Food is not just something to put in your mouth when your foot is not there. It is something to be relished and enjoyed. Food is indeed one of the great joys of life. Right in the Holy Bible the good Lord exhorts us “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow ye might die.” There is not point in messing with Him, is there? Eating is perhaps the only activity where all five of your senses are intensely involved. Well perhaps not the ‘only’ activity but for a magazine of this nature only will do. I don’t believe in too restrictive a diet. If you desire to have a Cadbury or Mars bar now and then it may well be your body’ way of telling you that you urgently need to put some carbs in your system.

 Many people these days seem to be on a mission to denigrate those of us who love their food and are unapologetic about the fact. New diet gurus emerge with monotonous regularity saying that this or that food is bad for you. Their ire is targeted mainly towards meat lovers. As a person who must have red meat at least every other day I am naturally peeved. And at the forefront of carnivore bashing are those self appointed custodians of that weird phenomenon called “ethical eating.”  Another term they often use is “natural eating.” Another hokum if you ask me.

What in heaven’s name do they mean by natural? It is not natural to fight disease with medicine rather than our immune system. It is not natural to stay with the same person our entire lives. It is not natural to wear specs, dye our hair, transport ourselves in wheelchairs or install pacemakers. I could go on. Just because something is natural does not necessarily mean that that thing is good or bad.

Yet I can and do accept people being vegetarian for religious or moral reasons. It is when they try to justify their eating preferences by condemning those of us who prefer to have animal protein on our plates, rises my ire. Or when they say vegetarianism is healthier.

Less than five per cent of the global population practice vegetarianism. And many of them believe that they're doing the world a favour by abstaining from meat and fish or for the vegans even egg or milk. Saying that a vegetarian diet is healthier is plainly wrong. Our caveman ancestors relied on meat and fruit for their nourishment. Many modern day diseases can be traced back to the time when people started cultivating grains and vegetables. Clearly we were designed to eat an omnivorous diet, to do otherwise is unwise and unhealthy. While limiting ones intake of red meat and foods which contain high amounts of cholesterol is indeed a healthy idea, eliminating animal protein from ones diet borders on the stupid. When misguided vegetarian and vegan parents force their creed on their children, it is downright evil.

Protein from animal sources (meat, fish, dairy products, eggs white) is high biological value protein or a "complete" protein because all nine essential amino acids are present in these proteins. Proteins derived from plant sources (grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds) do not contain sufficient amounts of one or more of the essential amino acids. And if you by any chance have an essential amino acid deficiency your body your body needs to get the essentials amino acids from somewhere - your body begins to cannabilise itself which as you can imagine is dangerous.

Vegetarians and vegans have to get the bulk of their calories from other sources than meat and often end up eating larger portions of soy, wheat or other grain products like tofu, soy milk, breads, pastas, rice. These can lead to chronically high insulin levels, weight gain and diabetes in the long run.

Another argument the vegetarians put forward is that their way of eating is environment friendly. Wrong again. Agriculture is the industry that consumes the most oil if you think about all the machinery used and food transportation needed.  A recent British study found that switching from beef and lamb to meat substitutes tofu would increase the amount of land cultivated, raising the risk of forests being destroyed. Production methods for meat substitutes can be energy intensive and the final products tend to be highly processed, the report, which was commissioned by the environmental group WWF, found.

The researchers concluded: ‘A switch from beef and milk to highly refined livestock product analogues such as tofu could actually increase the quantity of arable land.”

So you see the belief that meat substitutes symbolise environmental friendliness are false.

Authoritative studies have shown that a vegan diet can lead to increased risk of colorectal cancer, lower bone mineral density, lower levels of vitamin B12, insufficient levels of omega-3 fatty acids, etc.

Vegetarians also claim that gving up meat helps purge the body of toxins (pesticides, environmental pollutants, preservatives) that overload our systems and cause illness. When people begin formal detoxification programs, their first step is to replace meats and dairy products with fruits and vegetables and juices.

Well there are NO studies showing that elimination of meat from the diet helps “purge the body of toxins.” The wording itself is interesting as it implies that vegetarianism will render a sinful body pure. Most plant foods these daysy are loaded with pesticides and many components in animal products support the body’s detoxification system—such as iron in meat, amino acids in bone broths, vitamin A in liver and saturated fat in butter.

Vegetarians often say that their diet protects from food borne diseases.  Well by far the most common source of food-borne diseases is fruits and vegetables. Milk, meat and eggs raised naturally do not present problems of food-borne illness.

Going vegetarian is also tough as hell. The body needs animal foods and provides a powerful drive to eat them. Cravings and resentment are a natural byproduct of a vegetarian diet, not to mention separation from the majority of humankind by adopting this habit.

The silliest argument the vegetarians put forward is that vegetarianism promotes a cleaner conscious, peace-loving general outlook and non-violence. Really?

Pol Pot - a vegan - murdered some two million Cambodians in his lifetime.

 Charles Manson, the infamous killer cult leader was a vegan and an animal rights activist. The Manson "Family" perpetrated a series of murders which shocked and terrified the nation. In his defense the monster said  "I did it for ATWA! Air, Trees, Water, Animals!"

The greatest mass killer of the previous century Adolph Hitler became a vegetarian in 1932.

Genghis Khan the Mongol warlord was a strict vegetarian. He is said to have once killed 1,748,000 people in a single hour. But hey at least he did not eat animals.

These are just examples of evil individuals who happen to be vegetarians, I hear some of you say. Well what about the Gujarat progrom of 2002. Thousands of Muslims were killed by mostly vegetarian Gujaratis–Gujarat happens to be the home of the apostle of non-violence Mahatma Gandhi. May be the Muslims’ fault was they ate meat.

Or what about the atrocities perpetrated by the strictly vegetarian Buddhist bhikshus against the Rohingyas?

The writer is the Senior Assistant Editor of The Independent