I had a short but interesting conversation with @dannyshine. He's a vegan and I'm a meat eater. He raised an interesting point which I'm going to explore here. He said it could be that meat eaters are addicted to meat.
This is something I've never considered before. Obviously, my first knee-jerk reaction was to think: No I'm not! How can you be addicted to a foodstuff?
Then I thought about chocolate and those tangy fizzy jelly sweets. Well, they're pretty moreish aren't they :P
So, I decided to look into it and give it more thought.
I eat meat every day. Usually I eat only once or twice per day. Not including the Christmas period, where I could've easily won an eating competition, I tend not to snack too much. Occasionally I'll eat some nuts or a bit of 90% dark chocolate. When I say occasionally, I mean once per week or less.
Usually, my meals are meat with veg. I hardly ever eat fruit and tend to keep root veg, bread, rice and pasta to a minimum. So, I'm fairly low-carb and feel better for it. The beauty of this is that I don't get overly hungry with the need to graze on snacks all day.
For me, food is fuel. Saying that, I eat my meals with plenty of seasoning, herbs, spices (and jalapeños!). I love flavours and really enjoy my meals.
But is meat an addiction? I recall the massive rush I felt when I ate meat for the first time (after 17 years abstinence). It could definitely parallel a drug experience. There was an incredible rush and I felt incredibly 'high' for want of a better word.
People can be addicted to all sorts of chemicals: nicotine, alcohol, cocaine. But they can also be addicted to the pleasure they get from other activities. Things that could qualify in this category are gambling (hello cryptocurrencies), sex, shopping, exercise, gaming and religion. These things can be described as an addiction if the addictive behaviour creates problems in other areas of life: financially, socially, professionally and within close relationships. Also, if there is a negative impact on personal health or the health of others.
I remember learning how to play guitar. My fingers were so sore. So blistered. I could hardly bear to hold the strings in place but I continued because my desire to acquire the skill overruled the pain. Desire won. The same can be said for reading. I can read until my eyes are so sore I can barely look at a computer screen (it doesn't hurt if I read actual books). In this case, the pleasure I gain from gleaning knowledge overrides the pain. I did ninjutsu for years. This is another example of overriding pain to experience the 'feel good' of achievement. So, either I have a high pain threshold or can ignore or overrule negative stimuli in order to achieve a goal. And/or I'm just an extremist, a masochist or an addict.
Nowadays, I don't feel 'high' from eating meat. It could be argued that I've developed a tolerance, just as a junkie doesn't get super high from their drug of choice; they take it feel normal again.
I'd agree that I need to eat meat to extinguish some sort of negative feeling. And I'm not talking about hunger. I'm talking about that sensation of just not feeling right. I may feel full after eating a vegan meal but I don't feel satiated. I never did; I was always looking for something to graze on. But am I talking about an emotional satiation or is the body telling me something deeper? It's not linked to a goal or achievement. I'm not driven to achieve any meat goals. Could my body be calling for nutrients?
I'm really interested to hear your take on this. Do you think meat is an addiction? Are meat-eaters just scratching an itch? Or is the body intelligently signalling that it needs nutrients found only in meat?
Let's talk about it.
Other eclectic articles
