I was introduced to a true vegetarian diet at 8 years of age when an old couple down the street, Fern & Earl, would invite me over for dinner. My mother thought they were kooks. It amazed me how different steamed spinach fresh from their incredible garden was from slime in a can, or frozen, that also turned to mush; the only 2 ways my mother served it. Yuck! But I did love finishing off the big bowl of salad no one else in my family wanted. They said I was the rabbit of the family.
Living in 60’s San Francisco in a 2 bedroom apartment with 10 others; one night a couple came into the kitchen, announcing they were vegetarian & put what they’d bought for dinner on the counter; a bag of frozen vegetables & a bag of white rice. Not educated choices! Being vegetarian is much more than just not eating meat.
At 21 years old, I came home from shopping one day, with 2 weeks worth of meat for the freezer, when my husband announced we were no longer eating meat; starting ‘now’. Our macrobiotic neighbors had convinced him. So, we tried that on for a while. It was an education, which taught me interesting new ways of combining & cooking fresh, healthy food, the only meat being occasional fish.
In those days there were no vegans, at least as a known term; you were either vegetarian or ovo-lacto vegetarian. Late 70’s when I was vegetarian & pregnant I was having intense cravings for red meat, to chagrin of her father (‘Are you feeding my baby meat?’) Fortunately, our town had a source for what I call ‘healthy meat’ [What? Gasp the vegans of now, “there is no such thing as ‘healthy meat!” I beg to differ.] I partook, as baby wanted it, & it was local, raised & processed in healthy, conscious truly sustainable (not the trendy word) ways, still not illegal in the 70’s.
Through my life I have gone back & forth, in, out & thru various dietary regimens: omnivore interspersed with macrobiotic; several years vegetarian thrice; vegan for 3 years; during which the only animal product I craved was cottage cheese. In the end, I found Omnivore is where I personally thrive; tho’ others may thrive differently. I have studied nutritional aspects, experienced & understand them. Chicken is my meat of choice, red meat very ‘occasionally’, if my body craves it.
I stopped eating fish a few years back when oceans became so polluted there is no clean seafood source anymore. To my mind pollution (by law even) of our food sources, mostly factory farms, is a much bigger problem than whether we eat meat. Majority of people in this country, especially since covid, opt for instant food, as seen on TV, emptied of nutritional value, ordered on line, delivered to your door, with plenty of plastic coated, packaged propaganda as icing on the cake.
We are what we eat. Humans are animals. Did you know that human cells are identical to plant cells, down to molecular level? A ‘fact’ of life science. We as individuals have varying metabolisms & genetic makeup. We must educate ourselves to know ‘each’ our own body & what is required for ‘each’ to best thrive.