Yes, I am a vegetarian for about 18 years and yes that means that I made the decision to not eat meat and fish when I was about 12. My mother accepted it right away and more or less ate vegetarian meals with me at home - of course she was a little worried that I may miss some important nutrients but we had all kinds of books listing vegetables which are good for vegetarians and my mother just cooked more of those. My grandmother didn't really want to accept it but I strictly only ate the side dishes and the salad (no, I don't want the sauce where the duck was baked in...). Going to a restaurant at that time was somewhat harder since traditional German cuisine is mostly with meat or fish. Luckily it was just about the time when more and more people started to become more conscious about what they ate, so most restaurants offered at least two choices of vegetarian meals. During school times, I even got a vegetarian kebab - which is baked feta cheese instead of the meat (that was really good actually). I think that Germany is now a very vegetarian friendly country - most restaurants have a vegetarian section on the menu and you have such a big choice of cheese and other dairy products that you can choose the cheese without the rennet and the yoghurt without the gelatin (seriously what does gelatin do in yoghurt?).
So it was a little bit like going to the middle ages when coming to Norway. There are a few vegetarian restaurants and at most international places (Indian, Italian, Chinese ..) it is usually quite easy to find vegetarian choices. However, when people go out for a meal, they don't ask the ONLY vegetarian (of ~50 people) where she would prefer to eat and I don't blame them (since I am not fanatic about vegetarianism - it is my choice). So I ended up at places where they had not a single dish without any dead animal (not even the salads or soups). Of course then I try to negotiate with the waiters if they could make me something without the meat and they are quite friendly and co-operative but at times you end up with only half cooked vegetables or a strange sauce, etc.... Oh and a real vegetarian doesn't eat fish - that is something which people here have problems to understand - probably because there are many people who say that they are vegetarians but eat fish. Of course that is fine with me but they could say that they are a pescetarian or a semi-vegetarian ... then a real vegetarian wouldn't constantly get served fish. Well I have learned and now will not forget to mention this fact.
The choices in the supermarkets are also not really that great - cheese is usually quite tasteless and so you just go for the one with the most taste (whatever rennet it has). A majority of yoghurts still have gelatin so I stay away from those, there are usually only two producers of milk (both of course not ecological), the only thing you really get is free-range biological eggs. And if you don't go to the really big supermarkets or the Turkish shops (which are quite far away for me so I would need at least half a day only to go shopping there), then the choice of vegetables and fruits is also quite limited.
I am sorry for the somewhat long essay but it still seems to be a certain issue at least here in Norway. Of course you may ask why I am still eating vegetarian if it is so hard here, so here are my reasons:
1. I don't like meat and fish and actually never did eat much as a child. I put this as the very first reason to show that for me it is not a hardship to not eat meat out of principles which, of course, I also have.
2. Ethics. This is mostly about factory farming (mass animal farming) and the treatmeant of animals like transport and slaughtering techniques. Of course something is about the ethics of killing because I also wouldn't eat game out of principal (not because of reason 1).
3. Environmental issues. This is about what people feed to animals in factory farming so that they get fat and what medicaments and hormones they inject. Logically, this also effects animal products and that's why I buy eggs and milk and cheese from organic farming if I have the choice. I could go as far as not buying milk and cheese but I think that would be going too far at the moment. Something like the recent dioxine scandal in Germany will not affect you if you buy organic products.
4. Diseases. Only a minor point but since there have been a few scandals about old meat being repacked and sold, there is a chance you can get some parasites or other nasty stuff ...
Oh yes and I do eat gummy bears - without gelatin of course (imported from Germany, as usual)
During school times we went to visit a factory which produces gelatin. It stank horribly but what really shocked me was the fact that they took leather pieces coming from a shoe factory which already had been coloured. So first they put in chemicals to remove the colour which surely wasn't that harmless either and then they produced the gelatin out of it ... yummy!
So it was a little bit like going to the middle ages when coming to Norway. There are a few vegetarian restaurants and at most international places (Indian, Italian, Chinese ..) it is usually quite easy to find vegetarian choices. However, when people go out for a meal, they don't ask the ONLY vegetarian (of ~50 people) where she would prefer to eat and I don't blame them (since I am not fanatic about vegetarianism - it is my choice). So I ended up at places where they had not a single dish without any dead animal (not even the salads or soups). Of course then I try to negotiate with the waiters if they could make me something without the meat and they are quite friendly and co-operative but at times you end up with only half cooked vegetables or a strange sauce, etc.... Oh and a real vegetarian doesn't eat fish - that is something which people here have problems to understand - probably because there are many people who say that they are vegetarians but eat fish. Of course that is fine with me but they could say that they are a pescetarian or a semi-vegetarian ... then a real vegetarian wouldn't constantly get served fish. Well I have learned and now will not forget to mention this fact.
The choices in the supermarkets are also not really that great - cheese is usually quite tasteless and so you just go for the one with the most taste (whatever rennet it has). A majority of yoghurts still have gelatin so I stay away from those, there are usually only two producers of milk (both of course not ecological), the only thing you really get is free-range biological eggs. And if you don't go to the really big supermarkets or the Turkish shops (which are quite far away for me so I would need at least half a day only to go shopping there), then the choice of vegetables and fruits is also quite limited.
I am sorry for the somewhat long essay but it still seems to be a certain issue at least here in Norway. Of course you may ask why I am still eating vegetarian if it is so hard here, so here are my reasons:
1. I don't like meat and fish and actually never did eat much as a child. I put this as the very first reason to show that for me it is not a hardship to not eat meat out of principles which, of course, I also have.
2. Ethics. This is mostly about factory farming (mass animal farming) and the treatmeant of animals like transport and slaughtering techniques. Of course something is about the ethics of killing because I also wouldn't eat game out of principal (not because of reason 1).
3. Environmental issues. This is about what people feed to animals in factory farming so that they get fat and what medicaments and hormones they inject. Logically, this also effects animal products and that's why I buy eggs and milk and cheese from organic farming if I have the choice. I could go as far as not buying milk and cheese but I think that would be going too far at the moment. Something like the recent dioxine scandal in Germany will not affect you if you buy organic products.
4. Diseases. Only a minor point but since there have been a few scandals about old meat being repacked and sold, there is a chance you can get some parasites or other nasty stuff ...
Oh yes and I do eat gummy bears - without gelatin of course (imported from Germany, as usual)
During school times we went to visit a factory which produces gelatin. It stank horribly but what really shocked me was the fact that they took leather pieces coming from a shoe factory which already had been coloured. So first they put in chemicals to remove the colour which surely wasn't that harmless either and then they produced the gelatin out of it ... yummy!
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