"If you're so against eating animals, why do you eat food that looks and tastes like meat?"

Whether genuine or spiked with sarcasm, this is the question I've seen or heard the most since becoming a vegan.

Now, before we get started, let me put out a disclaimer: I genuinely don't care if you don't follow a vegan diet.

My wife doesn't follow a vegan diet. Many of my friends and family don't follow a vegan diet. So, while it is completely legal to eat animal products, I'll never tell anybody what they should and should not eat. (Therefore, as much as you think it'll annoy me to see a gif of Salt Bae seasoning a steak in the comments section - it won't.)

I have been vegan for over 15 months now and have no plans to move away from a plant-based diet.

My decision to move to a completely vegan diet was a moral one. I personally believe eating and farming animals is cruel, and, in our modern world, completely unnecessary.

Nothing has to die for me to survive. But hey, that's me - like I say, I'm not here to change your mind.

However, when I first told my family that I was vegan, I was met with the second-most-popular question all vegans will hear every other week: "So, what do you eat then?"

Well, believe it or not, my diet is not full of avocado brunches, wholegrain salad bowls, and "rabbit food". In fact, my two least favorite words to read together are "vegetable medley". Ew.

No, much to my grandmother's surprise, I eat the same meals as everybody else. I eat cheesy pizzas, juicy burgers, lasagne, curries, nachos, roasts, fajitas, ice cream, stir-fries, gut-busting sandwiches, chocolate cakes, and so, so much more.

The only difference is that these meals don't contain meat or any other animal products, such as milk or eggs. Because thanks to great advances in the food industry, there are now vegan alternatives for almost any animal product.

Sure, vegan products can be hit-and-miss. For example, I've never had a brand of vegan bacon that tastes as good as real bacon. That being said, I've had vegan burgers that would fool even the most die-hard meat-eaters into thinking they're eating a lovely mouthful of flesh.

In fact, my fridge and freezer are full of these substitutes. You know the ones - "Plant-based burgers", "meat-free sausages", "no-fish fingers", "chk'n goujons".

They all look, act, and taste familiar, but contain none of the dead animals.

Which leads me to the big question: If I am so against eating animals, why do I eat products that look, feel, and taste as if they were made from animals?

Well, it is simple. For nearly 28 years of my life, I was a meat-eater. I loved a bacon sandwich on a Sunday morning, my favorite meal was fish and chips, and I couldn't go to Disney without devouring a giant turkey leg.

I may be one of the few vegans who will happily tell you that meat is delicious.

I still drive past Maccies and long for a Big Mac. I still love the smell of a barbecue. And I even catch myself watching hours-upon-hours of cooking shows every week, not realizing that I'm never going to take the time to prepare and eat what they're making.

But as I say, morally, I don't think that something has to die in order for me to enjoy a meal.

So if I can find products that replicate the taste and enjoyment of the foods I used to love, but also solve that ethical dilemma, then it is a win-win.

It's a bit like why I play Super Mario. I enjoy running around as the Italian plumber and jumping on turtle's heads. But if I was to put on a pair of overalls and jump on a turtle in the street, you'd probably call me morally reprehensible.

So that is why so many vegans still eat products that look and taste like meat. We agree that meat tastes great - there's absolutely no argument there. But even the tastiest bacon burger in the world will never cancel out the fact that something had to die just for one meal.

Which begs the question: If you can still eat all these wonderful foods without all the animal slaughter, why wouldn't you??

Featured image credit: Martin Rettenberger / Alamy

A video circulating on social media of freshly cut meat is ruining people's appetite and causing some people to declare they want to turn vegetarian.

Meat eaters and vegetarians often appear to be constantly at odds with each other over dietary choices and requirements, and much like cats and dogs it seems nobody will see eye to eye.

Vegetarians and vegans often seem exasperated that those who chose to eat meat appear to disregard their pleas of wanting to save animal lives and help the environment.

Then meat eaters accuse those who have chosen a plant-based diet of being overwhelming and pushy about their views when a diet is a personal choice.

Meat eaters may soon be questioning the choices of what they consume following a viral video that is, quite honestly, incredibly gross.

The video has been viewed over 250,000 times since it was shared on Twitter, and appears to show the freshly cut meat spasming and moving when salt is applied.

Looking like it has come straight out of a horror movie, the muscle has a mind of its own as it twitches and flaps about uncontrollably.

