I have been a vegetarian (no fish, no meat) for over a decade. I became so by choice, not dietary nor religious necessity. As an avid scuba diver, I witnessed first-hand the devastating effects of overfishing and deep-sea trawling on aquatic life: collapsed marine ecosystems and barren seabeds. By its very underwater nature, this anthropogenic damage to [the silent world](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silent_World) happens mostly unseen, and is thus easily ignored by fish-eating humans. Compounding this [[Meat paradox|meat paradox]] is that the appearance of fish in food products is often far removed from that of the original animal (as is the case in fish sticks, for instance). By transforming living organisms into abstract and unrecognizable byproducts, the food industry renders the psychological dissociation easier for the consumer (Benningstad & Kunst, 2020). I, however, became exposed to a bleak subaquatic reality that I could no longer ignore. After decades of enjoying fish and seafood, I thus decided to stop eating both. Shortly after, I came to a second realization: the reasoning that led me to forgo fish applied equally to meat, too. I could not rationalize any meaningful difference between the mistreatment of marine animals and that of land animals. The unethical farming of *cattle* and *poultry* (themselves labels meant to create cognitive distance between lovable animals, such as cows and pigs, and mere unemotional food, such as beef and pork), is well documented. So is the disastrous environmental impact of *livestock* (another such label!) coming from ammonia and pesticide pollution, antibiotic resistance, aquifer depletion, carbon dioxide emissions, deforestation and land erosion, and zoonosis risk. I had a decision to make: be internally consistent with myself, or deal with lifelong cognitive dissonance. Being too lazy for the latter, I chose the former, and went... cold turkey on meat. This post is not thinly-veiled virtue signaling; I do not mention my vegetarianism lightly to others, and never proselytize. None of my relatives are vegetarian and I have no right to expect otherwise. However, being a vegetarian has become part of *my personal ethics*, and therefore part of *my identity*. Adapting to the vegetarian lifestyle was, in retrospect, surprisingly easy. Since giving up on fish and meat, I have only ever lived in cities that offer a plethora of vegetarian options, both in the form of individual ingredients and recipes to combine them. I have also expanded my culinary horizons. My *protein sources* include legumes such as black beans, chickpeas, kidney beans, lentils, soybeans; tempeh and tofu; edamame; quinoa; nuts and seeds including almonds, Brazil nuts, chia seeds, macadamia nuts, walnuts. I eat *vegetables* that include leafy greens (arugula, kale, spinach); taproots and tuberous roots (beets, carrots, radishes, sweet potatoes); cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower); gourds and squashes (butternut squash, pumpkin, zucchini); and nightshades (bell peppers, eggplants, tomatoes). I also eat *grains* that include whole grains (barley, brown rice, bulgur, oats), pasta (rice noodles, soba noodles, whole wheat pasta), and breads (preferably whole-grain). I very much enjoy *fungi* such as button, lion's mane / monkey head, morel, oyster, portobello, shiitake, and truffle mushrooms. I get *healthy fats* from avocados, olive oil, and sesame oil. *Fermented and umami* ingredients in my diet include kimchi, miso, and soy sauce. I combine them with *fresh herbs*, such as basil, cilantro, mint, parsley. I finish with *fruits* of the citrus (oranges, mandarins), berry (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries), tropical (bananas, mangoes, persimmons, pineapples), or stone (cherries, peaches, plums) varieties. These are mere ingredients — entire bookshelves have been written about combining them into endless recipes. Anyone who believes that vegetarians are limited to the clichéd *salad* and *pasta* suffers from a deficit of imagination. With this new diet of mine came not only moral alignment, but also health benefits, including lower blood pressure (Yokoyama et al., 2014), lower blood sugar (Wang et al., 2023), lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (Landry et al., 2023), improved cardiometabolic health (Argyridou et al., 2021), and stronger immunity (Link et al., 2024). I have experienced no downsides