Eating meat, yay or nay? My own personal opinion

...feel the need to stop eating meat. Would they also be excluded from his restaurants? Who knows, but this review isn’t about GR himself, it was just the catalyst to get my mind working.

This review is mainly to go some way to explain why some people, such as myself, choose to go vegetarian, and by no means is it to tell anyone else what they should eat. It is also to explain that it is more about a lifestyle than just food.

...I would get back to eating meat again. We had two toddlers at the time, and he demanded that they continue to eat meat. Also, he didn’t want to become vegetarian. However, he was kind of supportive at first.

Early vegetarian food.

I suppose there had been vegetarians for many years before I changed over, but you wouldn’t think it. I couldn’t find anything in our local Spar other than cheese and tomato pizzas. Even Quiches ... more

Being A Vegetarian.

I was watching The F Word, Gordon Ramsay’s cookery programme, and he was banging on, like he does, about vegetarians. How strange, I thought, as there are many religions in the world where a vegetarian diet is the norm, and it is not just namby pamby southerners who feel the need to stop eating meat. Would they also be excluded from his restaurants? Who knows, but this review isn’t about GR himself, it was just the catalyst to get my mind working.

This review is mainly to go some way to explain why some people, such as myself, choose to go vegetarian, and by no means is it to tell anyone else what they should eat. It is also to explain that it is more about a lifestyle than just food.

A bit about my background.

My mother is and always has been a real meat eater. She was a child in the war, in London, and her parents were lucky enough to have a small garden which they put to good use. They grew veggies, but also, bred rabbits and chickens to kill and cook. The fur was used; the rabbit skins were used. My grandmother was a very resourceful woman, and also, one to be feared as she had a very strong character. My mother grew up with this type of behaviour as the norm, and so, thought nothing about feeding us animals, and telling us exactly which bit of the animal it was, be it brain, kidneys, stomach lining, etc.

I ate meat, but hated the source of it. I only liked some, that being roast pork, chicken, bacon and lamb. My mother served meat in a very distinct way – tough and over cooked always!

1984 was a bad year for me. I had three close bereavements and suffered a bad depression for the whole year. I also had a bout of salmonella, which kept returning, and so I had to keep going vegan until it settled for a while. I enjoyed the diet, and became very used to eating, what I considered, ‘clean foods’.

When on the mend, I started to re-evaluate my life. I was 25 and a young married mum, but I was being swept along on a path that I wasn’t completely happy with. I made some changes, such as learning to drive, and also……. went demi-vegetarian. I say ‘demi’ as I continued to eat fish for a while, as my anaemia is very bad. My GP thought I would put myself at risk unless I found a way to absorb iron. Anaemia has been a problem throughout my life, not just since being vegetarian, so it is an old friend, as are the black strap molasses which I take.

People’s reaction.

Everyone was horrified!! They couldn’t believe that the girl who always had chicken and chips from the chippy could give up her favourite fast food! Bacon butties, sausage and chips, Quarter pounders and fries, Cornish pasties – She wouldn’t manage it, she would soon give it up like all her other fads!

My (now ex) husband thought I had gone slightly unhinged, but felt sure that I would get back to eating meat again. We had two toddlers at the time, and he demanded that they continue to eat meat. Also, he didn’t want to become vegetarian. However, he was kind of supportive at first.

Early vegetarian food.

I suppose there had been vegetarians for many years before I changed over, but you wouldn’t think it. I couldn’t find anything in our local Spar other than cheese and tomato pizzas. Even Quiches had ham in them. I couldn’t yet drive, and as my ex worked long hours, supermarkets were shut by the time he came home. I started to invent my own meals, using lentils. Then I found a health food shop (with a lovely long haired male hippy!) which sold stuff like Textured Soya Protein (or TSP). He assured me that these lumps of rubber would taste like meat in a dish, such as curry, Bolognese, etc. Huh! It tasted absolutely foul. Also, and this is where I find some vegetarians a bit odd – it was flavoured to taste like ham or chicken, etc. Why?

