Recently I read this article on vegetarianism, written by a woman who seems to feel quite strongly about the issue. I rather enjoyed her characterisation of carnivores as stupid, her pronouncements that meat eaters should be held accountable for their actions, that they were a burden on the NHS, and her description of meat as ‘dead stuff travelling through my intestines, like a corpse on a raft ride’. I rather enjoyed it because I enjoy misdirected anger and righteous indignation; I like the manipulation of statistics to serve one’s own purpose, and I find it amusing when people think that if they state their opinion forcefully enough, it ought to be an able substitute for fact.
I probably eat vegetarian meals more often than I eat meat. Lentils? Love. Tofu? Can’t get enough of it. But as I read her article, I felt an insane desire to scoff down a plate of bacon with a side of sausages.
Oh, I’m so tired of extremism when it comes to diets. I can’t tell you the fads I followed as a teenager; buying weird-sounding things like quinoa and carob and brown rice spaghetti, sending my parents mad and my grocer to the Bahamas. In fact I suspect the health shop renovation that happened in 2008 was partly funded by my knee-jerk reaction to the latest fashion magazine article advising that I cut out one food group or another.
Sure, back then weight loss was the goal and emaciation was the prize, but my point is that even if you substitute ethics for aesthetics you’re still asking someone to remove a food group from their culinary vocabulary. I’m not a nutritionist, but I think extremism in all its forms needs to be viewed with caution, and arguing that we should all cut out meat so we can relieve the pressure on the NHS and avoid vegetarian ire is just irresponsible.
You can have a healthy diet that includes meat, just like you can have a healthy diet that doesn’t. It is possible to eat beef, pork, chicken, lamb and fish and not burden the NHS, deserve government-subsidised insulin and be worthy of an organ transplant should we ever require one. This country has not yet outlawed a number of things much more harmful than a pack of sausages and moreover, I don’t believe we should withhold treatment from anyone who has chosen to live their life within the law. What is that, a ‘now-you’re-sorry’ approach to healthcare?
If Barbara Ellen is expecting thanks to be rained down upon her and all other vegetarians, she’ll be waiting a while. Geez, there’s just something about a holier-than-thou attitude that sticks in my throat worse than a chicken wishbone.
