The Truth About Being Vegetarian in the USA vs. Germany | Feli from Germany
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What's it like being a vegetarian in Germany? Don't they eat nothing but meat? And do I find it easier to get by in the US, where the selection at stores seems to be endless? I've talked about this topic here and there in my videos and on social media but I finally decided to dedicate a full video to this and share my personal views and experiences in Munich and Cincinnati. Please share YOUR opinions and experiences with this topic in the comments below! :)
Check out my updated video on this topic from 2024 ▸ • Why Germans Don't Eat ...
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Sources:
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www.statista.com/statistics/5....
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Chapters:
0:00 Intro
3:51 Get 16 free meals with HelloFresh
6:35 Germany: Country of meat, beer, and bread
7:47 Meat consumption in Germany - Statistics
10:08 Meat consumption in the US - Statistics
11:57 Personal experiences: Omnipresence of meat in the US
13:19 The vegetarian-friendly side of German cuisine
15:12 Daily obstacles at restaurants & on the road
18:04 Meat-substitute products in Germany vs. US
19:38 Diet changes among my friends and family
20:24 Clever Marketing: Meat = Protein?
23:02 YOUR input
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ABOUT ME: Hallo, Servus, and welcome to my channel! My name is Felicia (Feli), I'm 27, and I'm a German living in the USA! I was born and raised in Munich, Germany but have been living in Cincinnati, Ohio off and on since 2016. I first came here for an exchange semester during my undergrad at LMU Munich, then I returned for an internship, and then I got my master's degree in Cincinnati. I was lucky enough to win the Green Card lottery and have been a permanent resident since 2019! In my videos, I talk about cultural differences between America and Germany, things I like and dislike about living here, and other topics I come across in my everyday life in the States. Let me know what YOU would like to hear about in the comments below. DANKE :)
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Check out my updated video on this topic from 2024 ▸th-cam.com/video/LYjixOPseoQ/w-d-xo.html
Thanks so much for watching! I know that this can be a controversial topic for some people and it's important to keep in mind that my experience is just one of many - which is why I would love to hear about YOUR experiences as well! I prepared some questions for you at 23:33! I would love for you to share your answers in the comment section below! :)
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I am a 1st generation American. My family is Germanic from the area that is now Croatia. Both my grandmas were excellent cooks and my step grandpa was also a great cook. They made many meatless dishes I think because they were frugal, but also prepared the greats like suerbraten, schnitzel and then more American stuff like prime rib and BBQ. Well fast forward and now I eat only plants for health reasons. I plan on trying to make some of the German staples in healthier versions.
I should also mention both my grandmas were EXCELLENT bakers and that is what I really miss. Especially on my birthday. I always asked for, and got a Zitronenkuchen...I can almost taste it now.
I understand the environmental, health, and ethical concerns around meat. Also, less steak for you might mean more steak for me.
Are brussels sprouts anywhere nearly as popular in Germany as spargel?
When I first came to Germany from the States in 1972, I considered a meal to consist mainly of meat, with some potatoes/rice/noodles and a smidgen of vegetables for health reasons only. Then in '76 I decided to try leaving out the meat and discovered after just a few days that I had absolutely no need or even desire for it. Back then, though, it was hard to find meatless dishes (except for salads) at German restaurants. Now however, most restaurants have vegetarian options and some (as well as some bakeries now) even offer vegan options as well, although the German town I live in is rather small.
Of course you don't need meat to be healthy (Thoreau, for one, already proved that), but vegans have to find some source of vitamin B12, which is difficult without animal products.
Of course it's not all plain sailing being a vegetarian, there's still B12 deficiency for example. I certainly couldn't cope with meat every day never mind every meal. However the problem with a vegetarian (and vegan) diet is that it leads to more commercial farming of nuts etc. Which drives wildlife off the land that would be used for cattle grazing. Then there is the natural fertiliser from animal manure that is good for the soil. Without that you have to use industrial fertiliser which is more polluting to make. Then of course without eating meat those animals that are bred for food are at risk of extinction.
I'm from the Midwest, and moved the other way, but have the same experience. In my smallish German town, veggie options were everywhere. Sushi places had multiple meatless options, but when i came back to visit, friends thought the us had lots of good options, but our experience was much different. My wife doesn't eat meat, and even at many sit down places all she could order was fries and grilled cheese/quesadillas (even many non Mexican places had quesadilla). Interesting, i think Germany has the most veggie friendly experiences for eating.
