Great. Just what we need. Another arena where discussion and debate are shut down and replaced by snarky sloganeering. I get it. Sometimes you just want to eat. No questions asked. But sometimes you want to ask a few questions about what is on your plate.
Let's get one thing on the table. I'm not a vegetarian or a vegan. At least not according to the strict definitions. I eat very few animal products, but I still love sushi and I won't toss out a pizza that is topped with cheese, even though most of the pizzas I make are vegan (and deliciously so).
That said, I usually describe myself as a vegetarian. Why? Because saying you are a vegetarian is the easiest way to make sure that the food you are served is mostly plant based, which is virtually always what I want to eat.
I claim to be vegan less often, but with a purpose. Mostly, I do it in restaurants to taste test their off-the-menu vegan options, which are usually as good or better than the items on the menu. Then again, sometimes the vegan option is the best reason to compromise and eat some animal products.
Other times, I'll play vegan just to start a conversation with the wait staff. One day I was on my own for lunch in Greenwich Village and I wandered into Nix. Holy cow! What a great restaurant! Really! If you get a chance, you gotta go, meat eater or not. Anyway, I started asking about the vegan options and by the time lunch was over I had been schooled in the food, philosophy, and friendly restaurant rivalries that make Nix tick.
Things don't always work out so well. I was the poster child for vegetarianism at a recent dinner, which would have been fine except that most of the guests spoke only French (with a smattering of English), while I speak English (with a smattering of French that I last used 20 years ago). So I wasn't participating in much of the conversation.
When my chance to articulate my views on vegetarianism and veganism finally arrived, I choked. A kindly older woman suggested to me that the chicken soup would be alright for a vegetarian to eat. My response? "Chicken isn't really a vegetable." I swear I tried to keep the sarcasm out of my voice, but it was not one of my finer moments.
A vegan of convenience
Let's get one thing on the table. I'm not a vegetarian or a vegan. At least not according to the strict definitions. I eat very few animal products, but I still love sushi and I won't toss out a pizza that is topped with cheese, even though most of the pizzas I make are vegan (and deliciously so).
That said, I usually describe myself as a vegetarian. Why? Because saying you are a vegetarian is the easiest way to make sure that the food you are served is mostly plant based, which is virtually always what I want to eat.
I claim to be vegan less often, but with a purpose. Mostly, I do it in restaurants to taste test their off-the-menu vegan options, which are usually as good or better than the items on the menu. Then again, sometimes the vegan option is the best reason to compromise and eat some animal products.
Other times, I'll play vegan just to start a conversation with the wait staff. One day I was on my own for lunch in Greenwich Village and I wandered into Nix. Holy cow! What a great restaurant! Really! If you get a chance, you gotta go, meat eater or not. Anyway, I started asking about the vegan options and by the time lunch was over I had been schooled in the food, philosophy, and friendly restaurant rivalries that make Nix tick.
Things don't always work out so well. I was the poster child for vegetarianism at a recent dinner, which would have been fine except that most of the guests spoke only French (with a smattering of English), while I speak English (with a smattering of French that I last used 20 years ago). So I wasn't participating in much of the conversation.
When my chance to articulate my views on vegetarianism and veganism finally arrived, I choked. A kindly older woman suggested to me that the chicken soup would be alright for a vegetarian to eat. My response? "Chicken isn't really a vegetable." I swear I tried to keep the sarcasm out of my voice, but it was not one of my finer moments.
L'esprit de l'escalier
Why bother? Is it really worth all the trouble to eat (mostly) vegetarian or vegan in a meat based society? Yes. And if I could re-roll that dinner party conversation, here are the three reasons that I would give for abstaining (mostly) from eating animal products.
Cholesterol. My now-retired doctor was fond of giving his middle-aged patients the animal products speech, which goes a little like this. There are three knobs that control your cholesterol levels: genetics, exercise, and diet. The genes knob is stuck; you can't turn it. To turn the exercise knob, forty minutes (or more) of activity that raises your heart rate. Turn the diet knob by minimizing (or eliminating) the animal products in your diet. Each person has a different sensitivity to each knob. My ex-doctor had patients that are strict vegans but still take cholesterol-reducing medication because they are genetically predisposed to high cholesterol. Diet and exercise work pretty well for me. My bad cholesterol numbers went down, and my good cholesterol numbers went up, after I started walking regularly and cut out most animal products.
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). Jeremy Bentham first advocated for (but did not adopt) a vegetarian diet around 1780. His rationale for extending rights to animals was straightforward, "The question is not, can they reason? Nor can they talk? But, can they suffer?" And suffer they do. By the millions and in the most inhumane conditions imaginable. Need convincing? For the bravest souls, check out one or two PETA videos. For the wimps like me, watch Okja on Netflix. It's greatest movie Disney never made because Disney is so ... well ... Disney.
Climate Change. The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that 14% of the emissions that contribute to global warming comes from the food and beverages we consume. A big chunk of those emissions are methane "exhaled" by ruminants like cows, sheep, and goats. That's right. The unusually warm air you're feeling this year is partly caused by cow burps ... and the manure lagoons at CAFOs (see above). The UCS concludes that eating less meat, particularly beef, is a useful strategy for reducing your carbon footprint.
Oh, look...they all start with a C! That might make it easier to remember in the heat of a dinner party.
Climate Change. The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that 14% of the emissions that contribute to global warming comes from the food and beverages we consume. A big chunk of those emissions are methane "exhaled" by ruminants like cows, sheep, and goats. That's right. The unusually warm air you're feeling this year is partly caused by cow burps ... and the manure lagoons at CAFOs (see above). The UCS concludes that eating less meat, particularly beef, is a useful strategy for reducing your carbon footprint.
Oh, look...they all start with a C! That might make it easier to remember in the heat of a dinner party.
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