Zelda'sZecrets

I have lost count of the number of occasions that the first time someone new finds out that I am a vegetarian, they say “So was Hitler”. What am I supposed to say in return? “Oh, I didn’t realise that – you’d better order me a steak, then”?

Hitler was a vegetarian. But it was not the absence of meat in his diet that made him an evil dictator and there has not, as yet, been proven to be any direct correlation between beansprouts and a maniacal quest for world domination.

It is interesting to consider though, that thirty years ago vegetarians were all aligned with left-wing hippies and now we are increasingly associated with the world’s most notorious fascist.

As far as I can see, it all goes to prove one undeniable fact: There are vegetarians in all walks of life and vegetarianism is the result of an individual choice which can be totally separate from and not necessarily influenced by politics, ethics, philosophy, theology, background or culture.

Hitler, like myself (and an ever-growing number of others), made a personal decision not to eat meat. In that respect we are alike. But by excluding animal protein from my diet I am not associating myself with him in any other way. We have something in common but to imply that one such similarity places me standing shoulder to shoulder with him is about as reasonable as suggesting that everyone who sports a moustache is anti-semitic.

It is always interesting to know the names of other members of any club to which you belong. My own website, The Secret Vegetarian has a section on Famous Vegetarians. But we rarely resign our membership because seven decades ago an associate member behaved in a way we all despise.

Vegetarianism is not reserved for the great and the good. You do not have to pass a test in human compassion in order to be allowed to join. There are no specific intellectual criteria for membership. Some people give up meat for their health, some refrain for religious or cultural reasons. Some see that little lamb skipping across the field, full of the joys of spring, and cannot afterwards contemplate enjoying the taste of its dead flesh. But I would hesitate to say that there are many people who have decided not to eat meat out of respect for a megalomaniac who terrorised the world over sixty years ago.

So by all means question whether vegetarianism is a choice you wish to make and by all means question my motives and ask me about it and why I devise recipes which use quorn mince instead of lamb. But don’t dismiss my choice because of one man. Just think about how ridiculous that would be.

 

Tags: vegetarian, food

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