May I welcome you to India....lol. I doubt any country has anything equivalent to the vegetarian options we have there.
She doesn’t eat meat? She’s missing 1/2 of life!!!! Steak and Eggs at IHOP’s
Israel also has really good vegan options because they have a huge vegan population. I’m also in the Midwest now and the veggie options aren’t the best
Probably one of my favorite videos. I am an American Vegetarian. Traveling in America is extremely hard as a vegetarian. I would love to get a sandwich or salad quickly before getting on a flight but that's nearly impossible to find. I tend to rely on finding the cheese and fruit options. My family does not understand that I am a vegetarian (I'm from the midwest where they eat meat on meat haha). Traveling in Europe is so easy for me!! I love traveling in Europe especially for the food options and quality!
It's crazy to me that it's so difficult in the US, because I feel like I hear a lot about vegetarianism/veganism there. It's truly amazing how the stereotypical meat-heavy country is friendlier 😅
As an American vegetarian from the South East, I agree with everything you said. I always get odd questions and shocked glances. "How do you get all your nutrients?!", "How do you get your protein?", "That's all you're going to eat?!". It's hard to be vegetarian in America. Not that many options and not as many people open to types of plant based protein. I was actually surprised when I visited Germany a couple years ago at how easy it would've been to keep up a vegetarian diet, because I was under the same impressions (meat, potatoes, and beer). At the time, I was flexitarian and decided to eat meat that week to get the "German food experience". I loved all the fresh vegetables, cheeses, bread, fruit and fruit preserves I ate there and it gave me a whole new way to look at food. And it showed me how nutrient deficient our American food truly was. I decided to to vegetarian for health reasons, but I stay vegetarian for ethical reasons as well. I absolutely love how it changes your mindset about food and your plate make-up.
Hello Feli! I am from Taiwan ☺️
I‘ve been a vegan for some years because I don’t really like meat and also I really love animals! Just want to tell you that I like what you’ve said in the video! I can also feel that in recent years, a lot more people in Taiwan start to try plant-based diet!
In Taiwan, it’s normal for people to hear a person not eating meat because of our traditional religion, but it’s not so normal to be vegetation or vegan because of other reasons such as not loving the texture or smell of meat or ethical/animal/environmental reasons.
As a result, it’s super easy for people who don’t eat meat to find food here in Taiwan, but those who don’t eat meat for religious reason usually don’t eat leek, garlic, green onion and some other specific things. But there are so many restaurants in Taiwan for those people! Literally everywhere especially in small town.
I personally don’t really like the dishes they provide, so I would prefer cooking myself or go to “vegetation/vegan (friendly)” restaurant which is not so common in Taiwan. It’s becoming more popular recently but only in big city such as Taipei, Taichung or Tainan and Kaohsiung.
These are my experience in Taiwan☺️
Thanks for sharing!
What is the native religion you are referring to? I've never heard of people not eating leeks or garlic (other than vampires obviously in fiction, or maybe an allergy). Do you know why the religion disapproves of those foods? Do they have some symbolic meaning or something? I'm just curious because I've never heard of this.
Probably Jainism@@conlon4332
I live in the US.
I’ve been a vegan for 4 months now. I started out as a vegetarian for about year at first, working towards being at least mostly vegan.
I gave up animal products for ethical reasons as well as health reasons. I’m really enjoying it! I love discovering different recipes to try and different meat substitutes to try.
I love tofu ❤️
Thank you, Feli I've never heard my issue with eating meat explained so well by anyone, and I feel so seen right now! Danke vielmals :)
Í'm an Austrian living in Israel. I ate meat every day growing up in Austria. Since living here my meat consumption has dropped drastically. Tel Aviv is considered the vegan capital of the world and has more than 400 vegan and vegetarian eateries. People live very well on vegan friendly cuisines such as Indian, Ethiopian and Persian to name a few.
oh wow! now I have to put Tel Aviv on my list of places to travel to ^^
Tel Aviv da möchte ich auch noch hin. Kannst du empfehlen als Urlaubsreise?