to switching, such as fatigue, muscle attrition, or unwanted weight loss. I do however intentionally supplement my vegetarian diet with vitamins B12, D3, and K2, which are otherwise difficult to procure from plant-based foods, and make a conscious effort to ingest enough proteins. Furthermore, I have not gone *vegan*; I still consume "renewable" animal products such as eggs and milk, although I try to source them from free-range and organic farms. By opting for vegetarianism, I also take some pride in perpetuating a legacy of both Eastern and Western thinkers who, since at least the 6th century BC, broadly reject anthropocentric [[Speciesism|speciesism]] (and, as I see it, a certain form of cultural dominionism). In the East, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Zoroastrianism all ruled against violence toward animals. The *[Tirukkuṟaḷ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kural)*, an early Tamil poetic treatise of morality, has the following couplets of choice on the topic of vegetarianism and non-violence against all beings: >*The wise, who have freed themselves from mental delusion, will not eat the flesh which has been severed from an animal.* (#268, in *The renunciation of flesh*); > >*Why does a man inflict upon other creatures those sufferings, which he has found by experience are sufferings to himself?* (#318, in *Not doing evil*); > >*Never to destroy life is the sum of all virtuous conduct. The destruction of life leads to every evil.* (#321, in *Not killing*). In the West, Pythagoras (6th century BC), whom I hold in high regard as an early polymath, was an influential proponent of ethical vegetarianism in Archaic Greece; so much so that the adjective *Pythagorean* was long a synonym for *vegetarian* in English. In Lucian of Samosota's 170 AD imaginary dialogue with the god Hermes about philosophical creeds (Gaughran, 1969), Pythagoras declares: > *Of living animals I eat none. All else I can eat, except beans.* Pythagoras saw souls in every living animal as the reason for not eating them; I see some degree of consciousness and sentience instead, but I like to think that he and I would agree that they are fundamentally the same phenomenon observed through different cultural lenses. As for the beans, he excluded them from his diet on superstitious grounds, deeming them sacred and their nature a mystery — that's where he and I part ways. ## References - Argyridou, S., Davies, M. J., Biddle, G. J. H., Bernieh, D., Suzuki, T., Dawkins, N. P., Rowlands, A. V., Khunti, K., Smith, A. C., & Yates, T. (2021). Evaluation of an 8-week vegan diet on plasma trimethylamine-n-oxide and postchallenge glucose in adults with dysglycemia or obesity. *J Nutr.*, *151*(7), 1844–1853. https://doi.org/pdfx - Benningstad, N. C. G., Kunst, J. R. (2020). Dissociating meat from its animal origins: A systematic literature review. *Appetite*, *147*(104554). https://doi.org/ghtkhz - Gaughran, E. R. L. (1969). Division of microbiology: From superstition to science. *Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences*, *31*(1 Series II), 3–24. https://doi.org/pdf5 - Landry, M. J., Ward, C. P., Cunanan, K. M., Durand, L. R., Perelman, D., Robinson, J. L., Hennings, T., Koh, L., Dant, C., Zeitlin, A., Ebel, E. R., Sonnenburg, E. D., Sonnenburg, J. L., & Gardner, C. D. (2023). Cardiometabolic effects of omnivorous vs vegan diets in identical twins: A randomized clinical trial. *JAMA Netw Open.*, *6*(11), e2344457. https://doi.org/pdfs - Link, V. M., Subramanian, P., Cheung, F., Han, K. L., Stacy, A., Chi, L., Sellers, B. A., Koroleva, G., Courville, A. B., Mistry, S., Burns, A., Apps, R., Hall, K. D., & Belkaid, Y. (2024). Differential peripheral immune signatures elicited by vegan versus ketogenic diets in humans. *Nat Med*, *30*, 560–572. https://doi.org/pdfz - Morgan, N. (n. d.). The hidden history of Greco-Roman vegetarianism. In *Encyclopædia Britannica*. https://explore.britannica.com/explore/savingearth/the-hidden-history-of-greco-roman-vegetarianism - Wang, T., Masedunskas, A., Willett, W. C., & Fontana, L. (2023). Vegetarian and vegan diets: Benefits and drawbacks. *European Heart Journal*, *44*(36), 3423–3439. https://doi.org/pdfq - Yokoyama, Y., Nishimura, K., Barnard, N. D., Takegami, M., Watanabe, M., Sekikawa, A., Okamura, T., & Miyamoto, Y. (2014). Vegetarian diets and blood pressure: A meta-analysis. _JAMA Intern Med._, *174*(4), 577–587. https://doi.org/gm5ggd