is not an ethical problem for me. It’s an animal vs. animal world. Besides I’d like to see you all in a fight with a cow, because I think you’d be dinner.

But what we are doing… isn’t for survival anymore. It’s greed, and luxury. In fact, we waste so much meat. We waste it because the demand is so high, and we have a very throw-away culture. So all of the animals that die, might not even be eaten – therefore they could have go on to live happy lives in green fields.

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I’ve argued my choice to stop eating meat with a lot of people, in particular; two very important people… my parents.

My dad argued that we need meat; as it is such an important part of our diet. He says “but you’re not getting enough protein in from these vegetables”.

I find this point very interesting. It is interesting how many people are so quick to jump to the conclusion that I do not have enough of a rounded diet. It seems bizarre to them that I might not be having enough protein, but they jump to their own defences when I question how many fruits and vegetables do they eat? How much water do they drink? How much alcohol do they consume?

Guess what, just because you’re a meat eater it does not mean you have the diet we should all be aiming to have.

My mum argues, jokingly, “but we got to the top of the food chain for a reason”,

Does that give us an excuse to exploit animals for our own human greed? And WE didn’t do anything to get to the top of the food chain; we were born into an already cruel system, and then taught that it is “nature”.

I don’t disagree with my dad, I’m not an idiot, we need meat, we need protein, but do we need to get it this way? I have been vegetarian for a year and a half now. I eat plant proteins, meat substitutes and all.

I feel amazing. In fact I feel the best I have felt probably in my whole life in terms of my health. My digestion has become healthy and regular, whereas before, I used to need 2-hour nap after eating a steak. Is that normal? For many of my friends and family feel the same way. My dad would often take a sofa-based post-dinner nap for a moment of digestion; and I used to feel lethargic, and tired… almost all of the time.

I shall tell you a little bit of my story, becoming vegetarian:

Growing up, my mum wasn’t huge on cooking. My siblings were also quite picky and we would refuse to eat any meals that didn’t consist of turkey dinosaurs and potato waffles. In fact even a spaghetti bolognaise would divide the family, some wanted it meaty, some wanted it saucy – it was a nightmare for my mum! So she stuck to cooking simplistic meals, which made everyone happy.

This also means that the extent of my cooking knowledge was beans on toast – this information is useful to know for later.

I didn’t realise that the vegetarian lifestyle even existed until I was about 11, (I probably saw that some celebrity became vegetarian). Obviously, being the precocious and culturally aware 11-year that I was; I told my parents I wanted to be vegetarian.

I don’t blame them for not helping me make the changes in my life. I would often change my mind about things, and it wasn’t fair to ask my mum to cook so many separate meals when she hated cooking anyway.

I did try and not eat meat myself, but I was often swayed by the offer of a Chinese; or when meat was put on my plate in front of me.

I gave up on trying to be a vegetarian. In fact so much so, meat became such a huge part of my diet as I grew up to be an extremely picky adult. I wouldn’t eat most vegetables, and I didn’t even like my food touching.

But deep down I knew my dream was to eat solely a meat-free diet.

My second job was working for a Lush, a vegetarian company. Most people who worked there were veggies or vegans, for obvious reasons; but I still struggled so much to make the change. Most lunches I would have McDonalds or KFC.

The turning point for me was when I was 19; I decided to make the promise that I would be vegetarian for one month. I sort of did it for the pressure and guilt I felt when I ate meat around my friends.

When I decided to do this; I didn’t actually think I would be able to stick by it. I was simply trying to prove to my friends and family who would tell me often that I wouldn’t be able to last without meat for even 4 weeks. Ultimately I set myself up for failure because I didn’t even prepare myself for this month.

You could say my original vegetarianism derived from stubbornness.

But, I did complete the month… well, I scraped by. I made it work on tomato soup and a whole lotta mini muffins. I could not wait to dig into a meaty meal; and of course, when my month was up, I went straight to a restaurant in china town and ordered a chicken satay, a chicken chow mein and prawn crackers.

Alas, when it arrived to my table, I looked down at my food. I tried to eat the chicken satay; but I felt so disgusted. It was like I had broken a promise to my friends and family, the animals, and to myself. It was like a switch had been flicked in my head.

The month was hard, sure. But was it impossible? Not at all. It just took a little more awareness that I had needed before.

It was at this point I knew what had to happen; but I knew if I continued with my vegetarianism that I would have to learn how to cook, and specifically cook healthy and balanced meals.

And thank fuck I had so many vegan and veggie friends who were supportive and would help me out with recipes, and stop me when I picked up a fruitella without thinking that it might not be vegetarian. Of course we make mistakes time to time, but that is what being human is.

After weekly shopping throughout this year I have noticed how much cheaper it is to live with a vegetarian diet!

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But another huge question I get is how would I bring my child up? Would I force my children to be vegetarian?

This was a big question for me because not only do I not have plans to have children any time soon; I struggle with the concept of making life decisions for other people anyway – I don’t really want the responsibility.

And in this case, I must mention one word which we are all scared of; VEGAN. Hush! Run!

From a parental perspective, I would find it waaaay more weird giving my children cow’s milk than I would giving them meat. Breast milk is what children need for their immune system and calcium, and then after that, I don’t see what other dairy they would need?

Despite that viewpoint, I don’t disagree with eating eggs given they are produced ethically, for they are an awesome source of protein. Hey, maybe I’ll start a little farm with my hundreds of children where we raise chickens for eggs and kill our one yearly cow.

Being a parent I would want to reassure my children that they have the right to make their own decisions, and though I may not cook and feed them meat at home, they can choose to eat meat in a restaurant if they so please; after all, I will be educating my hypothetical children on where meat comes from.

As morbid as it may sound, I do believe all children should be taken to an abertoire/slaughterhouse on a school trip something, as I would like to see how many people could tuck into a roast dinner after witnessing what happens in those places.

HOLD ON; WHAT ABOUT ALL THESE VE-GANS?

Yeah, guess what; milk and dairy is also shit for you. I won’t talk too much about this because I am not personally a vegan but it’s important to know too. We are told it’s normal to drink cow’s milk from childhood but this concept is clearly beyond me, for we (humans) are the only animal that exists in the world who drink the milk from another animal. At least it’s more common that animals typically do eat eggs from other animals, which leads me to believe; that consuming eggs is the lesser of the ethical dairy evils.

There is an article presenting evidence for dairy having a problematic reaction on children. A university held a study with 100 children on a dairy diet, and 100 children on a non-dairy diet. In 100% of the cases, all eczema and asthma and all skin problems disappeared. This article was not published for fear of the dairy industry collapsing. I have suffered from eczema for years and when presenting my doctor with my dilemma, I was recommended a dairy-free diet immediately, as a first point of call.

Coincidence? I think NOT.

With veganism, you have to be uber careful about your intake of food in order to ensure you are having a healthy and balanced diet (you basically need to eat a shit ton of nuts and shit). You also have to have the lifestyle where you can cook most of your meals at home from scratch, as obviously vegan options are still hard to find in most restaurants. For these reasons I won’t be going vegan as of yet, but hopefully (like the vegetarian movement did) the vegan movement will continue to grow in London with lots of options to present me with an opportunity to become vegan.

Ultimately I do believe the best diet is the most rounded and varied, whatever that means for the individual. There isn’t a point turning vegetarian or vegan if you’re gonna be high of your nuts off oreos because it’s all you can eat at home.

Just don’t complain to me how animals are treated if you plan to go home and eat meat for dinner tonight.

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Jessy Miller

@jessymillerx