{"id":1012069,"date":"2026-08-20T03:38:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T03:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1012069\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T03:38:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T03:38:26","slug":"what-we-choose-to-eat-or-not-eat-is-deeply-personal-and-it-can-evolve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1012069\/","title":{"rendered":"What we choose to eat or not eat is deeply personal. And it can evolve."},"content":{"rendered":"

Food, Honestly<\/a>\u00a0is a monthly column discussing how people actually eat right now \u2014 not through reviews or recipes, but through real talk about cost, convenience and everyday food decisions. We want you to participate in that discussion by telling us what matters to you. Email\u00a0allysoneatsden@gmail.com\u00a0to keep the conversation going.<\/p>\n

The first vegetarian I ever knew was Lisa Simpson. OK, so I didn\u2019t know her exactly, but when she gave up meat in 1995, it was a revelation to this 14-year-old.<\/p>\n

At that age, the only thought I\u2019d put into what I was eating was which Michelina\u2019s microwave dinner I\u2019d have that night<\/a>. It hadn\u2019t even occurred to me that food could be a choice beyond what sounded good. That some people intentionally avoided meat, gluten, dairy and more. (This was not the era of waiters kicking off your restaurant meal by asking about food allergies or dietary preferences.)<\/p>\n

Honestly, not much has changed for me in 30 years. Besides becoming more aware of organic produce, factory farming and knowing real-life vegetarians \u2014 no longer just a yellow, spiky-haired cartoon character \u2014 I still haven\u2019t done much questioning of what I do and do not eat. I\u2019ve continued my lifelong philosophy of devouring pretty much anything set in front of me. I\u2019ve never sworn off meat or any food for reasons other than I don\u2019t prefer fruit in my desserts and I don\u2019t like mayo on my sandwiches.<\/p>\n

Then I watched Netflix\u2019s documentary \u201cMy Octopus Teacher,\u201d and read the novel \u201cRemarkably Bright Creatures,\u201d in which Marcellus the octopus was my favorite character. I realized that these creatures are smart.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe octopus, or “pulpo,” entree at Casa Juani, a Spanish restaurant that opened in late February 2026 at 901 Pearl St., Boulder. (Publicity photo by Casey Wilson)<\/p>\n

And in the documentary, there was something about watching an octopus solve problems, recognize and form a friendship with a human, and appear curious that made me think that maybe she shouldn\u2019t be my appetizer. Was I considering giving up my first-ever food? And was it really because of a Netflix show?<\/p>\n

It got me wondering how people arrive at these big food decisions, especially when they\u2019re rooted in personal values rather than health-related or religious mandates. How does one decide to avoid meat, meat products or one-offs like octopus, veal, foie gras or lamb?<\/p>\n

Part of it is, of course, what our culture, religion and society have decided for us. In America, we don\u2019t really eat animals we\u2019ve deemed cute. (Cats, dogs, adorable little pygmy hippos.) We also don\u2019t seem to eat creatures we consider gross. (Insects, rodents.) But what about intelligent species like Marcellus? Baby animals? Animals subject to cruel practices like overfeeding or overcrowding?<\/p>\n

When the decision isn\u2019t already made for us, how do we pick and choose what is and is not OK to eat?<\/p>\n

The answer isn\u2019t super tidy, especially as our collective food morals are a moving target. The slaughtering of horses for human consumption, for example, didn\u2019t end until 2007. (Although horsemeat hasn\u2019t appeared on a U.S. menu since the 1980s.) Today, only about 4% to 6% of Americans identify as vegetarians, yet one in four believe it\u2019s morally wrong to eat octopus.<\/p>\n

I asked a few vegetarian friends, ranging from deeply committed to more lax herbivores, how they arrived at their decisions. Their reasons varied. One cited the influence of \u201cSassy\u201d magazine in her adolescence making vegetarianism sound cool (we\u2019re older millennials); others mentioned factory farming and animal welfare (the most common response); for someone it was all about health (a powerful motivator) and another simply prefers animals to people (valid).<\/p>\n

My daughter, though far from evangelical \u2014 the girl loves herself a Good Times burger every now and then \u2014 avoids red meat because of its environmental impact. Livestock accounts for around 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Oh, and my husband refuses to eat chicken for personal preference, but that\u2019s just him being annoying.<\/p>\n

We all seem to draw different moral lines, and maybe the interesting part isn\u2019t exactly where we draw that line so much as that we all draw them somewhere. We think these decisions are deeply rational, and I don\u2019t doubt that some are, but I think they\u2019re also very much an accumulation of emotion, culture, experience and empathy.<\/p>\n

For me, apparently, all it takes is a Netflix binge. Which yes, is embarrassing, but also far from the most embarrassing thing about me. And surely I\u2019m not the only one who felt something when the octopus first wrapped her tentacle around Craig\u2019s hand. I mean, influencing is the point of documentaries, right?<\/p>\n

The thing is, I like eating octopus. It\u2019s something I occasionally order at restaurants and enjoy. It\u2019s not like I\u2019m deciding to give up apple pie or mayo on an Italian sub or some other objectively gross thing. Giving up a food I actually like strikes me as suddenly self-righteous, like I\u2019m climbing a dangerously high horse one appetizer at a time. That feels weird, too.<\/p>\n

As a firm omnivore, swearing off octopus also seems, well, arbitrary. Like\u2026just octopus. To vegetarians and vegans, it probably doesn\u2019t go nearly far enough. I\u2019m still the enemy. To everyone else, it might sound frivolous, inconsequential, ridiculous. Everyone would have a point.<\/p>\n

I think, though, that what we choose to eat or not eat is deeply personal. And it can evolve. Our culinary ethos can and maybe should be incomplete, shifting as we learn more, experience more and even fall in love with an especially charismatic Netflix cephalopod.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our new food newsletter, Stuffed, to get Denver food and drink news sent straight to your inbox. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Food, Honestly\u00a0is a monthly column discussing how people actually eat right now \u2014 not through reviews or recipes,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1012070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[37],"tags":[3425,4439,12833,2105,405029,210,1370,1165,1182,988,405030,33974,1072,67,132,68,12238],"class_list":["post-1012069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-animals","tag-colorado","tag-farming","tag-food-and-drink","tag-food-honestly","tag-health","tag-latest-headlines","tag-lifestyle","tag-nutrition","tag-restaurants","tag-restaurants-and-dining","tag-the-know","tag-things-to-do","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-vegetarian"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117125756916531916","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1012069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1012070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1012069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1012069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1012069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}