I continued with making Veg Quiches from scratch, and putting extra toppings on Pizza’s (1980’s pizzas were like cardboard with ketchup and grated cheese), but after a while it all became really boring.

Later Vegetarian food.

After The McCartney’s turned veggie, things began to look up. Linda’s range, through Findus, opened up a whole market of veggie food. Also, with various food crises, such as BSE, or salmonella in chickens etc, and people worrying about high cholesterol, Quorn was created from a particular mushroom, which is full of protein. It is only suitable for lacto vegetarians, as it contains albumen.

Nowadays, the supermarkets are full of meals suitable for vegetarians, from meat substitute type meals to just plain food with no reason to look or taste like meat. I prefer the latter. There are some exceptions though, as I love Bolognese made with soya mince or Quorn mince. But other than that, there is no real reason to have the meat substitute, unless you are only being vegetarian for health reasons, and really don’t think your meal looks complete without ‘meat and two veg’.

Life style change

Being a vegetarian is about other lifestyle changes too, though, and not just about food. If you are a vegetarian for moral reasons, as opposed to health, then there are other changes that you would probably make. Generally, I no longer support racing, either horse or greyhound, due to the cruelty. ‘The dogs/horses love to race!” is often a common cry. I am not expert, but I am not convinced that this is true. Yes, they like to run freely, and when a horse loses a rider, they continue to run the course, but they are running at their own speed, and not being lashed by a cane all the way round. They are less likely to fall and break their leg, and be shot at the end of the race. Greyhounds, as is widely recognised, are often kept in terrible conditions. Not all, but some. How could a punter determine which has or hasn’t?

I try not to buy leather, or wool now. Why wool? Again, I think that this is cruel. Wool on a sheep is there as an insulation against cold AND heat. They are white creatures, which mean that they have no melanin in their skin, so no defence against the sun, either. In the same way as white cats get cancers, so can sheep. They must be really hot in the sunshine of the fields, and personally, I would prefer to where a cotton shirt than be totally in the elements of 80 degree heat all day every day.

I always buy free-range eggs, or the Christmas Turkey (remember, I live with meat eaters, too) as you only have to watch any programme to see how animals are treated. I have never quite understood the term ‘humane’. That term means nothing to me. Humans can be violent to each other, and even worse to an animal, as is often shown in programmes such as Panorama.

I buy vegetable soap, generally called ‘Pure’ or some such, in the supermarket. Normal soap is made from Tallow, which is compressed animal fat mixed with some kind of sodium compound. Vegetable soap feels lovely to use, and is usually made from glycerin or olive oil. Since initially writing this, I had put in about Palm oil soap, but this is not environmentally friendly, and is impacting on the orangutan population which relies on palm trees for their existence.

I always endeavour to buy products that have not been tested on animals. The testing on animals argument is very contentious and not something that I would want to discuss in depth in this review.

Children

As said, my ex refused to allow the two children we already had, to be vegetarian. At the time, I agreed, but more because I was afraid that I may deny them essential vitamins and proteins. When I was pregnant with my third and fourth child, the ex felt that I should get back to eating normally now, as I would put each baby in turn, at risk. I took GP advice, and was assured that each baby would be fine. Even after birth, a baby can just have milk for about ten months with no ill effect. In fact, you have to introduce animal foods slowly to ensure that the baby develops enzymes to digest the animal foods.

I have a problem when people say ‘but they should eat meat until they make a choice not to’. Erm…… why should anyone make a choice for a baby to eat meat, then??? Doesn’t make sense to me. However, given my poor blood quality, I did give each of them meat when young. Now, I have one fully vegetarian daughter, one demi-vegetarian daughter, and a son and daughter who are raving carnivores!! My ex husband finally got fed up with the whole vegetarian lifestyle (amongst other things) and when he started to eat Veal, or Suckling Pig, and Frois Gras (which he had never eaten before as he previously agreed it was cruel), I think the final nail was being hammered into the coffin of our marriage, lol!

