When I was younger, I didn’t like the taste of meat at all. In 5th grade, I decided to label myself as a vegetarian (mostly because I wanted my parents to stop forcing me to “try” things like hot dogs and chicken over and over again). At that point the only meat I ate anyway was burnt chicken nuggets and fish sticks so it was an easy transition. I was also very active in protecting endangered animals from a young age and knew that I wanted to stop eating animals.
From then on, I became a lot more educated on the benefits of eating vegetarian and vegan. A plant-based diet is so much healthier for you and will make you feel so much more energetic. The meat and dairy industries are also bad for the environment and bad for many local communities. (I won’t dive into all of these issues right now, but I highly recommend What the Health on Netflix and Food Choices on Hulu that talk about all aspects of this.) Because of this, now I try to eat vegan whenever I can.
However, although I have been a vegetarian for almost 12 years, I still struggle with the labels of vegetarian and vegan. It’s hard to find out that McDonald’s french fries are cooked in beef grease and that some caesar dressing has anchovies in it when these are two of your only options at restaurants. It’s also hard to answer questions about what I do and don’t eat when I say that I don’t eat eggs, but I still eat cheese. Well I’m here to say that it’s about time we stop having to put labels on our diets. We should eat what makes us happy and what makes us feel good, which is different for every person.
I’m not an expert on nutrition, but I know that for me personally, I feel so much healthier when I eat natural and vegan food. I choose to cook vegan meals whenever I can, buy vegan butter, and get almond milk in my coffee, however I love nachos with real queso and cream cheese on my bagels. This is why I like to tell people “I make vegan choices but I’m not a vegan.”
As someone who is very invested in the environmental and social impacts of the food industry, I am proud whenever I hear someone is making steps towards being vegetarian. Many of my housemates have started sharing vegan butter and almond milk, but will still eat chicken. But that is okay! Small steps like this are making big impacts on society. This is why fast food chains are releasing more and more meatless options, like Beyond Murgers being introduced at Burger King and Dunkin Doughnuts. We should be supporting each other in any steps we can take towards living healthier and more sustainable lifestyles. This also means to stop judging people if they choose to eat caesar salad when they’re at a party or because they haven’t made the full switch to being vegetarian or vegan.
If this is you, I hope this motivates you to start making any small steps you can. But don’t be hard on yourself (or the people around you) if you can’t commit to being a full vegetarian or vegan.