How I became a vegetarian

I became a vegetarian about 10 years ago. My partner stopped eating meat before I did, and I started to wonder if meat was really necessary for my diet. At first, I tried eating soy meat instead of animal meat. I soon found that soy meat was tastier than animal food. In those times, I began to eat organically grown vegetables and avoid chemical condiments. I think my sense of taste was getting delicate. When I started eating soy meat, I realized that I didn't like the taste of animal meat so much. When eating vegetables, I chewed a lot to get a good taste of them; on the other hand, I started not to want to chew animal meat for many times. When I was chewing animal meat, I sensed vividly that I was eating part of the body of an animal.

I sometimes made a sketch of dabbling ducks when I went for a walk in a park near my apartment in Tokyo. They looked cute, and as I got to feel more affinity with them, I started to think that birds are not for eating (at least for me). 

Some people say that they get energetic when they eat meat, but that is not the case for me. When I ate a lot of meat, I often caught a cold and succumbed to a variety of illnesses. I got tired easily, and often had swollen tonsils, accompanying a fever. After changing my diet, however, I hardly get a cold, and haven't been to a doctor, except for a dentist, for more than 10 years. I didn't try to stop eating meat all at once, as I thought it was more natural to cease to eat it gradually. When I started to cut back on meat, I noticed that my stomach and my whole body felt heavy after eating it. 

I sometimes hear about a story that someone became thinner and weaker after becoming a vegetarian. I guess that if you just get rid of meat from your everyday meals suddenly without adding anything to cover it, you might not have adequate nourishment. In my case, in the same period when I started to spare meat, I began to eat naturally and organically grown vegetables, beans, and brown rice; I think this was why I didn't feel a lack of nourishment without meat. If someone wants to quit eating meat, eating naturally-grown and nutritious vegetables, fruits, beans, grains may help a lot.

There are a lot of vegetarians among professional athletes. This proves that you cannot get energetic without eating meat, doesn't it? We don't necessarily need to eat meat to grow muscle. It is said that what it takes to grow muscle is amino acids which constitute protein, and these amino acids can be taken from grain, beans, nuts, vegetables, and other plant-based foods. 

There are many studies and opinions about becoming a vegetarian, but I think what is most important to listening to our bodies.