My mom wrote something in her blog I think is relevant to vegan discussion. I’ll quote her here:

“Over the years I have met others who are vegetarians or who used to be vegetarians. Early on, because my own vegetarianism was more ethical- than diet-oriented, I posited that those who turned vegetarian for health reasons were less likely to stay vegetarian than those who went that way for ethical, moral reasons. For the animals. Vegetarianism for those of us in this camp resembles, in this sense, a religion.One more interesting tidbit from Rethinking Thin is what one of the dieters in the book says. He is Jewish and he made a decision to eat Kosher, based on his religion. He immediately removed all foods from his diet that were not Kosher and knew that he would not eat them again. When he attends parties or other food events and he isn’t certain that the food is Kosher he simply does not eat it. He said that he has absolutely no problem avoiding foods that don’t fit into this diet. He knows he will simply not eat them.

But he does not have the same will, if that’s what it is, when it comes to foods that his weight-loss diet says are bad for him. He slips. He has trouble not eating his favorites, or satisfying his sweet tooth when it beats down his defenses. He wonders if getting thin is less important to him than his religion.

So it appears that my hypothesis is probably correct. Following a diet for health reasons, whatever the diet, is damnably difficult. Yet choosing not to eat foods because we are morally opposed to eating them is an entirely different ball game.”

My mom, unlike me, is a voracious reader and will read and then also review almost any book she gets her hands on. In this case, the book is Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss–and the Myths and Realities of Dieting. The book is mostly about fatness and thinness. It dispells many myths associated with weight. But apparently it does something else. It explains the difference between a diet and a lifestyle.

A diet is a temporary change in eating, usually done to lose weight or deal with illness. A lifestyle is based on one’s philosophy. A lifestyle is informed by religion, beliefs, habit, tradition, and more. The vegan lifestyle is not just a diet, it’s a philosophy.

Some people embrace this difference and distinguish between ethical vegetarians and people who follow the vegetarian diet by calling ethical vegetarians “vegan” and the others “strict vegetarians.” I like that. I tend to call people who eat similarly to me, but who don’t also have animal rights/liberation inclinations “strict vegetarians” rather than “vegans.”

This difference also explains why some people (like me) are offended by jokes about vegans. It’s because veganism feels like a religion in many ways. And just as it’s often offensive to joke about someone’s religion, it’s offensive to joke about someone’s philosophy or their veganism. It’s not just a diet.

Sections: Vegan Theory
Topics: diet, Food, philosophy, Vegan