@@starseed8087 Sehr empfehlenswert! Tolle Strande am Mittelmeer, Totes Meer, Rotes Meer im Suden, jede Menge archiologische Ausgrabungen, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, sehr freundliche Leute, guter Wein, auch eine ausgepragte Bierkultur und naturlich viel Sonne und Warme! LOL, ich arbeite nicht fur das Israelische Tourismusburo!
Ummm, falafel, sabich, humus
@@hq3473 I love falafel!
I live in the Netherlands close to the German border and I honestly think the vegetarian options in German grocery stores are pretty limited compared to Dutch grocery stores. My small local grocery store has the same amount of veg(etari)an products as the large store right across the border. The same thing goes for restaurants. I always think German restaurants are kinda heavy on meat.
Maybe this has changed during the last 2 years. Especially the big discounters in Germany have written on their flag to offer much more vegetarian and vegan options. That is a big indicator that nutrition habbits in the population has changed
@@somersault4762That is definitively true!!!! And I, as a vegan, am so grateful for this. But when assuming the Dutch people are at least 2 years forward to us Germans, I could imagine to move to the Netherlands. Another reason is, that I've heard of the Dutch being very progressive in the research of, how is it called, artificial meat? Imho this COULD be a part of the solution towards animal ethicals and environment issues. What do you think?
@@Winona493 tbh I'm not a big fan of those vegan options where peas and lots of additives are clumped together. I personally don't need vegan sausages or burgers. There are hundreds of tasty healthy meals that you can cook. However if it is just for animal welfare Lab/Cell grown meat is for sure an option. The cell cultures where the meat is grown is still not scaling too good in price and they are still working on the constistency. Overall it is still not mass compatible. I heard lots of projects working on it Mosa Meat, Upside Foods, MeaTech and many more.
I am a hellofresh customer in GER and I must say that the whole recycled/recyclable packaging is questionable when it comes to all the plastic many items are package in. Smells of wishcycling to me
Do you have anywhere that recycles soft plastics? If not then you have a problem with Hello Fresh.
@@hairyairey You’re right, many plastic items including a lot of the department store plastic bags are not ♻️. At least most of the grocery plastic bags are biodegradable. I like how the recycling is set up in Germany but I think a lot is still not able to be ♻️. ☹️
@@nutrylzone367 Tesco in the UK has started recycling soft plastics. Sainsburys said they would do it, but still no sign of it actually happening.
My issue is that their big selling point behind the convenience is that you can save food, but if you have a composter (I do) this is - surprise - recycled. The plastic, especially since the pandemic began, has been an issue. Even here, in Onondaga county, NY where OCRRA has always been a robust program, they're accepting less and less plastics. The price of NEW plastic is just too low. The only way to get out of this problem is to use compostable 'plastic', usually made of corn.
@@christineherrmann205 The London Marathon did that for their kit bags last year. I just need a compost bin to put it in now!
You are such a great social media ambassador for Germany!
Cincinnati has a meat packing history and once had the nickname, “Porkopolis.”. That, and being part of the nation’s breadbasket, makes it a place where big meals with meat still rule.
I would be so screwed, for me pork is forbidden xD OMG "Porkopolis"
@@Saavik256 oh, it might not be LA, but you can still get vegetarian here
@@Saavik256 You’d be fine, every restaurant has vegetarian options, most have vegan options on the menu as well. Plus fresh produce is easy to find in the Midwest, even farm direct organic produce is very affordable.
@@Erik-tu3rw many restaurants do not keep a Halal or Kosher kitchen. They allow pork to be cooked on the same surfaces.
@@bbranett2188 yeah, you’re right overall, but that’s really community based. Small Rochester MN has a few halal kitchens aimed towards our vibrant Muslim population, but only like one place advertised as kosher. It’s a long ways to the more Jewish communities in and around Minneapolis for a couple restaurants marketed as kosher kitchens. So yeah, for those you are island hopping.
Hello! I live in Cincy too, my wife is vegan. So, at home I find myself eating vegan most of the time.
As for places to eat, you likely figured this out but Northside has more veg friendly locations. You mentioned Indian cuisine, if you haven't gone to Bridges Nepali Cuisine, you should check it out. I haven't been to the downtown location, but the NS location is pretty chill.
