I apologize to anyone who may read this and get grossed out a little, but this is the way I see things.

01 Bacon-Wrapped Filet Mignon - Omaha Steaks

I was briefly vegetarian in elementary school when they showed us those filmstrips of tapeworm and the like. It occurred to me, as they were hammering it home that pork needs to be thoroughly cooked, that when cooking pork to its optimal temperature, all you're doing is cooking the parasites, not actually getting rid of them. It's not like the act of cooking them turns them into a vapor or they fly off into the air on little parasite wings. They are still in there. So, yeah, that totally turned me off of meat for a few weeks, but I got over it. Eating dead and cooked tapeworm is essentially no different from eating dead and cooked pig. There are trillions of parasites, microorganisms, germs and bacteria in my body anyway, so it's not like eating a few dead ones really changes things.

There's just no way to avoid eating living things. Even seemingly innocuous leavened bread contains yeast, which is a living fungus. And even unleavened bread is a host to microbes, which are alive and kicking. Well, they would be kicking if they had proper legs instead of flagella. That culture that turns milk into yogurt? Yep, it's a living, bacterial organism. Without having a face or fur, yogurt is alive, too. Even completely non-meat, non-yogurt, non-dairy, non-yeast food items like lentils were once alive and have microscopic organisms living on them. Eating living things is entirely unavoidable. Just by the simple act of swallowing our own spit, we're eating living things since there are more germs in the human mouth than on your average kitchen counter.

I've made peace with my microscopic friends. Sometimes, they even do me some good. The microorganisms in my intestines, flamboyantly known as gut flora, help me digest food. Because there is absolutely no way to avoid eating living things, I consciously made a decision to acknowledge everything I eat. I look at the ingredients. I don't pretend that the meat I'm eating, all dressed up in fancy, inoffensive names like brisket or bacon, is anything other than what it is.

I've accepted that I'm merely a hunk of meat like any other and I am just another part of the massive food chain on this tiny, blue planet. Every time I have a fat, juicy steak, before I dig in, I consciously think about what it is that I'm eating. Whenever I eat something that was alive, I acknowledge it. I embrace it. I thank that animal for its demise so that I may live.

That being said, I fully understand when people are unable to overcome that. I remember how horrified I was in elementary school at those filmstrips and I barely overcame it myself. So, I certainly don't look down on anyone for the choices they make in the food that they eat or choose not to eat.

Humans forget sometimes that we are animals, too. We tend to think that, because we have the ability to think on a higher level, we are immune from the intricate system of nature. We are not. We are part of the food chain like everything else. There are microorganisms that make their living off of us, and when we die, there are plenty of creepy crawlies who look at us as dinner. We are meat just like a cow or a pig. It's the most natural, humbling thing in the world. Thinking that we are set apart from that because we are human is the ultimate hubris.