My Vegetarian Background

Sophia requested that I speak on my diet background. I am appreciative of this and I hope that this post will inspire those who are currently trying to transition into a vegan or vegetarian diet.




I was born on September 29, 1985 in Bronx, New York to Jamaican parents who believed in maintaining a healthy approach to one's diet and lifestyle on a whole. They were strict vegans and believed in raising me to be the same. They took pride in the type of foods they selected and ate and fed to my brother and I. It wasn't just about not eating meat or animal products. It was also about eating organic, pure, healthy foods and using natural and organic products too. We also believed in the herbal and natural options to healing.

When my mother decided to go back to Jamaica and take us with her. I found that I strayed a lot. When I was in prep school, I tried meat and I would eat quite a bit of animal products. My favourites included Jamaican beef patty, tuna salad sandwich, cheese puffs, etc. After 4 weeks of eating a beef patty once a week at school, I got extremely ill. It was like having a really bad flu that affected you down to the joints. My system was clogged with mucus and I felt really weak. After that I never ate meat ever again.

I found that I got even more sensitive to it as I grew older. For example, now as an adult, if my brother eat meat out of any of our plates or cutlery and didn't wash them, I could smell the lingering grease. If he didn't follow my instructions properly as to how to wash the stuff that he used, I could tell, that greasy smell would linger on the items for a very long time; sometimes it remained permanently. If I go to a restaurant that also serves meat dishes I hardly drink from the water glass because I would smell the lingering greasy smell on it.

I am no vegetarian snob though. Unlike a lot of vegans or vegetarians today, I don't mind eating beside others who are eating meat dishes. I also do not mind cohabitating with persons who eat meat, as long as they use separate pots, utensils and crockery. This is simply because I cannot stand the greasy smell.

In more recent times, I have maintained a vegetarian status, which meant that although I had a high intolerance for meat, I still ate animal products occassionally. I particularly had a weakness for cheesy products and some pastries that have egg or dairy products in it. I am gradually working on bringing myself back to 100% vegan. I am there for the most part. However, I continue to work at it. I know I will never be as strict as the day I was born unfortunately. An example of this is consuming products that may have been manufactured in a factory or machinery that also manufactures dairy products. I however still try to go organic and natural wherever I can.

For pics of my brother and I when we were younger with our parents click here. Some are of us in New York and others are of us in Jamaica. :)