Let’s start the saga…

If you Google “vegetarianism” you will be surprised of how people like to define and label other people, their beliefs and especially their food choices. This is a fact! We just love to put labels to others and sometimes to ourselves and we get pretty disappointed when we don’t manage to stick to the label that we had arranged so nicely on our forehead… and we get frustrated and disappointed in ourselves. This is so normal in our current society, that we don’t see it anymore as something weird.

I don’t like definitions in general (as you can see), but for the sake of this article I will do my best to handle this one particular definition:

VEGETARIANISM (according to Wikipedia) – “is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood and the flesh of any other animal), and may also include abstention from by-products of animal slaughter.”

Believe it or not, there are varieties of vegetarianism as well:

ovo-vegetarianism (eat also eggs but not dairy)

lacto-vegetarianism (eat also dairy products but not eggs)

ovo-lacto vegetarian (eat both eggs and dairy)

veganism (excludes all animal products)

As I said above, we like to define and label a lot of things and this is the main reason for which we also label our diets. But let me ask you a question: what if society labels me as being, let’s say…vegan, because I choose to eat plant based food and at one party I eat an egg, this act of mine, of choosing to eat an egg even if I declared myself a vegan, makes me a horrible person for the other vegans? Makes me not worthy of the group of people that choose to feed their body with whole, healthy plants? Makes me a disappointment of nature for craving an egg? Let’s say that I am a lonely mum, unemployed, with 2 children and almost no food to feed my kids, but I want to raise them in terms of a whole plant based diet and… one day I receive a visit of a good friend who offers me food to eat, including meat. If I will give my 2 children some meat to eat, for the sake of not starving them, would I be considered a bad person, would I be considered a criminal, would I be considered an environment destroyer, would I?

Don’t get me wrong… I am a huge supporter of the plant based diet and I consider it our natural diet , the best diet in the world, the diet that God gave us as a species, the queen of the queens, BUT I don’t like to put a label on my forehead, I don’t want to be defined by limitations or by arrogance, because that’s what labeling does, limits you and your understanding. Even if we now have the scientific prove that the whole plant based diet is the best in the world for humans, the Eskimos won’t give a shit about it, because they have to survive somehow and fruits and vegetables are not growing in all corners at the North Pole. Do these aspects make the Eskimos bad people? Of course not

The world in which we live is an amazing place, give it a chance and before cursing it, try to understand it and… if you want this world to look different tomorrow than it does today, change yourself and your beliefs, inspire others by your own example and the world will become the place that we all have dreamed of.

Yes, the science has proved that the plant based diet is the healthiest for the human species, yes, the meat and dairy industries are killing billion of innocent animals and pollute the environment, yes, the commercials are lying when they say that meat, dairy and eggs are the main key in our diet and yes, their main purpose is to get cash, power and fame, still, how many people in the world are vegetarians? Not too much I would say, around 2-3% (increasing year by year, true). This means that, either most of the population doesn’t know all the above mentioned aspects, either they know it but they don’t trust the information, either they know it but they don’t care because they didn’t get to suffer until know from illnesses, post-traumatic stress from seeing a slaughter house, or better: lack of a place to live, in this case lack of EARTH).

Plant based PEOPLE, wake up! Let’s change this, let’s walk as an inspiration for others but without labeling us in any way. Label the lifestyle if you necessary wish to label something, but don’t label yourself as a person because the one’s that you want to inspire might feel intimidated by the label itself and they might fear that once they take the label on their forehead they will be in prison. Inspire by example, not by labels. I have seen way to many people shaming others for not acting according to one type of label and I have seen too many people being afraid of failure with a plant based diet and for this reason they don’t even try it, or if they try it and they crave and eat an yoghurt they believe that everything is destroyed and they might eat a whole pig now, because of this.

Bringing whole plant based foods in the life of the masses, is going to be made by example, by not labeling people, by accepting mistakes, by learning from them, by encouragement, by understanding ourselves, by shining the light in the darkness, not by fighting with it, by listening more and preaching less, by choosing to be the best version of yourself in this moment, just for now… there is only now.

So YES! I am not a vegetarian, nor I am a vegan, my diet might be like this, but I call myself a PROUD PLANT FOOD LOVER (with all my heart). I learn from my mistakes and I now know that labeling a person is very rudimentary and is arrogant, at least in my point of view.

Inspire others by your own example. If you wish to inspire heath, do it, become healthier every day, if you want to inspire compassion for animals, inspire others by nice plant based food recipes that taste similar to animal products, offer them information about environment and what meat consumption does to it, if you want to inspire fitness, do it, become fitter every day and believe me everyone will be inspired by it, because people need hope and great examples and half of the equation is solved. Use the well known words (vegan, vegetarian, cruelty free, etc) to refer to situations, food and things, to relate with others, but don’t label yourself or others because you will create a gap between you and the people you wish to inspire.

If, because of you, or better said, because of your passion of inspiring others in approaching a plant based diet one person manages to reduce the animal products consumption, you can consider it a success.

I believe that this is a much faster solution than bulling others for destroying the environment, for killing the animals and so on. Yes, it is little by little, but faster, instead of…all at once…but just for 2 meals…and then let’s eat a hamburger. We need to be realistic; people must be convinced by themselves to act in a certain way and then they will act immediately.

Forgive me, but I am not a vegetarian, not a vegan and I am not defined by these 2 words, which once sounded very elitist; I am free to eat whatever I want, but I choose with my heart and my mind to eat plant based food, for my own reasons and I hope you chose the same too.

“All beings tremble before violence. All fear death, all love life.

See yourself in others.

Then whom can you hurt?

What harm can you do?”

– Buddha