Today marks the one year anniversary of the day I decided to stop eating animals.
If I think about it, I’ve never really been that fond of meat. Sure, I like the taste of bacon but the general meat texture and the fat has never been my thing. I’ve eaten meat most of my life more out of habit than love. The meat just had to be a part of my dish somehow and be the main course. That is how I was brought up. By my parents, by “experts” and the society.
This habit seldomly led me to think about where the meat was coming from or how it was produced. I just ate the spicy pepperoni and never gave thought to the cow or the pig in it. Of course I knew where the meat came from but somehow, in my head, the cognitive and empathic link between the source and the product didn’t exist.
Then I got a dog and everything changed!
Through my love for her I became aware of how fantastically brilliant and beautiful creatures all animals are. I started feeling a stronger sense of empathy for all kinds of animals, big and small. And then I started thinking about why we don’t eat dogs…
These thoughts inspired me to dig deeper and research the food industry, food production and animal welfare. What I found was absolutely horrific. And it changed me.
Becoming a vegetarian has been the biggest and most positive transformation I’ve gone through in my life.
Yet, it was all so simple!
I wanted to write this post to celebrate and just maybe inspire someone to at least give the vegetarian lifestyle a chance. Even though you choose to eat meat, I believe you can go far by being a conscious consumer, ethically inclined and more aware of animal cruelty, factory farming, dodgy food processing and the health of your own body.
If you are up for it I highly recommend that you read this article about why Michael Natkin is a vegetarian.