The same gross twitching - or intriguing depending on how you look at it - has been seen to happen with squid and frog legs when soy sauce is added.

There's no need to panic - it's not the animal trying to come back to life to seek its revenge - there's a scientific explanation behind the contractions.

As per NPR, when salt (or a salty substance such as soy sauce) is added to freshly killed flesh it causes a chemical reaction that forces the intact and still operational muscles to spasm.

"Extra sodium (the salt) sends ions to the cell that trigger the cell to open up, creating a cascade of chemical activities that causes the cell to fire, so the muscle twitches," Robert Krulwich from NPR states.

Regardless of the science behind it, people still think watching a chunk of flesh moving of its own accord to be quite disgusting, with one Twitter user saying: "Well, this picture could make me give up eating meat."

A second person said: "honestly - can watch a lot of vegetarian/vegan horror videos of factory farming etc. BUT...this actually affects my mind more...might be doing meatless for a few days now."

A third person added: "Yo! I ain't eating meat again," with a fourth saying: "I could've done without this knowledge."

The video is sure to put people off their dinner, if not stop them from eating meat altogether.

Featured image credit: Lisovskaya Natalia / The Picture Pantry / Alamy

In an ideal world, everyone would respect each other’s dietary decisions and that would be that. There’d be no quibbling over who’s intolerant to this or who would rather not put that anywhere near their mouth. We’d all be holding hands, dancing in a big circle, happily browsing to the tune of kumbaya. Evidently, this is not the case. Still, it seems that some people are much more set on being massive dicks about it than others. 

Last week, a story broke on Reddit’s aptly named “Am I The Asshole?” community, where users typically share tales of morally reprehensible actions and reactions in a bid for absolution from the famously forgiving internet. Things usually go badly. In this case however, the story concerned a vegan woman who, in a moment of inebriated vulnerability, had her drunken snacking spiked with real chicken by her so-called friends. For a community used to dealing with genuine pricks, such a sympathetic protagonist was unfamiliar territory. 

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/_sandrah_93/status/1181599656335294466]]

According to the anonymous 24-year-old woman’s account, she was at a party before getting “white-girl wasted.” It was then that things went rapidly downhill. As she explained in her post:

“My friends thought it would be funny to feed me chicken nuggets as a prank. I checked with them before chowing down "are these vegan?" To which my friends replied "yeah, they're sunfed" (a type of vegan chickenless chicken). They tasted off to me but I figured it was just because I was drunk. I was wrong.”

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/AITA_reddit/status/1181599174418206722]]

“I found out the next day when my sister sent me a message telling me to check my friends Snapchat story. The story was them showing the nugget packaging, and then showing them giving them to me (including the conversation where I asked if it was vegan). The and then later them mocking me and pretending to be me when I found out I ate meat (things like fake crying and yelling "the CHICKENS!!!"). I took a screen recording of the video and took it to the police, on the grounds of food tampering, and now 3 of my (ex) friends are facing charges.”

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/The1savior/status/1181600143361155073]]

Understandably, there were plenty of people who came out in favour of the poster’s decision. Buzzfeed report that commenters were unequivocal in their support, with one writing, "NTA (Not The Asshole). This is disgusting and just an all-around awful thing to do to someone. What terrible people," and another adding, "NTA. As a chef, you never f**k with someone's food. Ever."

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/JuliaPrad0_/status/1181601507864698881]]

Others, however, were slightly more nuanced. One used the popular acronym ESH (Everyone Sucks Here), before explaining: 

“You’re pressing charges over chicken nuggets. You have a moral stance against meat. That’s fine. But it’s not a life-threatening allergy. It’s absolutely a shitty thing for them to do. They aren’t friends. They should be ashamed. But pressing charges is just way too much." 

Wherever you stand, the story will certainly give people pause before their next prank.

This article originally appeared on twistedfood.co.uk

Losing weight sucks, you guys.

If I raided an ancient tomb and found a genie who granted me three wishes, at least one of those wishes would be to make it so that I could get Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's body by doing little more than just eating pizza all day. Isn't it just a bummer that the foods that are the most delicious are also the worst for you?

Don't you wish that you didn't have to swap out the steak for the salad? That you could just binge on burgers instead of beans and Brussels sprouts? Well, one diet out there is taking the internet by storm, and I think you'll be very interested in trying it out.

