Why and how I became vegetarian

Giving up meat. As simple as that. Giving up something I don’t really need and want less and less wasn’t really a sacrifice in the conventional sense of the word. I like and prefer vegetarian food, and although when I started to re-assess my life last July during a period of depression, going veggie wasn’t the first thing that sprung to mind.

What made me decide to go vegetarian?

HTB and I went shopping one day, and ended up in one of our favourite shops, Oxfam. It has become a bit of a tradition now that whenever we go into town, we take a donation to one of the charity shops. HTB was browsing some second hand books, and I was looking at the Fairtrade section. Leafing through a “How to be more environmentally friendly” type book, the wastefulness of eating meat seemed obvious.

At first I planned to do it in stages. You know, give up red meat, then poultry, then fish. The worst meat of all in terms of the environmental impact is beef. That’s what I did, to start with. Then I did the colon cleanse last October and after that I just never started eating meat again. The more research I did, the less inclined I felt to sinking my teeth into some dead creature’s flesh. Every day I become happier and more convinced that giving up meat has been a significant improvement in my life. Whenever I hear the latest scare story about bird flu or contaminated salmon, I just feel so thankful that I am following a flesh-free diet.

I am now an ovo-lacto vegetarian, and we are very well catered for in Britain, where something like 7% of the population is vegetarian. Our summer holiday to France will be a bit more interesting, though. Having said that, I think there are convincing arguments for giving up eggs and dairy products, and I am experimenting with alternatives to these. I like soya milk and have this on my cereal in a morning, and we’ve also switched to dairy-free margerine. I would like to have a go at a thirty-day vegan challenge at some point this year, and I try not to rely too much on eggs and cheese to replace meat dishes. I do like quiche quite a lot, and so a learning experience of making an egg free quiche awaits me at some point. (Recipes for this would be welcome - hint hint!)

Other people’s reactions.

Surprisingly, people have just sort of accepted it. I did expect a bit more hassle to be honest. HTB is still an omni, but since I do most of the cooking, he has discovered lots of new flavours. He has made friends with tofu, artichokes, soya mince and spinach amongst other things, although is not so sure about kale. I try to leave him alone as to his own choice of nutrition, because if (when?) he goes veggie it is a matter for his own conscience. Since I ate meat for most of my life it would be hypocritcal to have a go at him over it.

If anyone asks…

I have a potted “short answer” and this is it:

I am vegetarian because I believe it is a healthier way of eating, because we don’t need to kill animals to have a balanced diet, because rearing animals for meat* uses up precious land which could be used to grow crops for hungry people.

(I also love nuts and seeds, and a diet that actually encourages this is a dream come true)

*I understand that rearing chickens for eggs and cows for milk also has this impact, and I still do this. One step at a time!

Four months on I want the world to know that I am vegetarian and loving it.