What happened was that I stayed for a week with a couple of gay friends in their Welsh cottage. I discovered they were both vegetarians and I thought it would be absurd for me to insist on making meat dishes for myself. So I decided to eschew (what a lovely word!) meat for the week.
When I returned home I realised I hadn't missed meat for a second and as vegetarianism was supposedly a healthier diet - and meant not killing animals - I thought I might as well continue to avoid meat.
When I met Jenny, who was a meat eater, and told her I was a vegetarian, she decided to join me. And the rest, as they say, is history. We were (and are) both fit and healthy and never saw any reason for going back to meat.
I'm glad to say I've never faced any active hostility from meat-eaters. In general people accept my meatlessness quite matter-of-factly. The only person who seemed totally bemused by it was my mother. I had to keep reminding her I was a vegetarian as she kept "forgetting". No, mum, I don't eat pork sausages.
So I have Ron and Paul to thank for my conversion 49 years ago.
PS: Researchers at Loma Linda University in the States have shown vegetarian men live on average 10 years longer than non-vegetarian men - 83 years compared to 73 years. For women, being vegetarian added an extra 6 years to their lives, reaching 85 years on average.
Nick, this subject can be discussed for hours. I eat no meat too but I eat once or twice a month fish and I am a big cheese fan ( a good one once a week) and when working and living in foreign countries you have to be polite and sometimes accept food which you would never eat in normal circumstances. We drank animal blood with milk in a Massai tribe in Tansania to be allowed to examinate pregnant women and help them when giving birth. I suppose you shiver.In our daily food vegetables , rice and couscous and many fruits take the largest place. Today on the menu banana curry rice with a lot of different spices and herbs. Simple and yummy.
ReplyDeleteHannah
Hannah: I agree, in other countries you have to make compromises with the local culture. Like you I'm s big cheese fan, which is why I couldn't go vegan (ditto Jenny). We've tried loads of vegan cheeses but they're horrible and nothing like the real thing.
DeleteExamine not examinate!
Nick,thanks to correct my quite bad English. Vegan cheese should not be called cheese.
DeleteHannah
Hannah, your English is pretty good. Much better than my Italian - or my non-existent German.
DeleteCongratulations. I'm sure it is benefitting your health as it does for so many others.
ReplyDeleteAmong our close relatives, the other great apes, chimpanzees very rarely eat meat, and as far as I know the other species don't eat it at all. There's no substantial difference between our digestive system and theirs. Carnivorous animals have totally different digestive systems. Eating meat can't be natural to humans.
Infidel: I didn't know there's little difference between our digestive systems and those of the other species you mention.
Delete50 years is tremendous! I have shifted my eating continuously over the past 20 years. I eat mostly plant-based, but because I don’t eat overly processed food or many carbs, I do eat some meat and seafood. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be much variety in my diet.
ReplyDeleteBijoux: There's been a lot of publicity recently about the health hazards of eating ultra-processed foods. But we couldn't do without bread and pizza!
DeleteCongrats. 50 years is an awesome commitment to health and well being.
ReplyDeleteColette: Those 50 years seem to have slipped by at great speed.
Delete
ReplyDeleteRe your PS: Longevity is not the aim of life's game.
If I had to hunt down, kill, skin and gut my bounty I too wouldn't eat meat. As is I leave the job to the qualified and less squeamish. Fish is a different kettle. But then I learnt the art of angling and readying the catch to go into the pan at a tender age. Anyway, fish on point of slaughter doesn't bleed as such.
My one regret that these days to throw a dinner party amounts to being an obstacle course. Vegetarians can easily, and with imagination, be accommodated. Alas we now have Vegans [if ever there was a headache in the kitchen], the colon challenged, the allergic, not to mention the ones to be kept gluten free at all times. Once upon a time I received four different A4 seized instructions as to dietary requirements [there were only six of us around the table]. Enough is enough. Since I am not a restaurant with an army of sous chefs and kitchen porters I suggested we'd go to a restaurant. Let their chef deal [at cost] with the fallout.
Don't get me wrong: I am not poo pooing real digestive predicaments; I am not poo pooing even the imagined ones. I just refuse to have the innocence and joy taken out of cooking and eating.
In the meantime: May you and Jenny and everyone live a long life.
U
Ursula: Yes, cooking for a family of special dietary needs must be a nightmare. My own dietary need is simply a tasty meal! There seem to be a lot more people nowadays with dietary caveats than there were when I was young. But maybe people are less reticent about making their needs known?
