Dinner at Steak!
The other night I was eating in Nandos (a popular restaurant famous for its Peri-Peri grilled chicken) when the waiter informed me, I kid you not, that Nandos the almighty Chicken Chain had ran out of…chicken! Only then, when my options were starvation or a vegetarian option, I ordered a salad. It was too green, bland, and unsatisfying and I later found myself going home and making a ham sandwich. In my opinion a meal is not complete without a brilliant slab of bloody beef on my plate to accompany the wimpy vegetables otherwise I feel empty and unsatisfied. With roughly 4 million people in the UK ordering the boring veggie option every day, is it really wrong for humans to eat animals? Or are 7% of the British population wrong in the refusal to eat meat in a bid to save the animals?In recent years the vegetarian industry has boomed, estimated to be worth £739 million, suddenly Western society is obsessed with vegetables and I fail to understand why exactly. In this growing trend, more and more people (especially younger females) are turning to the green side along with many leading celebrities such as Brad Pitt and Kate Winslet. Ladies and gentlemen, I do believe we are dealing with a global pandemic of lettuce eaters.
I do not dislike vegetarians, in fact some of my friends are a part of this way of life themselves, but I dislike the fact that they are denying human nature. They have their reasons of course which I respect. However, in my eyes these reasons are hardly valid. 750 million animals in Britain are “murdered” each year for food and by not eating meat some vegetarians aim to stop this unfair treatment of animals. Another very logical and scientific reason for vegetarianism is because they love cute and cuddly animals and feel bad nibbling on Daisy the Cow’s rump or the 3 little piggy’s ribs; it’s just absolutely heartbreaking. Really Britain? I never realised we had become so soft and sensitive towards our food. Soon we will be protesting against eating tomatoes...Because tomatoes have feelings too!
From a young age we are told that eating meat will make us grow big and strong, just like our Daddies, scientifically this is actually very true. Our human bodies have a high dependency on proteins and iron which a bloody, juicy steak is high in. A life of carrots and lettuce has a negative effect on our traditional balanced diet, involving health risks such as anaemia and weak muscles (especially serious in children and teenagers who are growing). Parents all over the country are putting children at risk by not providing them the nutrients and vitamins they need. Would you really make your child susceptible to a health risk? Also, with teenage girls being the most common to vegetarianism, they are putting themselves in danger especially since they are growing fast and need protein for their bodies to keep up. Meat also provides gluten, a nutrient that makes our nails strong and our hair glossy, something every teenage girl wants.
For as long as man has walked this Earth he has eaten animals to satisfy his hunger. It is perfectly natural for humans to eat meat and as animals ourselves we crave blood in our food. The cavemen did not hunt down wild tofu or ask for the vegetarian at the clan meals; they would eat their meat raw and enjoy it as part of a social and traditional way of life. Our teeth are also designed for eating meat which clearly means it’s natural. In addition the food chain has been a part of planet Earth longer than humans have; it’s a delicate balance and once disrupted can cause chaos. If humans do not eat the meat positioned below us in the chain, there will be too many animals roaming the world so really we meat eaters are doing the planet a favour and keeping numbers under control.
Most vegetarians believe that eating an animal is morally wrong and could be classed as murder but it’s not morally wrong for a lion to eat a zebra, so why are humans different? Animals eat animals, you’ll see it now if you turn on your television to the animal channel. I don’t see the vegetarians angrily chasing after the lion to criticise it for the brutal crime it has just committed. In Britain, animals that are killed for food are killed in a humane and controlled way, so the animal is not distressed. Firstly the animal is stunned by electricity or percussion and then killed by cutting the blood vessels in the neck, the animal does not feel pain and is not stressed before it is stunned. To me, that doesn’t compare to the horrific, gory murders you’ll read about in the newspapers every day.
Whilst researching for this essay, I found it very difficult to find any anti-vegetarian sites as there is little interest in the celebration of meat any more. There is so much pro-vegetarian media and publicity out there, so why is the traditional, natural not to mention tastier option not being just as much celebrated? The label of being a vegetarian is becoming more fashionable than Gucci, and this culture is rapidly growing. Soon celery bars and asparagus cafes will not put a crazed expression on your face at the absurd idea. There’s not much I enjoy doing more in life than eating a full meal of satisfying roast beef and it’s sad some children have never and will never experience this pleasure due to their parent’s decision to be vegetarian from birth. My love for meat will never change and I will always ask for my steak to becooked rare, where the real flavour can still be tasted… Time for a bacon roll!