Veganism - A Nuts and Bolts Guide

OR.....

My Conversion from Petrol to Gas

Biography

Hello, my name is Rex Brough. I'm in my 40s and make radio programmes mainly for the BBC. My background is music. I used to produce records, mainly for rap artists, like Betty Boo.

Don't be Vegan?

That's enough biography, apart from the fact that in my teens I was a raving carnivore. I'm writing this to get it out of my system and then let it go. I've no desire to convert anyone to my way of eating, but simply to share the experience and useful info.

I didn't became a veggie when I was younger for two reasons. One was that most vegetarians that I seem to meet were unbearably sanctimonious, vegetarianism being a sort of "right-on" flag to wave. Perhaps you know the types I mean - censorious new puritans, who seem to be offended by the world and everything in it. Life's too short and wonderful, I say.

Secondly, Vegetarian restaurants I've had the misfortune to encounter in Britain serve up watery slop. (A couple of exceptions being Shi Krishna in Stroud Green, and Govinda's in Soho). Some food writer, who thinks he's funny, said that Vegans are the Hezbollah of the Vegetarian world. Well..yes, I think there's some truth in this, but I've been fortunate to meet quite a few normal types.

Flesh, Rigor Mortis, Pus etc..

It was probably the BSE thing that started the nagging in my brain. As well as the the risk to myself, television footage of cow's corpses being hoisted into incinerators was particualrly disturbing. It reminded me of the footage of the death camps, discovered at the end of WW2, bodies piled up like old mattresses.

Italy

Meanwhile, I was coming under the Italian influence. Apart from falling in love with the Italian way of preparing food (slow and lots of chat), I noticed that in Italy it's easy to have a meat-free diet, even without thinking about it. Vegetarian restaurants there are virtually unheard of, as so many dishes simply don't contain meat.

Going Veggie

So finally, I took the plunge and went vegetarian. After a few weeks was amazed how well I felt. I'd been over-weight for quite a few years and it all started to drop off. I had so much more energy. It was like my car battery had been changed. However, I wasn't out of the woods yet. I'd seen many veggies, particularly the born-again types, drift back to meat-eating via a bacon butty. So what made it stick? It's not like giving up smoking, which really was difficult. Read on...

I hate animals - they don't taste nice

Now, I have to say I don't have any real affinity with animals, in fact my attitude is "if they leave me alone, we'll get along fine!" and so I'd feel a hypocrite to proclaim myself as a born-again animal lover. But, and for me this an important but, I've got a feeling inside me that LIFE and LIVING is so important. The idea of snuffing out another living thing, just to feed the likes of me is obscene. I don't know quite where this feeling came from. One thing was the death of my nephew, from cancer at the age of 21. I know it sounds crass, but I have dedicated my vegetarianism to him. He was right and I was wrong. I think I now understand his way of thinking.

Vegan Influences

The internet is a wonderful thing. Finally I have met warm blooded veggies, veggies who are willing to discuss their diet, with knowledge and humour, rather than ram it down one's throat. I'm now convinced eating animal fat and flesh IS bad for you. I don't trust anyone's statistics, either meat corporation or animal lib, but I know that my body is telling how much better it is on a plant based diet. Another thing that's made my vegginess stick is cultural. I loath corporate culture, and meat producers, for example McDonalds, are experts at it. Behind the smiling face of Ronald McDonald a team of grey men in grey suits, who want our money. Don't trust them! If I want a clown, give me Harpo Marx. He's funnier.

Going further. Dropping the "itarian" and taking up the "an"

A couple of years ago I went a stage further, purely by accident. We'd had our usual pasta and I'd been avoiding the parmesan cheese, as it was giving me a face rash. Then I went round a friend's house (a meat eater) and he did a fantastic vegetable stir-fry. And so a week had gone by and I'd not had any dairy produce. So I decided to take the final step and go vegan.

Why be Vegan?

It's handy because it's easier to spell and type than v-e-g-e-t-a-r-i-a-n-i-s-m. The added cultural benefit is that I'm not involved with an "-ism" anymore. Vegetarianism seems a bit too close to presbyterianism for comfort. Vegan sounds more like Vulcan, but my ears haven't gone pointy yet. But I reckon I will "live long and prosper". Again the physical changes are amazing. I've had execema for years - gone! The remainder of the spare tyre - gone! I'm still bald as a coot though. Damn!

What sort of Vegan's are there

Obviously there's the pink dread-locked types that the tabloids always lump us in with, but if you put us all together we'd probably look like a gathering of stamp collectors.....or politicians....or porn film stars. We're fat, thin, white, brown, hairy, hair-less, spotty, short, tall, muscular, puny, just the variety of folks you see crammed into the 8.30 train to Basingstoke.

I suppose in the green "spectrum" of vegans I consider myself emerald rather than bile green. That's the irish in me.

Vegan Food - A contradiction in terms?

The vegan diet took a little getting used to.Soya milk in my tea for the first few days was absolutely dis-gus-ting! Now it's OK. It's cow's milk that now tastes horrible. Another thing I discovered was appalling vegan products. The stuff in Britain can be processed and heavily salted. Plus there are things which cannot be imitated, like mozzerella. To get over that I've found restaurants who are willing to do cheeseless pizza - the Pizza Marinara, mentioned soemwhere else in this bit.

There are plenty of foods that are vegan by default. So if you want an easy way, try this list of food and ingredients. There's no meat substitute and it's all familiar stuff. No lentils or nut cutlets!

Conclusion

So all in all, it's a good step to take. I'm running like a Swedish eco-car. I'm not going back.

Thanks to my nephew Oly.