People become vegetarians for many reasons; ethics, religion, health issues, hormones in animals, environmental concerns and the list goes on. I first started being a vegetarian in 2014. Why? Because I lost the very first animal who loved me. His name was Dotty... A pretty black and white fur ball.. It was a hit and run kinda thing. He was flattened in the middle of the road. He was a kitten and has never ever been to the road before. And the view of dead animals in roadsides is a pretty common thing. Why? Because people don't care. Hitting an animal and a human is not the same according to them. Losing him hit me really hard and it made me think of how the value of a life is relative... If we are not attached to the dead one, we don't feel a thing. But that doesn't mean we can go and kill someones loved ones. That made me feel horrible for eating all the animals for 19 years. And I became a vegetarian. After one year my health went downhill due to lack of proteins in my diet and I had be a non veg again. In 2018 January 1st I became a vegetarian again and still am a one. This time I did it right. I have a nutritionist and my diets are balanced. I workout and do regular health checkups. I want to be a vegan but we don't have a lot of vegan options in this country. So as soon as I get some options I am planning to be a one. Let's talk about this centuries long veg vs non veg debate.
The first point is lack of nutrition. It was traditionally believed that by being a vegetarian you are lacking many nutrients that are necessary for bodily functions, but recent research proves otherwise. According to Harvard Health plant based eating not only is nutritionally sufficient but also prevents many chronic illnesses. It is true, because of the hormones the mass producing farms are using. Last night my mom was watching TV and she said due to the pandemic people who raise pigs are in trouble and I asked why. She said they cannot keep pigs alive for more than 2 months. I chuckled saying " It's not like live animals expire". She said they do. I was like what?? She said in the industry those pigs are getting fat and fat due to the hormones and they should be killed by 2 months, otherwise due to the excessive weight they end up having several diseases and no longer viable.. And she said another programme revealed about the cruelty of the people who kills those animals. They beat the pigs into a pulp...Until the skin is cracked and pigs are unconscious. Wait for two days so pigs are swollen( hence the weight is increased) and then they kill. How cruel is that? My heart broke. People, if you don't eat, they don't kill. How can you do that to someone? Imagine the pain they go through. And the seafood you eat.. Those animals swallow micro plastics and through the food chain you eat them too. It's not healthy. I mean obviously we eat poison too, through insecticides and pesticides that are used in vegetables and fruit. But at least it's lesser than that of a meat eater. I do not buy most of the vegetables as we have a garden at home where we use organic fertilizers. So I am only getting exposed to only a small amount of harmful substances. Go green people!
The hardest thing of being a vegetarian is having group meals like office lunches. It's worse when you are the only vegetarian in the bunch. A couple of months ago I even got a food poisoning. There was this farewell lunch and they had ordered seafood fried rice. I said it's fine I will remove the seafood and eat because I don't wanna be a nuisance and I wasn't even allergic to seafood before, but good lord, when we were on our way back my eyes started to swell and a friend immediately took me to get meds. This happened another instance where I ate fries and I wondered how. My friend said it could be because they used the same oil they used to fry some fish. And sometimes it's challenging when going out to eat because Sri Lanka is not that vegetarian friendly. You don't find a lot of vegetarian options in most of the menus. But thankfully there are some vegan places too(which I will cover in future posts if you are interested in). All the people in my inner circle are vegetarians. So it's very easy for us to hangout.
The worst part is criticism. Seriously I mean! It's fine if you want to eat meat, but don't try to confront me... I never tell anyone not to eat meat or become a vegetarian because that is none of my business, but me being a vegetarian is my choice. Don't argue with me why I shouldn't be a one! I understand the pain of losing someone and I empathise it. If you feel like animals are just dumb kilos of meat that are here for us to eat, then you really really have a serious problem. I have been living with animals.. a lot of them. For the past few years I have lived with more than 200 cats, treated them, played with them, cuddled them.. and it's not just household pets. I have treated wild animals as well. They have feelings and cognitive abilities. They feel love, and they love us back. Animals are here to share the world with us, not to be eaten by us. Learn to empathize, Please...
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