Since I am temporarily in London, I have been meeting a lot of new acquaintances, and one of the more awkward things about being a vegetarian can be explaining my eating preferences.  Luckily, in my American life, I live in the Pacific Northwest where no one blinks an eye at a vegetarian.  However, in places like London (or Texas), vegetarianism can be a wee bit tricker.  The other evening I was at a pub when I started to discuss my eating habits and a comment was made that implied that I must not enjoy eating.  I immediately got defensive and explained that I do love to eat and that vegan food is delicious.  However, the more the I thought about this remark; the more it this comment bothered me. At first, I was hesitant to say that I love to eat.  I do obviously love to eat, but to me, eating is much more holistic than simply devouring something that taste good for the hell of it.  I don’t live to eat; I eat to live although that doesn’t mean I don’t get really excited about food.  Croissants in France – damn right, I get excited about food.

For me, eating and emotion have always had a strong correlation.  For a large majority of my life, I felt guilty about eating too much, and I often associated eating with guilt.  I loved food, and I loved to eat, but I fought with my food.  I looked at working out as punishment, eating healthily as a chore, and giving up some of my previously favorite food (like cheesecake) as an unimaginable life sentence.  As my eatings habits improved and I became more active and athletic, my relationships with food evolved.  I began to realize that healthy living wasn’t so grim.  When I began to adopt a more nutritious diet, I stopped feeling incredibly guilty about eating because I knew that I was consuming nutrients and calories that my body needed.  Over the years, healthy food has become more and more appetizing to me – not only because it is delicious but because I know it makes me feel better.  So, yes, I do love to eat, and I love to eat healthy things because plain and simple, it makes me feel good.

My decision to become vegetarian is only an extension of this logic.  Health reasons aside, environmental and moral concerns are some of the reasons that I became, and stay, a vegetarian.  Through my eyes, my decision to be a vegetarian is a decision for my physical well-being as well as my mental well-being.  My decision is a intimate expression of my feeling about animal welfare and the incredibly detrimental environemntal consequences of meat production in America.  Everyday I wake-up, and I make the decisions that support something I strongly believe in; it may not be much, but I promise you, it makes me happy.  It is something that has become a part of my personhood and has really changed the way I relate to food because the decisions I make about food are much bigger than myself.

So all in all, the act of eating is more than just sitting down to enjoy a meal.  I like to eat healthy, vegetarian food because it satisfies me on a physical, mental, and emotional level.  Being a vegetarian isn’t a form of deprivation or masocism – being a vegetarian is actively embracing the values I believe in, and it is a decision I am proud of.  However, I think being a vegetarian is a very personal choice, and it is right for me, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it is right for other people.  It might be my southern background, but I understand not everyone wants to give up meat or should give up meat.  However, if you are going to eat meat, I do think you should make the effort to eat the highest quality meat that you can, and I firmly believe most people could benefit from reducing their meat consumption.

Soapbox aside,  if you don’t think vegan or vegetarian food is amazing, you are missing out – hands down.  Even if you are a meat eater, vegetarian food can be enjoyed for what it is.  I would love to see people start thinking of vegetarian food as a seperate “genre” of food like Greek or Chinese, rather than a restaurants that caters to certain people.  I guarantee you I have had some vegan meals that would blow a meat eaters mind.  Pinky promise.

Happy Tuesday mis amiga(o)s!