The Transveg Conspiracy…
…and then Jason Bourne disarmed the assailant with a few deftly placed blows his attacker was incapable of defending… oh sorry, I got carried away after that title. 
No, the conspiracy I refer to is one where I see such a large number of people in the trans community adopting, or currently living either a vegetarian or vegan diet. Now I have no problem with any particular diet, aside from the fact that I refuse to keep my mouth shut on any given topic. I was raised on a very heavy meat and potatoes diet, it was just kind of the standard where I grew up. In our family we even got into the routine of having regular Sunday night roast beef dinners. It wasn’t until I went back and stayed with my parents for a couple months that I realized how stifling their diet was. Sometimes it seems like a meal would consist of meat topped with meat and a side dish of meat… and maybe some peas. Again… this is how I grew up.
I’m not going to pretend that my dietary habits don’t suck big time, I know they do. But slowly I’ve been trying to make changes to improve my diet. I know my ex hates how I portray her in my blog, so here’s something positive… she’s probably the single person who has helped me turn around my dietary habits the most. So for that, thank you. My diet issues verged on phobic as many attempts to force myself to eat foods I know I should be eating resulted in uncontrollable vomiting. But much like my issue with swallowing pills (which I did overcome) I too wanted to overcome this. As a result, while still far from stellar, I have a much wider range of foods that I now eat. I recently connected with a couple old friends and when we went out for dinner and I ordered a salad their jaws dropped. So I feel like I’m at least making progress.
I swear, it seems like over half the trans community, at least the trans community that I know, has adopted a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle. Like my friends here, or here… and even here. I’m really feeling in the minority now for wanting a tasty burger. Hearing constant talk of tofu, boca meat, and other substitutes for that delicious juicy meat we all crave… it just drives me nuts. But that’s okay. It can however be incredibly frustrating trying to arrange plans for a group of people which includes one or more vegans.  I’m sorry, but in most instances these people are just incorrigible dynamics to toss into any attempt to keep things simple and laid back. I know many vegans get a bad rap, and some of them deserve it. There seems to be 3 types of vegans you’re likely to encounter. 1) The militant annoying vegan (moderate to rare), 2) the poorly informed vegan that talks constantly about how they are not militant but then proves otherwise (more common) and the truly laid back easy to get along with vegan (extremely rare, ie. I think this group is comprised completely of Moby).
You can argue that veganism is healthier, but there are quite a few points that I can’t get around. First is that man eats meat for a reason. It is instinctual and we’ve done it since the days of fire. Animals eat other animals, and man is an animal. It’s only our illusion of civility and shelter of a societal construct that makes us think we are somehow not animals and therefore are not part of the food chain. Second, look at chickens… they are just begging to be used as a food source. Other than fertilizing shit, yummy protein rich eggs (and yes, the cholesterol myth of eggs has been debunked) and the yummy tender meat of these insipid birds so universal that any taste that can’t quite be placed is said to “taste like chicken.â€Â Other animals fit this description too. Finally, a good hamburger is just fucking delicious.
I would also make the argument, and this is the talking from my ass segment of the article, that veganism is actually detrimental to trans girls and guys. Having seen a few trans girls on vegan diets, it’s sometimes painfully easy to see how underdeveloped they are as women. Everyone makes their own decisions on how important that is, but you have to remember than embarking on HRT is like going through puberty… again. And when young girls and guys go through puberty, there’s enormous change that goes on in the body and it’s necessary for it to not only be healthy, but well balanced in the all the things a body needs for rapid growth. Especially for pubescent girls, they are packing on fatting layers around their hips, their bust and their face. (and sometimes other areas) So it’s important for the body to have a good level of fat and protein content for this proper development. And when I hear terms like “protein replacements†and “no fat intakeâ€, well… the connection between a vegan diet and little to no normal female growth doesn’t require a poopload of math skills.
It’s not hard to see what side of the meat fence I’m on, but one place I can agree with vegans and vegetarians is the issue of animal cruelty. Unfortunately, and even moreso in the US, livestock farming has been taken out of the hands of independent farm owners and taken over by large corporate food farms. As a result, we end up with cows, chickens and pigs that live in completely unconscionable surroundings, are fed the worst shit and are pumped full of hormones to make them bigger and fatter. In some cases, no one knows the long term effects of these hormones on humans, and in other cases like rBGH, we know they cause cancer in humans (which is why it’s banned in Canada and the UK, but the US allows it). So that’s a big mark against, for my personal health reasons. I’ll defend the balanced addition of meat to anyone’s diet, but for reasons of health and ethics, I have to agree with the veggies and as a result I support organic meats as much as possible. I don’t want hormone pumped sausages gotten from pigs that eat mulched up chickens… but I do want sausage. And as a consumer the best thing I can do is vote with my dollar. I don’t expect it to change the world, but then the only one I want it to affect is me.
