There are a couple of notable trends in vegetarianism. Firstly, vegetarians and vegans are overwhelming likely to be either Millennials or Boomers, female, and (when religious motivations are factored out) white. Vegetarianism is especially the choice of teenage females.
Secondly, most vegetarians eventually revert back to eating meat. Because of their health.
Enter Newshub’s fraffly-hyphenated Ireland Hendry-Tennent.
Despite furrowing her middle-class, middle-brow over the poor ickle animals and the poor ickle planet, Hendry-Tennant was eventually forced to admit the harsh truth: a strictly vegetarian diet is a bit shit.
Not least because, for most people, it’s an extremely un-healthy option.
The most noticeable difference is I am hungry way less. I distinctly remember the first time I had chicken feeling full for a solid 15 hours.
Part of this, I am sure, was my body simply being unable to digest meat properly because of my years of abstaining.
No, it’s because the human animal evolved to benefit from an omniverous diet, and protein is the most filling macronutrient in our diet.
But even now, more than a month later, the difference is noticeable. Meals with meat keep me full for much longer than vegetarian ones.
Registered nutritionist Nikki Hart says there is a reason for this and it comes down to protein, digestibility and amino acids.
Foods that have all nine essential amino acids are known as complete proteins. Most meat is a complete protein along with eggs, dairy, soy, quinoa and buckwheat.
Sure, it’s possible to supply your body with sufficient protein on a vegetarian diet — but it’s a lot of work. Work most people have neither the time nor the inclination to be arsed with.
The same goes for iron.
It takes more work and getting it wrong sucks. Towards the end of being a vegetarian, I was exhausted all the time. I didn’t actually realise my tiredness was diet-related until I started eating meat again and suddenly had more energy.
Hart says this is something she hears from clients a lot.
But while eating a truly healthy vegetarian diet is a lot of hard work, plant-based meat is very, very far from a healthy shortcut.
A recent University of Auckland study highlighted just how highly processed a lot of plant-based alternatives are and prompted calls for a health star rating system for them.
“They’ve gone through a lot of processing to look like burgers and sausages, that type of thing. Salt is often added – well, salt is always added in this kind of process,” said report co-author Sally Mackay.
The researchers sampled 201 legume options and alternative meat products and found falafel mix had the highest amount of energy, while baked beans had the lowest – but also the lowest amount of protein.
Meat-free sausages meanwhile had high levels of sodium and saturated fats, whereas tofu was an excellent all-rounder […]
My overreliance on plant-based meats also meant I was never properly full after eating and would inevitably find myself hungry again 20 minutes later.
As it happens, I do leaven my diet with one or two vegetarian meals a week. For a long time, I thought I was saving money, meat being so expensive. But a recent trip to the greengrocer’s put paid to that idea. A modest box of vegetables was as expensive as buying a fortnight’s worth of meat.
Plant-based meats are even more expensive.
Hart says she’s increasingly seeing people changing their eating habits as the cost of food increases.
She says often the first thing people have to sacrifice is fresh fruit and vegetables, which leaves you with pretty dire options as a vegetarian.
Newshub
Hendry-Tennant still blithers about the “ethical and environmental impacts of my choice”, though.
So, here’s a bit of advice: the demonisation of meat is a load of old horse-dookey.
Have that steak and stop letting the lying Greens guilt-trip you about it.