The man I live with now is also a vegetarian. We really enjoy our diet and concoct all kinds of strange meals with tofu, soya or quorn. I have high cholesterol, so always go easy on cheese and eggs, so this really cuts down some of the easy options from the supermarkets. I stopped eating fish once I was with him as it was true, I wasn’t a proper vegetarian. He is much more adventurous than I am with food, and it makes it easier to be cooking for more than one. However, I love my junk food still, and love going to the Chippy or Dominoes.

Stupid questions I get asked

Why do you have Quorn sausages?
Erm, why do you have meat sausages? They don’t look like an animal, do they? Also, what else would fit in a finger roll with Ketchup?

Why do you have burgers?
As above, and what other shape would fit in a bap? Barbeques are good for vegetarians, too!

Why do you wear leather shoes?
Actually, where possible I wear plastic or material shoes. Sometimes, there just aren’t any man made shoes. There is a gap in the industry, as the only place that I really know is in Brighton, and they cost a fortune even for plastic. When I do buy a pair of leather shoes, they are worn for a good five years, until they finally fall apart. I do have a guilt about leather shoes though.

Why don’t you like your food cooked in the same frying pan?
Because the meat juices soak into the vegetarian food.

Why don’t you like your roast potatoes cooked in lard?
Meat juices again.

Why don’t you eat Jelly? It isn’t meat.
Because of the Gelatine.

Why do you look at the ingredients on mousses and biscuits?
Animal fats and gelatine again.

Why do you like the smell of sausages and bacon cooking?
Well, it isn’t to do with the smell of the meat. Sausages smell of the lovely spices that are added, and very few ready made vegetarian sausages have the same spices. They tend to use herbs for some reason.
With bacon, it isn’t the smell of the pig, it is the smell of the ‘smoke’. The only way round this is to have a smoked cheese as they have the same smell. Or artificial bacon strips, but personally I think they taste vile.

“Do you like that soup/stew/ lasagne” etc?
This is usually asked by someone who has cooked me a meal, but snuck some meat or beef stock into it. “Ha ha!!” They cry, “it has meat in it, and you didn’t notice!!”
Now that is just plain stupid, but has happened several times. What happens, is that actually, I notice a familiar flavour, but can’t quite put my finger on what it is. Usually, when I feel violently sick, I soon recognise I have eaten meat as my body doesn’t digest it properly.

When I lived in America, people would just look at me for a while, and then say ‘Why??’.But I did live in Virginia, which was full of hunters, lol, so they could be forgiven for not understanding the weird British woman!

Advice

There is not much advice I can really give anyone. I think that, if you have always wanted to go vegetarian, but worried that you were going to starve yourself, then why not try it for a month or two, to see how you get on?

If you are a vegan, then yes, you would need to balance your proteins and that can be fiddly, but then again, with all the new Soya milks, and dairy free options for marg, cheese, yoghurts on the market, things have become much easier. If you are a lacto vegetarian, who drinks milk and eats eggs, then you don’t need to worry so much as they are complete proteins.

I tend to use vitamin supplements, but only when I start to feel a bit low, and usually during the winter. Some B vitamins are difficult to get from a veggie diet, (I think it is B2 and B12 ) so a supplement is a good idea, BUT you should make sure the supplement is for Vegetarians. Some supplements come from an animal source so you may as well eat the animal in the first place.

Children can do very well on a vegetarian diet, and enjoy the colourful foods. There are loads of veggie burgers and imitation chicken nuggets etc, so that they don’t feel too ‘different’ from their meat eating friends. They may need some supplements of Omega 3, which help with behavioural problems as it is lacking in their diet. This is also good for the brain and helping with attention spans and education. There are vegetable sources of Omega 3, and it is added to some eggs. You can also buy Omega 3 in a vegetarian supplement.

Much as I quite like Gordon Ramsay, I find his crusade against vegetarians rather childish. He is obsessed with his children witnessing pigs, or sheep, being reared for food, but this is no indication of how they will view meat eating as an adult. It could go either way.

If you want to go veggie, as Nike says, ‘Just do it!”

Orlando 2007 

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