Can vegetarians eat animal crackers?
When I was a little kid my father began studying Eastern philosophy, Vedanta and the Teachings of Sri. Vivekananda. He also became a vegetarian. Much of my dad's spiritual quest was in search of relief from the after effects of Vietnam and from seeing dozens of close friends die.
He would sometimes take me to lectures and read the philosophy books to me. I really didn't mind it all that much because I liked my dad and I figured if it was important to him I should pay attention.
One evening when I was around five years old, he sat me down and asked if I wanted to become a vegetarian. I asked if that meant no more hot dogs and hamburgers. He laughed and confirmed this scary thought. He said it was totally up to me and I could make my own decision.
Immediately I said yes. I remember it was an instinctive gut response and I really had no idea what I was getting myself into.
The change wasn't really that hard for me. My mother wasn't a vegetarian and there were some of my former favorites in the house but I never touched em.
I didn't consider myself some kind of super will power kid but for some reason avoiding meat was really important to me.
Then the shit started.
At the time I lived in the middle of the bible belt and in one of the biggest beef producing areas in the country.
My Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles , Cousins friends and acquaintances all thought I had become a crazed commie Satan worshipper. They could not believe or understand that a 5 year old could make this kind of life altering decision.
I stuck to my guns It hurt being ridiculed and made fun of by those closest to me it but the teasing strengthened my resolve even more.
It was difficult going to friends birthdays, eating at their houses and having to explain over and over again what a vegetarian was. Most tried to feed me meat anyway thinking my choice was stupid and did not require their respect.
Restaurants were hell. Back then, they threw meat into everything. No matter how many times I asked, my food would come covered in ground beef or gravy. Some places flat refused to cater to my requests. More than a few times I just sat there hungry and as a result became even more stubborn in my decision to not give in.
School sucked in this regard too. School lunches, field trips and stops to McDonalds were always a pain in the ass.. and always the endless questions. I probably could have sold myself to a freak show and made a fucking fortune. "Gather round folks it's the boy who refuses to eat meat" followed by oohhs ahhhs and people throwing prime rib at me.
In the late seventies some soy meat substitutes products were introduced. They tasted pretty good and were great camouflage against the nosey inquiries (wheres the beef boy?
As I got older, people became more tolerant, there were more vegetarians and restaurants usually had at least one item I could order.
As a teenager my Grandmother was worried that I was going to be a social outcast if I kept this crazy rabbit food diet up. She asked me what on earth was I going to do if a girl wanted me to take her out for a hamburger. "Sheesh I'll buy her a damn hamburger duh.." I think she was worried that a vegetarian couldn't ever get laid. Thanks Grandma.
I never had a problem with other people eating meat. In fact I supported it. My decision was not based on anything except a self challenge and ornery mule like stubbornness.
One summer I was offered 100 bucks by my uncle to take a bite of fried fish. For many people this would be a no brainer. I wasn't even tempted. I couldn't be bought off. I really could have used the money but being true to myself was a hell of a lot more important.
These days all my kids are voracious carnivores, I cook steaks, fish and chicken so well that people can't believe I've never tried them. I like the smell of bacon and enjoy watching other people eating the meat dishes I prepare.
I don't know if I have any positive or negative health benefits from being a vegetarian but I know I'm mentally stronger from dealing with the social aspects of it.
Labels: Personal interest, Society
posted by Bill Rowland @ November 13, 2006
20 Comments
20 Comments:
Hammer, I have this theory about why Americans in general are so overweight. It's all that meat consumption. And what's in the meat? Lots of growth hormone, that's what!
The more meat you eat, the more growth hormone you absorb into your metabolism. I know it's normal to blame sugar and starch intake but the nature of the bulk I see in people indicates the presence of growth hormone.
The important is that YOU feel good about your diet.
The food we eat today holds too much meat anyway. In the whole history, from the Garden Of Eden and up to after the last world war, the food was mainly wegetarian, with some meat or fish FROM TIME TO TIME....but not all the time. Still in several places on earth it is like that. After I came to Egypt, I have become more wegetarian even without thinking about it. Just because the meals here is wegetarian based. If you have some meat or fish to, is grate...if not, it's grate too because it is not necessary.
When they have meat or fish to the food, it's minor part of the dish.
Well, I've said before my biggest problem with vegetarians is having them prosletyze about finding their enlightend true self that no longer needs meat... but you don't do that. Sure... go off and ruin my perfectly good reason for not liking an entire group of people.
I have had a sampling of dealing with people who just don't understand it. When I was still observing Lent, I gave up meat one year. The most common response I got was, "I didn't know you're Catholic!" I would have to explain that Catholics aren't the only ones who observe Lent. Then, there was the actual issue of the meat eating. I wouldn't eat seafood. People kept telling me that "the Church" or "the rules" said fish is okay. I would try explaining that this was between the Divine and myself, and for me there was no flesh of any animal that was okay. They'd just get this blank look and then say, "But that's not how the Church does it..."
I made it forty days, but that was my limit. And I was past twenty at the time. I don't think I'd have been able to stand up under the pressure if I'd been a child and it had been a constant thing. That takes a certain kind of guts that most adults forget to respect in children.
I eat meat like crazy, and I have no problem with my weight. I believe that the current "weight problem" of America is laziness, lack of moderation, and the fact that so many damned foods are chock full of high fructose corn syrup (it's almost an American staple now).
Hammer, I have a close friend that gives up meat for about six months at a time. Not for any religious reasons or anything, but just to "clean myself out." He swears by it, and says he feels like a new man after doing it. He only does it every two years or so, but there's bound to be something to it.
You might be on to something Lexcen. In Brazil a few years back there was an outbreak of kids going through puberty at 3 years old due to hormones in the meat.