So to summarize, no one diet is perfect for everyone and proper balance in all areas of life does make for a balanced person. Extremes of any kind are never good for anything other than occasional visits, be it a solely vegan diet, nor a diet that consists of steak wrapped in bacon. Both will rob most people’s bodies of the nutrients and proteins it craves and there are negative side effects to both. Diet has become a religion for some people, who feel the need to point out how outcast and discriminated against they are while constantly trying to chip away at people’s will until they give in to their particular way of life. I don’t appreciate it when Jehovahs do it on my doorstep, and I don’t appreciate it at dinner. Unlike smoking which gives the body nothing of what it needs, meat is not an addiction that needs to be broken. I understand that’s not all vegans and vegetarians, but all too often I’m taken on a guilt trip for violating their sensibilities with my lifestyle habits. If that’s the diet you’ve found works the best for you, then by all means, go for it. Just make sure it’s for the right reasons and that you actually understand what those reasons are and the consequences of them. And remember that life is meant to be lived. To tell me I shouldn’t eat meat is to tell me I shouldn’t enjoy ice cream, or chocolate, or fucking. I’d rather enjoy my meal.
Ashley
P.S.:Â You’ve been Rick Rolled.
*grins* Nice to know I’ve had a hand in breaking your silence!
Anyway, back on topic. My diet growing up was pretty much the same as yours, meat and some veg (which aside from spuds I ignored). Over the last few years Ive gradually found myself eating more food that while not exactly a salad, doesn’t contain any meat.
When cooking for myself the last few months I tended to cook a lot of cicken based dishes, simply because it was very flexable, which is great till you figure out why its so damn flexable. Chicken tastes like nothing, which is why all the bland crap on the planet tastes like chicken. So why not switch something else in its place and not have the bad karma
So far, aside from meat free burgers (UK – ASDA’s own – better than beef!). I’ve bee far from impressed by meat substitutes and look alikes. My suprise is that it only took a week fo me to start trying new foods that would never have been on the menu before AND finding them to be better than I could have hoped for.
Over the last couple of years my body has become a focus and as I’ve changed and grown I’ve started to care more about how I look after it. Getting healthy is something thats more and more important.
I do miss meat sometimes, but not as much as I thought I would.
Hey, make that me and Moby. I’m a totally laid back vegetarian!
Jani
Ashley: Actually Moby is vegan, not vegetarian.
well, i dont think vegans and vegatarians are going to argue that we evolved eating meat. there just seems to be two camps – the moral and health vegetarians. the moral ones say it’s wrong to hurt animals. so any remarks are evolution and health won’t sway them. the health ones say it’s better not to eat meat – there, we have room to disagree.
as for me, i like my cheese burger once in a while!
but i am trying to eat less meat and more veggies. and eat a lot less red meat.
and dammit, you caught me on that third vegetarian!
Sweetie and I aren’t vegetarians and certainly not vegans, but we aren’t eating much meat these days. We try to have it only once a day at most, in small quantities, and sometimes not at all. I make meals with tofu, seeds, cheese, beans, and other vegetable proteins, usually in combination (improves the quality of the protein). We eat a lot of fresh vegetables and fruit. I eat salad for lunch that usually doesn’t have meat in it (beans, cheese, nuts, with bread–complete protein).
We’re not anti-meat, however. We treat ourselves to steak once in a great while. We love burgers, just not too often. Being French-Canadian, loving pork is in my blood (just kidding), and we eat chicken. We also try for fish or seafood once a week. And even when we’re being vegetarian, we’re lacto-ovo–dairy products and eggs included.
If someone can make a vegetarian or vegan diet work for them, and they feel good on it, that’s great. You have to understand about nutrition to make those diets work properly, especially vegan. And vegan requires that you be really into soy, which has its own downsides (e.g., phyto-estrogens, and much soy is GMO). Non-meat-eaters often have to take at least some vitamins as well, especially B12, which is hard to get except in meat.
One of the most recent arguments against eating meat is that it takes much more energy to produce than other kinds of protein. Meat production is resource-intensive.
As for our ancestral proclivities, human beings are omnivores. Our teeth seem to be best suited to eating nuts and fruits, but they work for meat, and we can digest meat. Keep in mind that carnivores eat meat raw, including organs and bone marrow, and that’s where they get vitamins and other nutrients that cooked muscle meat doesn’t have.
One final word: no one likes nutrition nazis.