On a small digression, that Haribo advert where the kids have to avoid a sweet in order to get two (not exactly swimming the channel is it?) there is a clip that shows two children taking the challenge at the same time, each with their own sweet. Why doesn't one of the kids just take both sweets, then he wins? Anyway...
There are several reasons as to why I became vegetarian, and I'd like to point out from the start that one of them is NOT because my girlfriend is one. This misconception has been suggested in the past in both accusing and friendly ways, and my increasingly exasperated response has been to indicate that I have debated this before I met her at university last year. I will agree however that it makes things much more convenient for us both to avoid beef so that we can get the same pizza. A much bigger reason would be that as of the end of April, all of my best friends from back at home are vegetarian, and I cannot be bothered to cook myself something separate every time we eat together, which is interesting since that is often a problem with a family suddenly having a vegetarian in it.
Despite all that peer pressure crap above, the largest reasons I have for vegetarianism are biological. Should all of humanity become vegetarian or vegan (and I understand that for some people "meat is just too damn good" for this incredibly difficult conversion, I mean, do they know bacon tastes shit?), and thus every meat farm in the world was used for other purposes, it is thought that there could be enough space freed up to feed everybody alive. If this is true (and it seems plausible when you think about it) then vegetarianism does sound appealing. Plus, as most energy and pretty much all energy we obtain originated from the sun, and at each stage of the food web where an organism consumes another some of that energy is lost in undigestible matter and respiration, it makes sense that you will gain the most energy from the earliest stage of the food chain (i.e. the producers). Thus vegetarianism is more efficient.
There are some interesting points against vegetarianism (we've already covered the "meat is good" or neanderthal argument), and one of these is definitely not that it is difficult to get your daily amount of each nutrient without meat. This is wank. There are plenty of reliable online sources that can assist you in creating a balanced diet with everything you need, including the NHS website. According to NHS choices, these are the foods that contain iron, essential for blood cells and electron transport chains: "Good sources of iron include:
- liver
- meat
- beans
- nuts
- dried fruit, such as dried apricots
- wholegrains, such as brown rice
- fortified breakfast cereals
- soybean flour
- most dark-green leafy vegetables, such as watercress and curly kale"
Note that I haven't mentioned any ethical reasoning behind my choice for vegetarianism. This is not because I don't agree with them: I do. However, I think you'll find that if you search reasons for becoming a vegetarian or vegan (which I just noticed is like the word vegetarian, but without some letters, which is sort of symbolic to what they eat) most of them will drill animal rights into you. This blog was more about the other reasons, as it's nice to have more than just one point to bring up to others in arguments.
The biggest reason by far as to my sudden avoiding of the meat industry came with an epiphany I had about Wednesday. I was in the canteen and my friend had bought some chinese honey chicken. I found myself wanting to try the dish, but then it struck me that I wasn't missing the chicken. I was interested in trying the sauce, and from this I deduced that any decent meat meal out there can easily be converted into a vegetarian alternative. Therefore meat has, unfortunately, become redundant.
