Food
For Thought
The
Vagaries of Vegetarianism
Farah
Ghuznavi
In recent
years, I have often found myself flirting with the idea of
vegetarianism. As an avid viewer of "Animal Planet",
and a well-known sucker for small cuddly animals, it has become
increasingly difficult to reconcile the fact that I can be
reduced to a cooing wreck by the large brown eyes of a calf,
while having no hesitation in taking a healthy bite out of
a hamburger - meat from the adult version of that very animal!
Then of
course, there are also the numerous health benefits we are
assured will accrue from a blameless (joyless?) vegetarian
lifestyle. And finally, as a development professional, there
is the realisation that the cost of raising livestock makes
it unsustainable for all of humanity to indulge in a meat-eating
lifestyle, even assuming that income was sufficiently equally
distributed for everyone to be able to afford meat. However,
despite all these very good reasons for "going vegetarian",
my flirtation has remained precisely that. So far, despite
my best intentions, I have been unable to stick to a meat
free lifestyle for more than 24 hours at a stretch (I know,
I know, it's embarrassing!). My only hope is that if I can
sustain these 24 hour sessions with greater frequency, I will
gradually move towards a more vegetarian lifestyle…
This is
not to imply that being vegetarian, despite the well-known
benefits, is an uncomplicated matter. A Finnish friend of
mine bewailed the fact that at the time that she became vegetarian,
this was considered an extremely non-mainstream (possibly
even socially hostile) kind of behaviour. Her parents accepted
it grudgingly, no doubt hoping (as parents have through the
ages, about so many things) that this was just a phase.The
extent of their resistance can be understood from the memorable
Sunday dinner where a complete melt-down ensued after my friend's
mother served her the gravy and vegetables from the meat stew,
after fishing out the chunks of meat. Since the bowl of stew
no longer had any meat in it, her mother simply couldn't understand
why my friend was so upset!
Perhaps
her confusion needs to be seen in a wider context, since vegetarianism
is also not without its contradictions (though purists will
no doubt take offence - perhaps rightly - with the story I'm
about to tell). A Japanese friend of mine, Miyako, remains
infuriated over an incident that took place some years ago.
She was out to lunch with a vegetarian friend, at a restaurant
which served only a limited number of vegetarian options.
To her amazement, her friend decided to order Mapo Tofu (a
dish made from soy bean curd and mincemeat).
When she
asked her friend why she had ordered something made from mincemeat,
to Miyako's outrage, her friend replied - quite casually -
that she could not see anything interesting among the vegetarian
dishes on the menu, and so she would order the Mapo Tofu,
eat the soybean curd and leave the meat! Frankly, like Miyako,
I would be highly sceptical of the vegetarian credentials
of someone who orders a dish that contains mincemeat, regardless
of whether or not they actually eat the meat itself...
Mind you,
a commitment to vegetarianism can involve a degree of inconvenience,
boredom or even danger. The chances of the first two occurring
are higher than the latter, I admit, since some cuisines and
many restaurants offer limited options for vegetarians (though
with greater enlightenment about healthy nutrition, this is
changing). Thus, an American friend of mine, Lisa, is always
thrilled to be back in Bangladesh, because as she puts it
there is so much exciting vegetarian food on offer (even though
many Bangladeshis prefer to serve their guests meat whenever
they can afford it). The element of danger, however, comes
in when you have a combination of a truly committed, purist
vegetarian who encounters a culture or cuisine that offers
very little to vegetarians - hence the comment by a travel
writer that a vegetarian would only live for 40 days in Mongolia,
where "food" is synonymous with "meat"
- because that is how long it takes a healthy person to starve
to death!
Finally,
for those who feel that I am exaggerating the inconvenience
of being vegetarian, let me point out that there are indeed
occasions when the benefits outweigh the inconvenience. An
Indian colleague of mine, who was not herself a vegetarian,
decided on a South East Asian work-related trip to identify
herself as vegetarian, in order to be sure of what she was
eating (i.e. to avoid beef). Other colleagues who were also
travelling teased her mercilessly about dishonesty and hypocrisy,
until they were informed after one meal (upon asking), that
what they had eaten was snake-meat stew. She definitely had
the last laugh on that occasion!
Complications:
Meat stew without meat
Contradiction: Mapo Tofu
Safety that goes beyond conventional wisdom: snake meat vegetarian
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