Vegetarianism is the practice of a diet that excludes all animal flesh, including poultry, game, fish, shellfish or crustacea, and slaughter by-products. The reasons for choosing vegetarianism may be related to morality, religion, culture, ethics, aesthetics, environment, society, economy, politics, taste, or health.
The mainstream scientific consensus is that humans are physiologically best suited to an omnivore diet as they have the ability to digest meat as well as plant food. A small minority believe that humans are more anatomically similar to herbivores as they have long intestinal tracts and blunt teeth. There are some animals with blunt teeth that have herbivore diets and it is thought that humans started eating meat as a result of huge climatic changes that took place over three million year's ago, when forests and jungles dried up and became open grasslands. This in turn produced hunting and scavenging opportunities for the early hominids.
Most vegetarians consider the production, subsequent slaughtering and consumption of meat or animal products as unethical. Many believe in 'animal rights' and they have an aversion to inflicting pain or harm on other living creatures and they believe that the unnecessary killing of other animal is inherently wrong. Other vegetarians think that it is the way animals are reared that is unethical. This thinking has increased with the spread of 'factory farming', which reduced the husbandry that used to exist in farming and which has led to animals being treated as commodities.
There are several variants of the diet, some of which also exclude eggs and/or some products produced from animals' labour such as dairy products and honey. Veganism, for example, excludes all animal products from the diet. By some strict definitions, animal products cannot be used for the production of clothing or other items used in everyday life that are directly involve in the actual death of an animal (dairy products, eggs, honey, wool, silk, down feathers, etc.). The most common examples are not wearing items made of leather or fur. A generic term for both vegetarianism and veganism, as well as for similar diets, is "Plant-based diets"
Properly planned vegetarian diets have been found to satisfy the nutritional needs for all stages of life, and large-scale studies have shown vegetarianism to increase longevity, improve health, and significantly lower risks of cancer and other diseases. Various animal food safety scares over recent years, including 'bird flu' in poultry, 'foot and mouth' in sheep and cattle and 'BSE' or 'mad cow disease' in cows, have led to an increase in the numbers of people choosing semi-vegetarian or vegetarian diets. Many people are now opting for 'organic' foods to avoid being contaminated by pesticides and banned chemicals used to ripen and preserve fruit and vegetables.
You may find living in Spain that you have difficulty in finding good vegetarian restaurants, or restaurants that serve vegetarian food. The Spanish also have this idea that it is ok to put ham or bacon in vegetarian dishes! We have given you a few vegetarian dishes for you to try at home, but if you do want to eat out here in Spain, do ask at your favourite restaurant if they will provide true vegetarian dishes.