In today’s society, many people have chosen to be vegetarian – a lifestyle choice that contains no meat. As a meat eater myself, personally, I do not know what it is like to be a vegetarian, so I was interested to know what it would be like to eat this diet. In order to do this, I have interviewed a 14-year-old vegetarian, who lives in Dartford, named Olivia Rose.
Olivia has been a vegetarian since March 2019, and she told me lots about what it has been like. My biggest question was, of course, whether or not she misses eating meat. She says “I was never a big fan of eating meat in the first place, so I haven’t missed it to much! However, every so often I do get a craving for McDonalds chicken nuggets!” To have a wider range of food, Olivia has substituted meat for things such as Quorn substances instead. She told me “I love Quorn a lot. My favourite vegetarian meal would either be the delicious Quorn nuggets or the vegetarian curry that I have. They taste amazing – in fact, I prefer Quorn to actual meat!”
I wanted to learn more about whether or not it had an affect on Olivia’s health and if she noticed any changes in how she felt. She stated “I feel as though my skin has cleared up a lot since I became vegetarian. Obviously, I am a teenager and so it is normal for me to break out with acne, but now I haven’t broken out as much.” I thought this was an interesting observation, and something I thought may be useful for other teenagers considering whether or not they should be vegetarian or not. There are beliefs that being a vegetarian would mean people would feel more tired because of a lack of iron and B12, but Olivia says “I don’t feel any change to my emotions and sometimes feel as though I may have more energy than before! I also take food supplements once or twice a day to help ensure I have sufficient B12 in my body, and so I have all the minerals I need and still do not eat meat!”
Finally, a big question that I am sure most people wonder about vegetarians, “Was why did you become vegetarian?” Olivia replied “it was for a mix of reasons. One of them was the fact that, like I said before, I was not a big fan of meat in the first place. Another was the fact that it is much better for the environment!”
Overall, she explained how being a vegetarian is really easy, and that it does not make a massive difference to your lifestyle. I found it really interesting to find out about what it is like to be a vegetarian.
