Ok so those of you out there that know me know that I’m the kind of guy that enjoys meat of all shapes and sizes I really do. It’s a little ambition of mine to try all the weird and wonderful meats out there, everything from kangaroo to alligator. In fact there are only a handful of things that I said that I would never ever eat and those are things like human (obvious reasons) any kind of primate (too close to human) and dog (because I imagine that it would taste like… well dog, and that just does not appeal to me).

People that know me also know that I care where my meat comes from, yes that’s right I’m one of those people. Putting all of the welfare issues to one side for a moment, because at this point I sound like a broken record, the fact of the matter is that animals that are treated better taste better. I can say that I have discovered that fact first hand and not let some pretentious preachy TV chef tell me that that is the case.

That brings me to the subject of this little blog, or rather an announcement, as is quite obvious from the title; I have decided to go vegetarian. My reasons? Especially after spending two paragraphs singing the praises of meat? Well first and foremost I have an almost compulsive addiction to contradiction when writing; I’m a very complicated fellow you see.

But the first real reason is that, even though I am not as dependant on meat as some people out there that find it hard to go a complete day with out eating an animal, I still think I eat meat too often, averaging out about three times a week. I know, for a carnivore, that doesn’t seem like a huge amount but if you think back to cave men times- would I have been eating that much meat back then? I don’t think so. We are designed to be hunter gatherers, but the problem is that hunting is hard and takes time, so the majority of our diet should be vegetation. If you think I’m talking a load of bollocks you need only look at human teeth, we are equipped with only four tiny canines but with have nine molars. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t eat meat at all, we have evolved to have forward facing eyes so we are defiantly hunters, I just think today’s society and structures allow us to eat way too much meat, and it just can’t be healthy. So I am really interested to see what the health benefits are.

The second reason is that I want to prove a point to myself and to other people, not every person out there, but the people that complain that they can’t afford to switch to free range or not even higher welfare meat, but still carry on eating meat. The way I see it is, if you can’t afford caviar you don’t eat caviar every day. If you are one of those people that pretend to act concerned about animals and then use money as an excuse for not supporting higher welfare meat (which is literally pence more expensive) then sod off, you are a hypocrite and I have got no time for you. I’m going to prove to all of you out there that it is absolutely possible to not eat meat when you can’t afford meat. Vegetables are cheaper than meat and when you are feeling the pinch it is always good to save a few pennies and rather than punish animals to do so, I think it is a lot more ethical to try and up your veg consumption.

I don’t really know how long I will pursue this experiment, but I probably won’t do it forever because, as I have said, I am a keen carnivore but I think, realistically, three months is a good target to aim for, this will take me all through the summer to the start of autumn, and that’s pretty good because that’s the time of year the best variety of fruit and veg are available.   

I am starting my journey today and to be honest I am excited, I have got my vegetable cookbook in hand and I really hope that I can learn a few things and become a bit more knowledgeable in the skill of using our vitamin packed friends. Make sure you keep an eye on my recipe section to see what kind of stuff I will be eating.