Meat or Plant?

When having a multitude of meal options available to me why would I choose one dish in place of another? And why do I tend to repeat those same choices. I note that I make food choices multiple times daily on a regular basis and I notice that I do it very subconsciously.

It seems that it is very much based on sentiment. I choose to eat food that I feel like eating. So why do I feel like eating certain foods? I have already noted that my bodily needs tend to motivate my feelings. When I lack protein I think meat, when I lack vitamin C I think orange juice etc.

Now that I am Vegan when I need protein it does not make sense to think meat but interestingly I think avocado, nuts, beans, chocolate and similarly dense foods. But before being Vegan I would surely have thought fish, steak etc. I think the reason was mostly out of habit and taste. Basically, you can miss only what you know.

If I examine what foods I know I notice that it is almost all animal source based. A dish is almost always some animal source ingredient as a center piece surrounded by some plant-based ingredient. Vegetables are always considered as an accompaniment to some sort of animal sourced ingredient. That is why all things being equal I would choose meat in place of plant for food.

Even if I look at sandwiches it is always animal source with some vegetable. So, unless there is a conscious reason that makes me avoid meat it would never occur to me to choose a salad instead. It reminds me of Brutus in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, ‘..not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more..’

Now that I know why I would choose a steak in place of a salad for a meal I ask myself another question. If I were still an omnivore how could I make myself choose a salad in place of a steak for lunch willingly, naturally, subcounciously….