As for tofu, if you are willing to give it a shot I have a couple of suggestions that might make it better for you. Make sure to get all of the water out. I mean squeeze out as much as you can without breaking it. They make tofu presses but you can also get a big bowl with an upside down bowl in the larger one the put the tofu on and have something heavy on top. The water then flows out and is caught in the big bowl. (I'm sorry if I didn't explain that well). After you get the water out, seal the tofu in a plastic ziplock bag with a marinade, stock or sauce of your choice for a while. When you are ready to cook, season the outside with something that makes sense with your marinade, cut it to what ever shape you want and bam, you have your "protein". You can also order butler soy curls, we always have them on hand.
If you like Asian food, there is a grocery store called Cincinnati Asian Market. Plenty of fun things there. It's got a lot of seafood, but also fun noodles and condiments and produce.
Hey, im from Germany, 14 years old and have been vegetarian for 3/12 years now. The wife of my grandpa is literally the only person in my life who always tells me I need meat, other people have always supported me, my family around me started to eat less and less meat too and I fell like I’ve almost always had great alternatives, wether that is in restaurants, grocery stores or for example my school cafeteria (especially at the boarding school I’m now). The alternatives got better over the years tho, I sometimes found it harder to find good alternatives in restaurants (a couple of times they only had like literally one dish without meat 🥲)
The American idea is that the difference between a side salad and a salad as a main dish is that the full entree salad is [ fortified ] and made more substantial by adding little one inch cubes of some type of meat.
Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. Answering Feli's questions.
1) Agree with Americans loving meat. Meat (junky meat) is readily available in most places in the USA and often more filling. At McDonald's, you can get a Burger/Chicken Nuggets, Fries (not vegan here), and a Coke here for like...$2 but a head of lettuce alone is about $2 (and that's a cheap variety of lettuce). Low income families tend to eat more meat and more junk food on the USA.
3) (Veg = Vegetarian) Average meals in Pacific Northwest:
Breakfast:
Cereal + Milk (vegan or veg)
Smoothie (vegan or veg)
Egg and Toast (vegan (tofu scramble) or veg)
Pancakes (vegan or veg)
Eggs and Bacon (meat)
Coffee or Latte with Pastry (usually veg)
The All American Breakfast: Eggs, Sausage or Bacon, Milk (cow), Orange Juice, Toast and Jam (meat)
Lunch
PB&J (vegan)
Ham Sandwich (meat)
Sandwich with Vegetable and Some kind of Meat (meat)
Salad (vegan, veg, or added meat)
Egg or Potato Salad (usually veg)
Typical Lunch: Sandwich, Fruit, Juice or Water
Yeah...lunch is often Meaty
Dinner:
Spaghetti (with meatballs)
Mac n Cheese (veg)
Some Meat, Potato, A Vegetable (meat)
Rice, A Meat, A Vegetable (meat)
Nachos (usually meaty)
Rice, Beans, A Vegetable (vegan or veg)
Pizza (veg or meat)
...Yeah, it is typical for us to have meat for at least two meals.
HOWEVER, MY typical meals are a little different because I have auto immune disorders that don't allow me to eat many vegetables, vegan protein, and gluten (celiac). I would be vegan if I could.
Breakfast: Egg and cheese or Chicken Sausage and Egg (I like hearty breakfasts) with a Fruit (apple or orange)
Lunch: A Grain (usually rice or some gluten free Thing I Tried Making), A Protein Source (usually yogurt or a meat stick), a Vegetable (usually carrots, celery, or red peppers), a dip for my vegetables (usually yogurt or a nut butter), and a Fruit
Dinner: A Grain, A Protein, A Treat (usually my treats are either a decaf latte or a bakery item I tried making), and a vegetable if my digestion can handle it.
4) I have been taught most of my life how important meat is. I am in my 30s now. Nowadays, it is a little more common in my town to be vegan. ** I went vegan (and celiac) for about 2 years before one autoimmune disorder (urticaria) began. It was pretty easy to stay vegan AND celiac safe in my area. However, it is a financial privilege in the USA to be gluten free, veg or vegan -even more of a financial am privilege to be gluten free AND vegan. Just a few miles North from where I live, where the cost of living is a little lower, there is a food desert. If I lived there, it would be hard for me to even stay gluten free.
** When I was vegan, I wasn't met with a whole lot of backlash. Of course, several family and friends said their food eats my food but generally, people are pretty chill if you go vegan. Of course, my mothers were concerned about my micro-nutrient needs and being able to stay GF.
