Vegetarian. Not vegan.
I have been a vegetarian for more than eight years now. Or rather, let’s say I rarely eat meat. My philosophy is to avoid meat as long as I can. If there is nothing but meat on the table, I will eat some because I do not want to bother my host. I have no meat product at home, do not order meat at a restaurant, and will eat meat only if I am invited somewhere, and there is nothing else.
While some people say that the human body is designed to eat meat, following a vegetarian diet did not prevent me from working long hours, running 30+ miles a week, and completing long races (50K, 50 miles, or 100 miles).
I did not start to be vegetarian to protect poor animals from being killed. I started to be vegetarian because it seemed the only safe way to feed everybody on earth. Just looking at the quantity of water to consume one kilogram of meat, you notice very quickly that not everybody can eat meat. I also invite you to look at the environmental impact of food to look at the ecological footprint of our food.
I am vegetarian. But I am not vegan. Vegan people make me think of gothic people: they want to follow a trend and need attention. But I believe vegan folks are not solving a problem but adding more, especially on the health side.
Why vegetarian?
These are the reasons (by priority) I became vegetarian.
Sustainability: a vegetarian-based diet seems the best way to feed everybody. A dish composed of beef or pork uses way more resources than a dish consisting of rice and beans. The recent rise of lab-grown meat or other alternatives is a smoke screen. Rather than trying to replicate something we like, we need to adapt our tastes to new flavors.
Food Safety: the vast majority of meat is dangerous for your health. A cow should be fed grass and have a lot of lands to walk. But today, cows are fed processed corn and soybeans and are forced to stay inside filthy buildings. Animals are also now given a lot of antibiotics, ultimately ingested by the consumer (e.g., you). Fishes ingest plastic which ultimately impacts the consumer (I am sure you may look at your sushi differently from now on). This affects your health. Cooking high-quality rice, beans, and eggs is way safer and cheaper than meat.
Animal Cruelty: I have absolutely zero issues drinking the milk of a cow or eating the eggs of a chicken. But I find it inhumane how we grow and treat animals. I do not want to support an industry that abuses animals. For example, chickens should have access to indoor and outdoor spaces to walk and develop their muscles. I find it normal to kill animals to eat them, but we should raise/grow them in decent, safe, and humane conditions.
What about nutritional deficiency? Vegetarians eat eggs, cheese, and milk, reducing potential deficiencies. Ensure you eat enough complete protein (eggs are the best), take some spinach occasionally (gotta get enough iron), and you should be all set.
Why not vegan?
Vegan is vegetarian with more restrictions: you cannot eat animal products (e.g. no milk, egg, or cheese).
I see two major issues with the Vegan approach:
Food Safety: many vegan foods are replacements for traditional food. The best examples are the latest “fake meat” replacing traditional meat. These are not natural but highly processed products. Take Impossible Foods: to make their product look like meat, they use Heme, an additive that is genetically engineered. Some groups claimed the product was unsafe for consumption or not tested enough. Safer foods mean natural, unprocessed foods like organic rice, beans/lentils/bread, and vegetables. Not high-processed and genetically engineered foods.
Nutritional Deficiencies: by being vegan and not eating eggs and dairy products (cheese, milk, butter, etc.), it’s way harder to get your quota of calcium and protein.
Last, many vegan products are expensive and do not seem scalable. They are engineered, require lab production (e.g., fake cheese, meat, etc.), and only benefit large companies holding patents. We seem unlikely to produce enough “fake meat” for everyone on earth. Why invest in factories to build fake meat when we already have natural solutions that bring more nutrients at a lower cost?
My main problem with the vegan community is their lack of pragmatism. Like many extreme ideas, it seems good on paper. But its implementations are counter-productive. And instead of removing problems (e.g., avoiding meat consumption, improving food safety), it moves them. It introduces others (e.g., using lab-grown meat that relies on genetically engineered ingredients that are patented and only available to a rich population).