What is your opinion on eating meat?
I was born and raised in Greece. Something which means that the food I was consuming, while I was
there, was based on the Mediterranean diet. That diet is based on the eating habits of the inhabitants
of Crete and southern Italy in the 1960s, basically emphasises the consumption of pulses, olive oil,
cereals and seeds, fruits and vegetables, moderate consumption of fish and white meat and infrequent
consumption of red meat, as well as moderate consumption of red wine. To be perfectly honest,
Greeks do not always consume moderately red wine (especially if they produce it).
Back to the main question, yes. My diet includes meat (apart from pork), and personally, I do not
believe that moderate or infrequent consumption of fish or meat is necessarily unhealthy or
ideologically incorrect. Originally, I am from a Greek Island. In addition to that, I was raised by Greek
farmers. As a result, having the chance to connect with animals and the nature, learn to respect them
and understand the importance of adopting healthy eating habits is fundamental not only for my
physical health, but also for my mental health. According to the Roman poet Juvenal (10.356-64)
‘Mens sana in corpore sano’ (= a healthy mind in a healthy body). I, personally, agree with the famous
Latin quotation and I believe that the specific mentality could lead to wellbeing.
Furthermore, I believe that this applies to every living creature on this planet. For example, if you are
about to eat an animal that did not eat healthy during their lifetime then you are not going to eat
healthy as well. Everything is a Cycle, and every living creature plays such an important role in our
ecosystem. On the contrary, I do believe that frequent and even infrequent consumption of not only
processed meat, but also processed fruits and vegetables is unhealthy, flavourless, and disrespectful
towards animals and nature as well.