Yep. I'm another one who actually prefers a salad over a steak. One of THOSE people...But my reasoning is not the reasoning you assume it is.
I get asked all the time, "So is it a taste thing, are you doing it for health reasons...why?", as if my diet was like wearing shoes on my hands and wearing hats on my captains-quarters too (much love to anyone who caught that reference). Like many other things, I'm an obtuse hybrid of many different answers. So when that question pops up, I have a not the simple explanation, but a chain of events that lead to a very teenaged catharsis.
I started giving up meat for years in a row for lent (I'm catholic raised), because I figured that would be a great challenge in addition to my Lenten contribution. I didn't (still don't) drink soda, and was tired of saying I'd give up chocolate so I tried out meat. And loved it. So I did it the next year, and the next year and the next until it became routine. Until I wanted to do it every year, until I never wanted to stop. I realized, that ultimately the only thing keeping me from doing it permanently was that my dad was getting super tired of having to make separate food for me.
Ask yourself this. If you were to cut out meats from your diet, what greasy food would you be digesting? The answer is honestly...just cheesy foods. I realized that by cutting out a majority of the grease and fat in my diet that wasn't a simple carb....I just felt overall cleaner. No more greasy burger binges to feel guilty about, no more nuggets to keep track of, no more even having to worry about if your food is cooked all the way through. When I eat clean, I feel clean. Plus the added bonus of knowing that my food didn't at one point have eyes!
I'm not telling you to go green. I'm not going to sit you down in front of a youtube video of Pamela Anderson standing in front of a slaughterhouse watching the production line go by looking upset. I'm not demanding justice or throwing red paint. If you're a carnivore at heart, then cool. But if your mantra is "Oh I could never do that", then you are also selling yourself short.
Our society has become way too dependent on meats to get us through our courses. I think we all know a generous number of people who at the mere mention of going meatless get a little bit anxious. Renowned gastronomer and head chef at multiple restaurants Jose Andres comments in an interview with Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes, "Fruits and vegetables are so much sexier than a piece of chicken.Come on, think about it for a second, okay? Let's compare a chicken breast, the best chicken breast from the best farm with a beautiful pineapple. Cut the pineapple, already the aromas are inundating the entire kitchen. Acidity. Sour after notes, touches of passion fruit.[...] You get a piece of meat and you put it in your mouth, you chew, the first five seconds, all the juices flow around your mouth, they're gone, and then you are 20 more seconds chewing something that is tasteless at this point. Something like this doesn't happen with a pineapple, an asparagus, or a green pea."(http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-6437352.html). And he makes a brilliant point. There is no gristle in a vegetable. You won't get sick if your rice wasn't cooked all the way through. And that smoky savory flavor you love from a steak will be gone while a similar taste is preserved with a sautéed mushroom.
The design of our teeth demonstrate how humans were not designed to attack and tear up a bunch of meat- our canines are nothing compared to that of real carnivores. Our digestion tract adapted to breakdown meats over the years. The fact that we can't digest raw meat proves it!
So to all the other vegetarians out there- enjoy the feeling and celebrate the clean way of eating. Because we know we really are not missing out. To all of the people who swear by meat eating- enjoy it enough for all of us! And to the people who aren't sure, I say try it. See if it's for you. Get your proteins in (via beans, nuts, corn, grains and soys) as well as your carbohydrates. Try substituting the alternatives into regular dishes (they have half the fat that meat does!) and see if that gets you through your cravings. But no matter your diet, be sure to give your fruits and veggies a little love, because they are pretty great.
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