He is tall, handsome, tattooed, white collar college grad, financially secure, overall “fits the bill” (The bill?!!) and the perfect guy to spend the rest of my life with.
Sounds like a fairytale, right?
Ohhh, wait a minute, what does fairytales usually have? Monsters and witches who always twist and turn the story to eleven.
An ace in the hole for this fairytale, HE EATS MEAT!! And, I don’t.
I mean, I don’t now, but I used to. But, have been a vegan for a while.
So now, being with him means, I would return to meat eating?? Psychology says majority of the converted vegans and vegetarians do return to meat eating. But, I have achieved this with great difficulty and have become a no-meat eater (obviously, I will make one of my kind) and I don’t want to call it a quit now.
So, what should I do?
May be, just maybe, I make him go vegan, and I do have ample reasons to persuade him to go vegan, then me returning to meat eating.
In retrospect, my reasons for not eating meat began with general health, concern towards animal welfare, spanning across to high carbon footprint in meat and global wellbeing. Thus, beginning my vegan diet saga, saving animals and the world I live in, and by eating more of grains, legumes, beans, and of course, BROCOLLI !!
Initially I wasn’t happy, had constant hunger and felt it was a daily chore to deal with. I was tired of being hungry and was always seen with low energy. However, with great difficulty I adhered to vegan diet and the rewards were worth the pain. I started feeling lighter, more energetic and improved my overall wellbeing.
So, I would start with this background, but I know this would not convince him (remember, he is intelligent too). So, I began imagining the arguments he would put in and try to come up with valid reasons that would convince him.
“The ancient argument”
That humans are naturally omnivorous and we are evolutionarily designed to eat both animal meat and plants.
The relationship between the microbiome, human health and disease. First of all, enough evidence to prove this point isn’t available. Further, talking of evolution, we “EVOLVED” from meat eating wanderers to lake-side living ‘agriCULTURE’ driven social animals, a long time ago.
“Meat tastes far better than plants”
Well, not true. Don’t believe me? It actually assumes the taste of flavors and additives we put in, and, even ‘The Matrix’ has acknowledged this. Chicken tastes like everything!! (Yes, I have seen ‘the matrix trilogy’ and have UNDERSTOOD it!!)
Moreover, there are lots of vegan and vegetarian dishes that are tastier, and I have quite a few recipes from my own R & D (I mean, my kitchen), which makes vegan diet deliciously healthy and gut friendly too.
The iron in meat is easier for the body to process than the iron in plants. Meat has higher amount of protein compared to plants
Oh, now we are getting technical, aren’t we!!
Sure, meat might have these advantages, but all this comes at a cost of unwanted fat. Meat has far more fat than plants and fat isn’t good neither for your adipose nor for your gut. In fact, some of the foods like tofu has higher amount of protein, vitamins, iron than meat and in addition contains 9 essential amino acids, as well as, some may even have cancer-protecting qualities. How about that for technical, eh ?!
“Change in sudden diet might cause health issues”
Yes initially, there could be some specific health-related symptoms, while moving from meat to no-meat diet, but then your body and your gut gets used to the new diet. Trust me, it will work charms for you and I am sure the bacteria in your gut would be happier.
What’s with the gut and the bacteria?
We have trillions of bacteria in our gut, and these bacteria (called the microbiome) has been known to determine everything from our digestion to mood, immunity to diseases. The vegans/vegetarians have been shown to contain lots of good bacteria in their guts, would fall less sick because of high immune power with other obvious advantages. Besides this they would assist in vitamin and essential nutrient synthesis that are required for your health. The diversified microbes in your gut would reduce the anxiety and depressions and make us feel good. The list doesn’t end here, it goes on.
……And I sat there imaging this conversation we could have in near future.
May be I would persuade him, maybe I’ll help him learn some cool vegan comebacks! Like, it saves animals, reduces global warming, or it’s the best way to be healthy and even make him talk about good bacteria - good mood...etc. Our world would be so perfect, with us chilling, taking pics with cute animals; would look amazing wearing those animal rights tees and of course, shopping for our vegan diet!!
Everything is fair in love isn’t it ?
