A Real Man
A real man eats meat, right? Preferably prepared with his own hands on some oversized charcoal barbecue, no less. Because a real man is tough. But how tough are you, really, if you eat meat? I’d find it far more impressive if you’d invested the time and care to raise the animal you want to eat yourself. And finally had the guts to kill it with your own hands. I suspect the percentage of men “tough” enough to do that is considerably lower than the percentage of men who don’t eat meat at all. And that percentage, I can tell you, is already low.
A real man doesn’t eat “meat substitutes.” Because a real man believes meat can’t be replaced. After all, you need meat to build muscle, right? And if you don’t eat meat, you’ll end up deficient in vitamin B12 and have to take a supplement instead. Or is that actually true?
What does the science say?
Extensive scientific research has shown that you don’t need animal protein to build muscle. You do need protein, but it can just as well come from plants. Cows, pigs, sheep, and chickens are, in case you didn’t know, herbivores. They convert plant protein into muscle mass. We can do exactly the same. What’s more, the vitamin B12 found in meat is added to these animals’ feed. The reason is that most of them are no longer kept in their natural environment. They “live” packed together in crowded barns. These animals no longer get vitamin B12 from its natural source — the soil they used to live on, where it’s produced by soil bacteria.
But surely, for the sake of heart, blood vessel, and brain health, you have to eat oily fish? Fish is even part of the official Dutch dietary guidelines. And yes, those healthy fatty acids (DHA and EPA) really are essential. But their presence in fish is explained by the fish’s own diet — they come from certain algae the fish eat. What’s more, your body also produces small amounts of DHA and EPA itself from the fatty acid ALA (found in flaxseed, chia seeds, walnuts, hemp seeds, certain plant oils, and leafy greens). To supplement this, you can simply take an algae oil supplement — no need to eat fish at all. But sure, that’s obviously a lot less tough than grilled salmon off the barbecue.
Slaughterhouse
Which real man still raises and slaughters his own animals these days? Hunts wild game and skins it himself? Or catches his own fish? Does a real man go to fast-food chains like McDonald’s, Burger King, or KFC — places that thoroughly hide the fact that you’re eating an animal someone else raised, killed, skinned, and deboned? Does a real man have the guts to actually work in a slaughterhouse?
I remember it well. I must have been about fourteen when I did a few weeks of holiday work through a temp agency at the local chicken slaughterhouse. On the packing line, mind you — children weren’t allowed on the slaughter floor itself. Even so, it left a lasting impression on me. Just not the one you might expect. You’d probably assume the experience made me eat less meat, or none at all. It didn’t — not even after we were given a tour of the slaughter floor. What it actually did was widen the distance between me and the chickens. I could only see the ones I packed as products. No longer as creatures that had been alive just moments before.
Cognitive dissonance
The human brain works in a peculiar way here. If meat-eaters were constantly aware of the miserable lives most animals in the meat industry lead, there would be far fewer meat-eaters. But our brains are remarkably good at ignoring information that threatens to change our eating habits. That’s called cognitive dissonance, and I’ve written a blog about it. Most meat-eaters, consciously or not, look away from the misery hidden behind the meat on their plate. A real man doesn’t. He doesn’t accept that animals must suffer for his piece of meat. Only a real man has it in him to stop making animals the victims of his own pleasure.
Finally
This blog isn’t meant to offend. It’s simply a reflection of what I believe a real man definitely isn’t. So what is a real man, then? In my view, a real man never places his own pleasures above the life and wellbeing of the people and animals around him. He takes responsibility for his own health and for the health and safety of those he loves. A real man lives with respect for everything that grows and flourishes. Deep down, he understands that he is nothing more than a tiny cog in an infinitely vast system of mutual dependency.