Many of the kids coming out of the middle school down the street look like they are 25.
Kirsten: Maybe thats why middle eastern food is one of my favorites. Falaffle (spelling)was one of the first meat substitutes.
Jarhead John: You reminded me of a scientific study that said if you put an American's tissue in a spectrograph it would show us as mostly corn isotopes.
Instead of giving up meat, I just tell my friends to eat a frigging green salad from time to time so they don't get diverticulitus and other such issues.
Phoenix, Sorry to disrupt your shit list, ;)
Since I was raised Catholic Friday was my favorite day. I didn't have to deal with meat issues. Then the church said fish was ok which ruined it. I also had people telling me fish really wasn't meat.
Nothing I said could make them understand that if it has muscles, blood and brains it's not in my diet.
Well, it is understandable that people freak out when someone in their midst rejects a major traditional aspect of their diet. I think the hostility comes in when there's a moral judgment of others attached to the abstention from meat, which it doesn't sound like there is in your case. I tried going veggie for about 5 minutes in my mid-twenties, and I was doing pretty well with it too, but then I was over at me mum's and she'd made meatloaf and that was all she wrote. Mum chuckled wryly about how easily I was seduced back to the dark side, but damn! No one makes meatloaf like my mom, and I'm only human! Good for you, though, for sticking to your guns, if you're healthy and it makes you happy. Although I adore meat, I do think of the creature I'm eating and I don't just take it for granted, which I do believe most people do. I've always said that if people had to be involved in rearing and slaughtering the animals they eat, they'd be a lot more respectful of the source and probably eat less of it.
I have some vegen friends that, like you, have not forced their children to also choose that lifestyle. I makes me laugh though, because they didn't give them this option to choose until they were in late adolescense and by then, their systems were not adjusted to things like hamburger, so eating it made them sick.
From one crazed commie Satan worshipper to another, after I became a vegan over five years ago my life changed all for the better.
Nice post.
I don't think I'd ever pass judgment on someone for their eating habits. But, it's been fairly recently that being a vegatarian has become almost mainstream (Almost) I can't imagine doing it myself growing up on a farm & now having sorta a "live off the land" lifestyle including hunting for our own meat. Of course, not everyone can do that, either. you are a different sort of person. "Gun toting vegetarian" ?
I just eat what I want to eat and some of it is meat. I just don't eat too much of anything and I work it off so my weight is fine at 5'9" and 170 pounds.
If I was a vegetarian I think the best comeback I could give would be, "Would you eat okra if you didn't like it? I don't like meat, get over it."
I'm confused. Why exactly are you a vegetarian if you don't believe in it morally? It seems the reason your decision to be vegetarian isn't more respected is because your only reasoning is "just because".
Being kosher often causes others to look at me funny, but at least they understand I do it for religious reasons. I have no idea what your reasons for being a vegetarian are except for "stubbornness" and spite.
Help me out here because I just don't get it.
"I think she was worried that a vegetarian couldn't ever get laid."
Guess you proved her wrong eh?? lol I think I like the way your Grandma thought :o)
Two of my kids tried going veggie as they were growing up.. quite easy in our neck of the land... one actually went vegan for a year.. I tried to support their decision as best I could at family functions etc.. I got pretty good at tofu creations!
I love the way your 5 yo mind wrapped around your fathers way of life... Must have truely warmed his heart!
I'm kinda with the mad zionist on this one. Why if there was no real moralistic reason for your choice didn't you take the hundred bucks? I would have if for no other reason than to get everyone to shut up and get over it. I bet no one would ever bother you again.
Graze on dude!
Me, I was raised veggie for about 5 years, then we ate meat, then I chose veggie again at age 15 then I ate meat around 25, then I was vegan for a few years, and around 30, health concerns made me go to the meat again, i was eating only carbs, and getting weak. So now I eat some chicken and fish and still soy and tofu products with the annual burger at my dad's house thrown in.
But I always consider the life that was the meat before it became my fish sandwich or orange chicken. I like to thank it for giving me protein.
thanks for the story
Dan: Vegan, wow. I tried it for a month and got sick don't think I was prepared for it.
BBC: I used to get: "guess you can't eat pussy huh" I told them I did't swallow...
MadZ & Intolerant I chose to follow in my fathers philosopy because he took the time to share it with me. Vegetarianism is a personal choice. I chose to deny myself one of my favorite things. I have no say or do I care what other people eat as long as they are happy with themselves. I was happy with myself and my decision.
Other people couldn't stand that I was different or respect what I was doing even though I wasn't bothering anyone else with it.
This convinced me that I should see it through.
Cheesy: Grandma is still around and is cool with me now. She doesn't eat meat these days due to indigestion so I get to cook my rabbit shit for her when I visit.
Phosgene: that should be on a T shirt lol.
infinitesimal: I hear ya. You've got to go with what your body tells you. I believe the Native Americans respected the animals they used in the same way.
kat: Switching diets has to be done slowly. I'd hate to see the toilet carnage I'd make if I suddenly ate a double whopper.
My son stated he wanted to be a vegetarian like me when he was around 4. I told him that was fine.
It lasted a day or so until the fried chicken at grannys house.." sorry dad I've got to have some chicken" The kid loves the soy burgers and vegetarian food and everything that quacks and moos too.
Phlegmfatale: lol the meatloaf always does it. That was a heavenly smell. People used god to try to shame me into eating meat. Something about the bible says man shall take the animals for his own use. I guess that could be misconstrued huh? As a kid I figured god probably didn't care what I ate as long as I was a good person.
Hammer: I still don't get it at all, but clearly you're finding some massochistic satisfaction in being a veggie, so do what you must, I say.
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