When I became a vegetarian, I was surprised at how easy it was to quit “cold turkey.” I haven’t eaten meat in almost two years because of a New Year’s Resolution that I actually followed through with and after watching documentaries, reading books, and watching tons of the typical “meat industry exposé” videos that you probably have seen in a science class before, I quit and don’t miss eating meat in the slightest.

You knew this was coming; the “blah blah blah SAVE THE ANIMALS” plea, but it’s so important. Animal cruelty is something that we as a nation take too lightly. Chickens are being filled with growth hormones to the extent that their legs can’t support the body on top of them, cows are producing over 10 times the milk that is natural per day in order to satisfy the demand of humans (MILK IS FOR BABY COWS NOT HUMANS THINK ABOUT IT WE ARE SO WEIRD), and mass practices of torture are used to get the animals to cooperate. Read “Eating Animals” by Jonathan Safran Foer. This book is not a plea for you to be vegetarian or vegan, but Foer explains his on and off relationship with meat through facts, exploration, anecdotes, and graphics to put it in a perspective for you to decide what you’re okay with. Most of us are ill-informed of the horrors of the industry and whether or not you change your eating habits after you learn about it, it’s good to know what sort of practices you support by giving money to the corporations that are abusing and re-engineering animals for profit alone.

Besides “saving the animals” and “protesting the industry”, if you’re a person who’s interested in trying something new, maybe this is the way for you to go. I cook for myself most days and it has made me more independent from my parents. I find good recipes online or tweak recipes at home to make them my own. If need some good recipes, ask Mr. Sloma or Mrs. Mauren! I’ve heard that Mrs. Mauren makes some KILLER vegetarian Indian food. “Carnivores” might react to this by saying, “If you don’t eat meat, what do you eat?” and my response is LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE. When you haven’t eaten something in an extensive amount of time, you lose the appetite for wanting to eat it in the first place. What I mean by this is, for example, let’s say you decide to stop drinking soda. You haven’t had a glass of it in months or maybe years and then one day, you’re like “Screw it, I’ll have some” for no reason. You sip it and realize that it’s not nearly as satisfying as it once was. Not only is this a disappointment, but you’ll probably get a stomach ache and regret drinking it anyways. This same principle applies to eating meat. Most people can attest to this feeling physically and mentally; and what I’m trying to tell you is, it’s all in your head. The difficulty of quitting might be harder for others, but once you’ve gotten it out of your system and set your mind to it if need be, you feel better about what you’re doing. I encourage you to get informed; do some research on your own because once you are, you can then pick a side.