Thinking about changing your diet?
Ursula Iliffe tells her story about why and how she became vegetarian...

I would have been vegetarian a lot sooner if one of my best friends had not turned vegetarian before me. She was so fanatical and radical I was worried you had to become some sort of activist. It was quite scary. The food she ate was not inspiring to me as she just ate boiled veggies for dinner. Then … a nugget of gold came through the door in the form of a leaflet about battery hens. This was in 1983, I was 12 years old . I had never heard of anything like it before. I had previously thought about how unfair it was to ask an animal to lay it’s life for me. I never liked seeing meat prepared and could not eat things that looked obviously like meat. I wouldn’t eat dinner after seeing lambs playing in the fields. Nevertheless, I had not thought that anyone who kept animals could treat them like that, surely not! I naively thought if you kept animals, you must love them and care for them – obviously not yet heard of capitalism or mortgages.

I went veggie that day, and took a trip to my local library for recipe books. My mother coming form a culture where meat is integrated into every meal, was suitable horrified! At least she started to understand why I never ate much dinner. My grandparents said I would have to be excused from games at school as I would grow too weak to be able to run. I was also told I would get spots and my hair would fall out!

Both my best friend and I are still veggie, and I try to avoid all dairy where possible. I never made any great sporting achievements, but once swam 2 miles for a charity event and passed 3 freestyle Karate belts. I had less spots than most teenagers and at 33 still have lots of long hair. Interestingly my mother now only eats meat and fish once a week and also avoids dairy where poss.

My wish for the future of veggieism would be that there would be more veggie options without cows and goats cheese, or wheat. Do I miss bacon – never liked it as love pigs too much. If only cute cuddly pig- the animal work recyclers ruled the world!