The famous chef Alain Ducasse already said it: eating is a political act. Separating eating food from the other conditions that define us as human beings is so naif as absurd. We can be more or less free in our choices, but we all have a personal and collective responsibility when choosing what and how to eat. And being aware of it can give you real headaches if you want to be consistent.
Veganism is probably the eating pattern that has its convictions the clearest. They often insist that it is not just a diet, but everything A lifestyle. A vegan faithful to his philosophy in theory should reject any food or practice that involves the minimum abuse or suffering of any animaland also the environment itself. That something bears the label vegan It does not mean that it is sustainable or ethical, or healthy.
The matter is complicated when that animal suffering comes with asterisks. we can horrify slaughterhouses, caged chicken houses, fish farms or foie production, and yet continue dreaming of T-bone steaks or a good hamburger. There are those who will feel guilty just by smelling the bacon frying while others will continue to eat meat without giving it much thought.
Researchers Steve Loughnan, Nick Haslam, and Brock Bastian called it “the meat paradox” in their study. The Psychology of Eating Animals: Most of us care about animals, but we also enjoy eating them. This puts us in conflict with ourselves and it is one of the reasons why we are increasingly disconnected of the reality of the food, of the work behind that clean and packaged meat, of the calves bleeding to death before they are butchered.
And vegetarians have it more raw.
Cognitive dissonance in the act of eating
We use the term vegetarian to really refer to those who follow a diet ovolactovegetarian: They do not eat meat, fish or derivatives, but they do eat eggs, dairy products or honey, among others. And a recent study published in appetite examines the already stated meat paradox applied precisely to those who continue to include other animal products in their regular diet.
If you are against exploiting animals to consume their meat, why is it okay for you to eat eggs or dairy? The aforementioned work is very limited in terms of the individuals it interviews and examines, but it does raise an interesting and somewhat uncomfortable question in today’s society. The excuses we give ourselves to continue enjoying what we like.
The authors talk about cognitive dissonance and how a vegetarian can better accept an animal food when more processed it is, that is, if it hardly already reminds of its animal origin. That is why they usually accept without problems the cheese, but milk is more troublesome for them. It is not uncommon for a vegetarian to have switched to vegetable drinks but continue to buy yoghurts or animal milk cheeses.
The conflict is even less with products such as desserts or prepared dishes that have ingredients of animal origin; So much so that there are cases of vegetarians who have no problem eating sweets made with lard, so typical at our parties. Behind your grandmother’s exquisite mantecados there is a pig slaughterhouse, but there are vegetarians who manage to forget that detail when they come out of the oven.
Another strategy, more or less conscious, is that of justify themselves on the basis of trusting a system productive more ethical or sustainable. Trust that seals such as ‘Animal Welfare’, which is assigned by the sector itself, or those for ecological or bio production, guarantee that our animals do not suffer and that the environment is protected. It is proven or not if it is true or pure greenwashing.
Cheese is less natural than meat
Curiously, another contradiction occurs in vegetarian convictions; the consumption of meat and fish is more “natural”, from the biological, cultural and evolutionary, than animal dairy. Human beings and our ancestors ate meat and aquatic animals a lot, a lot. before domestication which allowed the initiation of milk consumption. It is the premise of the paleo diet, for example.
The traditional association between vegetarianism and nature -that diffuse concept- breaks here. A vegetarian could eat some supermarket chocolate muffins with palm fat and industrial milk without remorse, but be horrified at the thought of a beef steak, even if it comes from animals raised in the wild on natural pastures, slaughtered to limit suffering.
The consumption of cheese and other dairy products is thus justified based on pure pleasure and habit, not in a biological or survival necessity. Social pressure or the difficulty of finding food without dairy products or eggs is another excuse that is sometimes used, but with less weight in today’s society. While vegans do feel a constant need to justify themselves, it’s more socially acceptable to declare that you don’t eat dairy.
The rejection that many omnivores feel towards milk -and the myth that it is unhealthy persists-, and the knowledge about intolerances and allergies make it easier than ever to give up these foods. And yet many vegetarians they evade the question and they prefer to continue enjoying their favorite cheeses.
In short, the cheese paradox confirms that the human being is a skein of contradictions. Adopting radical positions in food will never be easy, and we don’t like to give up what gives us pleasure and enjoyment. Even if that implies contradicting our own beliefs or putting asterisks to food standards that we create ourselves.
Some popularizers call the phenomenon of defending animal rights “furry” because they see them as beautiful, huggable and cuteignoring that nature is also cruel and wild, and it needs to be. That is why many give up eating meat, but do not see the problem in enjoying a cheesecake with ice cream. Behind a hamburger they see the horror of a slaughterhouse; the animal origin of processed dairy is easier to ignore.
Eating is a political act (BODY AND MIND)
Photos | Freepik – Racool_Studio – aleksandarlittlewolf
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