It's just food

A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety.

- Aesop -

Once upon a time, I was thinking about food. I'll be honest and say, I think about food a lot, it's an essential part of human life after all, so let's just move forward with the understanding that food is a large part of my life and I think about it a lot. I can only assume it's the same with you - You do eat right?

Anyway, I was thinking about food because I was hungry, a condition that was soon sorted out by way of a very tasty burger.

I've mentioned a time or two before that I was raised vegetarian until I moved out of home at the age of seventeen and a half.

At that point, the flesh of things that once had a face were on the menu, although my early years weren't true vegetarianism I guess, more pescetarian as I ate seafood. I didn't know any different as a kid, my mother had chosen to maintain a vegetarian diet many years earlier so when she met my dad he became vegetarian too; when the children came along there wasn't any choice, so that's how it was.

I still enjoy vegetarian food a lot these days but my diet is more balanced.

There's a few vegetarian restaurants I frequent, really good ones, and I have many tasty vegetarian recipes I make from time to time and I'm quite content eating in that way. But eating seared flesh is also tasty and enjoyable so my diet is spread across all of the food groups.

These days there's so many different ways people eat, humankind's diet has changed dramatically since we evolved from the monkey's, and there's a name for most of them.

Keto, paleo, raw, vegan, gluten-free, Mediterranean, fasting/intermittent fasting, carnivore, vegetarian, pescetarian, low carbohydrate and so on.

What they all have in common is that food is involved at some point and that all human beings need to eat to sustain life. It's one of the basic needs and if a person is alive, they're eating, in some manner at least.

I've heard people become very incensed when it comes to their particular eating habits and I've been in the firing line for not eating in the same manner now and then. Vegans are notorious for it, in my opinion. Not all vegans though, some just eat a vegan diet and shut the fuck up about it; others though, rant and rave as if that will convert others to their way of eating. Why anyone would bother beats me.

Apparently I'm a murderer for eating meat because animals were killed. Oh fuck, call the food police!

I was told this by a vegan, who then walked to her car in her leather shoes and drove away whilst sitting on her leather seats and holding the leather-wrapped steering wheel of her BMW. Asshole.

I don't see that person anymore, I'm too afraid that she'll call the food police and they'll arrest me.

Ok, not really, I don't see her because she doesn't seem able to have a conversation about anything else except the way she eats and, quite frankly, I don't give two shits what or how she eats; I also don't understand why she thinks it's valid to push her opinions and eating habits onto others. She eats her way and I eat mine, just like all of us.

What the bloody fuck? #WTBF - Why do vegans seem to want to convert people, sway them from eating meat, all the time? It's as bad as religious people wanting to convert others to their beliefs. No thanks, I don't need an imaginary friend to tell me if I'm good or bad and what to do with my life...and I don't need a vegan to tell me what to eat.

As I said, it's not all vegans and I don't want to lead people to think I'm anti-vegan; it's not the case at all. I just don't understand why people can't just eat food instead of turning it into a political agenda and ideology.

One of life's great joys is good food.

Don't misunderstand that line; good food doesn't necessarily mean gourmet food prepared by a famous chef in a three-Michelin-star restaurant in my opinion. I've eaten the most basic of meals that I'd still call great. Trust me, if you've gone without decent food for a long time, the most basic burger and fries can be amazing. Furthermore, I've always said, great company and the right setting can make average food good and good food great.

Eating is done to sustain life, but it's also an enjoyment...unless you're eating it whilst being ranted at by a ~~vegan~~ fool pushing their personal food-agenda.

If you're reading this I'll assume you're human and that you have eaten food at one point or another in your lifetime. If that's the case, you're entitled to your thoughts and opinions and I'm inviting you to share them.

Do you stick to a particular manner of eating and if so why? Have you changed your diet, gone from one style of eating to another? Why did you do so, and how has it worked out? Are you one who fasts or does juice diets? Are you a vegan ranter with leather seats in your BMW? Have you been the victim of a food rant? No matter what or how you eat, you're welcome to comment below if you feel inclined.

Here's two bonus questions for the comments section: