Wednesday 27 March 2013

Meat-eating Vegetarian

I became a vegetarian aged 17 (I'm 42 now) because we learned about intensive farming in Geography and as a moralistic teenager I decided enough was enough - I had to make a stand on behalf of animal husbandry. Didn't touch it, or even really crave it, again until Christmas 2012. I had been debating it internally for a bit - felt like I needed it. Then I had some. Bacon. A mouthful. It was full flavoured and a fantastic texture in the mouth. Then after that a burger. Beef. Succulent. And this weird head clarity. At Christmas dinner my dining companions nearly fell off their chairs in shock (many of them I hadn't told) - which came on top of me wearing purple and extremely high heeled shoes - it was all a bit much for some of them to take in at once.

I still basically think of myself as a vegetarian though. Just one that eats meat with great delight. I am especially fond of beef. It's the best in the visual clarity stakes. And steaks are probably my favourite. I have even had veal escallop for old times sake. As a kid we used to go to an Italian trattoria near my father's office where that was what I always had. With lemon squeezed over. I used to love it. Cruel but delicious.

I have recently discovered I am slightly anaemic and have low ferric acid levels - which might account for the cravings. Not feeling guilty yet despite there being some ardent veggies in my ceramics class at the moment.

2 comments:

Ellie said...

I have a strikingly similar tale. My vegetarianism started off as a bet with a friend though - nothing based in ethics. My lapse started with a trip to Argentina. Who can go to Buenos Aires and not bite into some cow?!

Z said...

I went to give blood a few years ago and was told I was slightly anaemic, so took Floradix. Before the bottle was empty, I became unable suddenly to touch it again. Exactly the same happened after I had an operation and lost a fair bit of blood - I took it for a while, then couldn't bear the thought. So anaemia might well have led to a craving for something you need. But then maybe it was a lack of meat that made you anaemic.