Now, a ton of "doctors", "nutritionists" and "concerned family members" will tell you that eating meat for every single meal is a terrible idea, on account of the "heart disease" and "cancer" that "science" has linked to eating meat. Well, to this I say: fake news! The keto diet and the Atkins diet are testament to what happens if you get rid of the carbs and focus on little more than raw protein, but the carnivore diet takes this idea to its glorious, logical conclusion.

[[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/BmI2l8wBJQn/?tagged=redmeat]]

The motto of the carnivore diet is "eat meat, drink water", and I think that no matter how many words I write on the subject, we won't be able to get a purer distillation of the carnivore diet than that. But here I go anyway: advocates of the carnivore diet believe that the fattier the cut of meat, the better. So gorge on those burgers and bacon bits, but ease up on the grilled chicken there, cowboy. That kind of lean meatin' doesn't go down too well in these parts.

Now, you might be suspicious of me, and I personally don't blame you; I too was a skeptic. That is, until I found the World Carnivore Tribe Facebook group, and it all seems to check out. "Will aggressively promote this lifestyle as a potent tool for promoting and restoring excellent health!" screams the group's description, and all over this group are photos of people aggressively enjoying their meat. One of these hearty meal plans is a literal heart.

[[facebookwidget||https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1050504098445603&set=g.163527891074530&type=1&theater&ifg=1]]

This... unorthodox diet plan was thought up by Shawn Baker, who made his name as an orthopedic surgeon.

“Kind of sad walking around the store and seeing so many people my age that are just literally deteriorating from a garbage diet of grain, processed carbs, vegetable oils and the illusion of protection by some vegetables,” says a definitely-not-crazy Shawn Baker in a recent Instagram post. "Meanwhile I’m thriving, get stronger [sic] and faster and basically barely aging!"

[[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl6KvxEAnnI/?utm_source=ig_embed]]

Sure, having lost his license last year, he may not technically be a doctor anymore, but don't let that pesky "lack of a medical license" discourage you. For a nominal fee of just $49 a month, Shawn Baker can coach you to eat nothing but red meat all day, using the Carnivore Training System - which I'm assuming includes revolutionary, unheard-of techniques such as "differentiating between meat and not-meat", "not eating vegetables" and "chewing".

[[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlGoKgetAQ4]]

Why on earth does he pronounce 'carnivore' that way?

Well, folks: if you're looking to become a 'car-nivorry', you should definitely find out more by joining the Facebook group above. Advocates are saying things like "this is about health", "I still don't have scurvy" and "I am struggling with constipation"!

Seriously, though, please don't try and survive on nothing but red meat. You will have a very bad time.

A man has come under fire online after he posted a video on TikTok claiming that he eats "twice as much meat" so vegans' efforts are wasted.

Vegans are some of the most ridiculed people on the planet, though most of the hate they get feels completely unjustified.

People adopt a vegan lifestyle for many reasons - some do it for personal health, others have environmental concerns and some don't want animals harmed.

All of these reasons are completely valid, but the one thing that vegans get hammered for the most is how often they talk about it - though it seems that some non-vegans are equally as annoying.

A man on TikTok going by the handle @ulissesworld has sparked controversy after posting a video of himself eating a plate of meat.

In the text over the video he wrote: "Been eating twice as much meat lately, so that one vegan that think[s] they're making a difference is actually making no difference at all."

Despite the health risks that go with eating large quantities of red meat, the man probably didn't expect the internet to respond in the manner that it did.

The video soon found its way over to Reddit, where people tore him to shreds for his efforts.

"So he’s saying a vegan does actually make a difference though. So much that he has to work overtime to make up for it," one person penned.

A second added: "They’re just going to die sooner from clogged arteries. In the end they will have consumed way less meat."

A third said: "No amount of meat they consume will compensate for their insecurities or change their pathetic reality. Seems like maybe this person has nothing better to do which reflects their nasty personality."

This debate does raise the question of whether those who think consuming meat is a personality trait are more insufferable than vegans who throw fake blood at people.

His efforts will of course be in vain, and it's presumed that he wastes more food due to his attempts at eating double, so he isn't really on the right side of things here.

The term "live and let live" comes to mind.

Featured image credit: Elena Vyaseleva / Alamy