Veggie Tales

Story and Photos by Laura McFarland

It took him 21 days to break the habit. Now, Ben Williams is proud to say he hasn’t eaten meat for more than a year. Williams, a freshman e-business major, is just one student who has decided to become a vegetarian.

People become vegetarians for a variety of reasons, but Williams became a vegetarian after researching and thinking about his decision for six months.

“I just saw some facts on the Internet, saw some facts in a pamphlet and saw some pictures,” Williams said. “I decided this was not something I wanted to continue to support — that being the meat industry.”

Based on his research and his experiences, Williams said he believes there are three primary reasons people become vegetarians: the belief that animals have souls and should not be killed, to attain a healthier lifestyle or humanitarian reasons.

“Most people don’t really understand this, but the amount of calories and grains it takes to make one hamburger is 22 times the amount of calories that someone gets from it,” Williams said. “So basically, instead of having one person eat a hamburger, you could feed 22 other people. It’s very, very wasteful. There are lots of starving people in the world, so I felt that by not eating meat, I’m not contributing to this wasteful process.”

For a combination of all three reasons, Williams said he became a vegetarian and started his new meatless diet Jan. 1, 2000, making it his New Year’s resolution for the millennium.

“I realized that so much of my life went by, and I hadn’t really held strong convictions about the beliefs that I had,” he said. “I didn’t live my life to fulfill these convictions, so I decided to become a vegetarian, among other things.”

For Williams, the first two weeks were the hardest to get through.

Dana Alden prepares some veggies in her residence hall room. Alden decided to change her lifestyle after she took a health class at TCU.

“My parents were out of town for about a week, and we had this box of chicken tenders in the refrigerator,” Williams said. “There was nothing else in the house to eat, and they were just like ‘Eat me, Ben. Eat me.’ But I didn’t.”

Finding food he can eat can still be a problem. Though restaurants around campus usually have a choice that accommodates vegetarians, Williams said there aren’t many alternatives on campus.

“It’s hard to find variety,” he said. “I eat lots of french fries (and) lots of cheese pizzas. I haven’t had a salad all semester because all I did last semester was eat salad. I’m sick of salad.”

As time has passed, Williams said that meat has become less appetizing to him, but he said that it neither bothers nor offends him when other people eat meat around him.

“It’s a culture where you’re raised to eat meat,” Williams said. “I don’t think it’s an evil act or people are wrong. I just have made a decision based upon the things that I have seen, the things that I have read, and the values that I hold myself to.”

Mandy Mahan, a vegetarian and a junior religion major, also said she doesn’t have a problem with other people eating meat. She said she merely urges people to be aware of what they’re eating.

“I would say to eat what you want to eat, but be conscious of what you’re eating,” Mahan said. “If it doesn’t bother you, then that’s fine. I think a lot of people, when they really do become aware, are less likely to eat meat, or (they) won’t eat as much of it.”

This consciousness of her diet was the deciding factor in Mahan’s decision in June to become a vegetarian.

“I just became more aware of what I was eating,” she said. “I know that I could never kill an animal so it didn’t make sense for me to buy it in a grocery store or restaurant.”

She said she became conscious of the subject while she was meditating.

“When you really, really concentrate on what you’re eating and what it is, I think you get a new perspective,” Mahan said. “That’s what happened to me. I couldn’t justify to myself that eating another being was OK.”

Mahan said her choice was a significant change from her previous eating habits.

“Actually, they called me the meat-and-potatoes girl because I really hated vegetables,” she said. “After I made this decision, it kind of opened up a whole new world of food to meat. I started trying things I wouldn’t have tried before.”

Mahan’s parents are still adjusting to their daughter’s switch to vegetarianism.

“My parents don’t know what to do,” Mahan said. “Before I go home, (my mom) calls me and asks me what she should buy at the grocery store. My mom just makes an extra side dish, and we move on. It’s not that big of a deal.”

Dana Alden, a sophomore political science major, said she became a vegetarian for health reasons and not because she doesn’t like animals being killed.

“I actually took a nutrition class, and when I took that class, I heard about what you should eat,” Alden said. “That’s what really got me thinking about it. Then, when I did look it up on the Internet, I saw a bunch of stuff, like you can get Salmonella from the chicken, and just the red meat alone has complete fat.”

Alden said her new diet, combined with exercise, have led to changes in her life.

“I can stay awake longer,” she said. “I’m not as tired as I used to be. My skin is a lot healthier. I’m just trying to keep my body as healthy as I can possibly get it.”

Alden’s job at Good Eats entails being around a lot of meat, a fact she said she sometimes finds hard to deal with.

“I just really don’t like to put dead animals in my body,” Alden said. “When I taste red meat, it’s like I can taste the blood. Even if it’s cooked well done, it’s like I can still taste the blood. It just grosses me out.”

Finding appealing food in The Main hasn’t proven as hard for Alden.

“They always have vegetables, always,” she said. “Maybe they’re not the best vegetables to eat, but they have the salad bar there. They give you other options.”

However, she said she wishes there were more choices in Frogbytes, especially at night.

“In Frogbytes, they have salads, but I think most of them have meat in them,” Alden said. “I’d like to see them put more fruit in Frogbytes because there’s not really a lot of fruit in there.”

Despite their different reasons, the one thing all three students agree on is that everyone should pay attention to eating habits, regardless of the choice to eat meat.

Laura McFarland
l.d.mcfarland@student.tcu.edu