Reducetarian

Background

I watched You Are What You Eat on Netflix with my family and it really made me think. I was a bit influenced by the facts and anecdotes presented in the show, but it also just happened to coincide with doubts I had been already having. Morally speaking there seems like no way to justify eating meat, especially in terms of current agricultural trends like factory farming. As a person who is reasonably well-off and not super attached to eating meat, it seems like my moral duty to use my money to support plant-based businesses and be an early adopter so that they can continue developing products to convert more people. I started my journey on January 9th, 2023.

With that being said, I still wanted to be able to eat meat. There were definitely some dishes and experiences that I would miss out on in being fully vegan. I had seen some friends who were vegan who were relegated to one or two dishes at a restaurant we go to as a group or would have to go out of there way to find different places. Because of this I decided on a compromise, I would cook fully vegan and not buy animal products to keep on hand at my apartment, but if I went out I would eat non-vegan.

Then through a friend, I came across the term/organization Reducetarian which are people who “are committed to eating less meat and dairy and fewer eggs — following their own hearts and individual motivations.” which I think perfectly describes me!

The Process

It was a lot easier to make the switch than I thought it would be for a couple of reasons.

• I still maintained the “out” to eat non-vegan when I wasn’t at home
  • This gives me a system to work within and not miss out on things at family/friend gatherings, etc.
• I live near a Trader Joe’s which has a lot of vegan products, many ready-to-eat
  • I also live near a Harris Teeter that targets a younger and more wealthy audience, which I think influences how many vegan/”healthy” products they carry
• I was able to substitute a lot of the things I was eating with vegan alternatives
  • I like meat and dairy products, but not that much, so I can live without (good) cheese and most meat alternatives taste close enough
  • For things that weren’t readily available to be bought at the grocery store, I would use those vegan substitutions to veganize things I wanted to eat
• I like to try new things
  • Falafel, Fried Bean Curd, and scallion pancakes to name a few
  • There are a wealth of fun, interesting, and delicious vegan recipes online
• I have been able to find easy meals to fallback on when I don’t have lots of energy/time
  • I like to cook, but I don’t like having to cook all the time, so I frequently lean on my “Lazy Vegan Meals” when I don’t want to cook.

Would I recommend this?

Absolutely. I think that you are reducing animal product consumption which is absolutely a net positive.

As for health, I don’t think that a vegan diet is necessarily automatically healthier than an omnivorous diet, but there are definitely ways to make it healthy. Nowadays there are so many vegan products that you might not even really have to change your diet that much from what you used to eat.

In some ways I think it makes grocery shopping easier. There are only so many products that you can get so you are faced with more limited options. Just gets annoying when you have to read through the ingredients when you’re buying something new. Additionally, there’s lot of innovation going on in the space so there should always be interesting new things to try.