DeleteIf you're enjoying life and healthy, then just carry on with your preference especially as restaurants now seem to be getting the idea that vegetarians too have money to spend.
ReplyDeleteHelen: Indeed, all our local restaurants have several vegetarian dishes on the menu - usually very tasty.
DeleteI'm sure I replied to this. Perhaps I went to spam or I didn't publish my response.
ReplyDeleteSandra: That's annoying. Could you bear to redo your comment and hopefully this time it won't vanish?
DeleteI can't really remember exactly. My DIL is vegan. I personally do not consider it healthy but it's not my business. We do eat meat but over the years less of it. I could easily live on a vegetarian diet, not vegan.
DeleteSandra: I think a vegan diet is healthy enough as long as it includes all the necessary nutrients - like protein, iron, calcium and vitamin B12 - and excludes foods high in sodium, added sugars, and fats.
DeleteGood for you! I couldn't do it as too many types of vegetables upset my digestive system. But, I support those who do. I could live on meat and fruit, though, without all the bread, pasta, cereal, etc.
ReplyDeleteLinda
Linda: Sorry to know your stomach isn't keen on vegetables. Unlike you, I don't think I could live without bread, pasta and cereal!
DeleteI was a vegetarian for a while before I met Ken. But I haven't been for many years.
ReplyDeleteMary: I guess you like meat too much!
DeleteI believe a plant based diet is good for health. A whole food/least processed is best. I too love cheese, but work to minimize it as much as possible.
ReplyDeletePaula: We do our best to stick to unprocessed foods but one or two things slip through the net!
DeleteI remember my youngest granddaughter lamenting she wanted to be vegetarian but her mom kept making bacon. She was six or seven at the time. She eventually eschewed even the bacon and has been vegetarian for the last fifteen years.
ReplyDeleteJoanne: Her mum foisting bacon on her is a bit like my mum and pork sausages.
DeleteAlthough we do not consider ourselves vegan in the true sense of the word as going meatless since we do enjoy beef or pork. Our meals have more veggies and grains and more often a main dish of chicken or fish. We are always amused by the amount of processed and frozen foods that other shoppers have in their carts when we are in the checkout line.
ReplyDeleteBeatrice: You're telling me! I'm amazed by the huge piles of junk food in people's trolleys. No wonder sickness levels are so high.
DeleteHad my sunday roast today.
ReplyDeletesorry Nick ;)
Liam: Different strokes for different folks!
DeleteCongrats to you! A few decades ago I began to avoid meat but am not a rigid vegetarian. Rarely that I eat meat. I, surprisingly to me, felt much better when I went mostly vegetarian. Interestingly, when I told my son on one of his visits, he said he had done the same thing and noticed feeling the difference just as I did. Years ago I first encountered veggie menus at a nearby rehab/skilled nursing center. Since I provided swallowing therapy for some of my patients I tried various consistencies of some meals there to see what they were eating. I was very pleased with what was served. .... Incidentally, I also provided therapy at a facility in Loma Linda on occasion -- located up the freeway a number of miles from where I live. The residents are known for their long life expectancy.
ReplyDeleteJoared: Long time no see! Interesting that you worked at Loma Linda and noted the residents' longevity. Interesting also that you and your son both went veggie (ish) and both felt better.
DeleteWell done. I have tried being vegetarian a few times, but I like chicken. I eat fish most of the time.
ReplyDeletePolly: I found it surprisingly easy to give up meat. Clearly I was never that enthusiastic about meat to begin with.
DeleteI was vegetarian for years and but went back to fish and then, inevitably meat. Type O blood apparently needs meat of some kind. Don't know how true that is but many of my meals are meat-free and I too adore cheese. Into some really good British at the moment - Whookey Hole. Love the name.
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
www: I have type O blood but I seem to be quite healthy without meat. I just googled Wookey Hole cheese. "The cheese is carried by hand, two hundred feet underground into the Wookey Hole Caves in the Mendip Hills where it's left to mature." I've never come across it myself.
DeleteI don't hear much about vegetarianism these days, it seems that more often people go vegan.
ReplyDeleteMy son and DIL are vegan and I find it hard to cook for them but I respect their choice.
My mum says veganism can't be healthy but can't explain how a vegan can make a 10lb baby.
Anyways enough of my ramble. You've done well and saved a lot of animals.
Congrats to you both