All in all, Veganism here is usually seen as a bogie fad in the USA and Vegetarianism is seen as "a life style choice".
5) Like I said, I would like to be vegan but my auto immune disorders keep me from it. I want to be vegan for ethical reasons. (P.s. IDC if you eat meat. I follow my heart, you follow yours). I don't like that I have to choose meat, dairy, and eggs to get by. I don't like eating animals. I do my best to by the least cruelly obtained animal possible but it does get expensive to find the least junky, least cruel animal products where I live. ☹️
A lot of meat eaters want to make it look like hypocrisy using meat substitutes. My reply usually is that many meat options have very little resemblance with a real piece of meat either, like the list you made: Sausages, minced meat, fish sticks. These are the things kids usually prefer e.g. over a steak. I would say that most kids ate this stuff before knowing it was meat. It's almost like kids are naturally hesitant eating meat and are being tricked into it by transforming the look and consistency of meat. Most vegetarians and vegetarians choose not to eat meat for ethical reasons and/or health reasons, not because they don't like meat.
I lived many years in Vienna, Austria, but am back in the U.S. now, sadly. I used to be vegetarian (am vegan now) and went back to visit my friends in Vienna in 2019. I was concerned about being able to find food and was pleasantly surprised at how many restaurants catered to vegetarians and vegans! I had some excellent meals. It is probably different in the countryside as it is in any country, but I can attest to the fact that even Austrians are becoming more and more plant eaters. Yay!
I gotta say this now - your videos are not only entertaining but also really interesting and informative! I'm not even trying but I end up learning so many new things from your videos just by enjoying to watch them. Keep up the good work!
In my younger days in school, it was impressed upon us that we should eat balanced meals which would consist of a meat, vegetable and starch. This was mostly to get people eating something besides complex carbs and sugar like french fries and donuts.
Even on culinary shows, chefs refer to a balanced meal composition as a protein, green and carb.
We have been getting better and looking for our protein sources in other places than just meats even though there is a narrow but vigorous resurgence in making meats an important part of our overall diet for health reasons [not from meat producers, though]...
I'm Brazilian and also vegetarian, for me it was so hard to become a vegetarian since we have a culture of eating meat in every meal here. Lots of people ask me the same questions and think I'm "sick" for not eating meat
As an Italian-American who learned to cook from a first generation grandparent, break the pasta in half if you like. That's what we usually did. But I completely agree that you should always reserve some of the pasta water in case you need to adjust the consistency of the sauce.
Agreed. 2nd generation Italian-American. Iron Chefs consider it a no-no, but my Sicilian mother always broke the spaghetti in half before cooking it too.
Been to Italy many times and there are tons of Italian restaurants in Munich and all iver Germany and I've never seen that before I came to the US 😅That's something you'd only do for kids in Germany
As an actual Italian, please don’t break the pasta in half :)
@@bellathemusicaddict We do not eat it all the time, but pineapple on pizza does taste good. 😁 #NotTraditionalItalian
Yeah, I am pretty much a second Feli here. Stopped eating meat at age of 6 because I really didn't like it and kinda was disgusted at the idea that that was slaughtered animals. I love eating side dishes and fake meat to me looks too much like the real stuff. Usually I try not to talk to people about my diet because you only here the same 2-3 questions. I am not much of a "safe the animals" guy, I just don't like meat. My kids and wife do eat meat and this has never been a problem. Usually the meat is prepared extra, like I said I like side dishes. I'm German, btw and like Feli I have no trouble to find something to eat in restaurants, supermarkets etc. here.
I'm from western Canada. My parents were farmers. My dad was a "meat & potatoes" kind of guy. Or, meat & acceptable form of starch kind of guy. And I grew up not really liking meat, except chicken and turkey. I flirted with vegetarianism as a teen, but I gave it up while an exchange student in France. As an adult, I would go meatless for stretches of time, but I never really committed. Then, about 19 years ago, I gave up red meat for good. Sometime after, I gave up chicken/poultry. I'd become a vegetarian. Then, 17 years ago, I became a vegan. I recently became vegetarian again - by adding dairy & eggs to my diet - as I try to find a diet that will best control my chronic migraines. It was really hard to give up being a vegan, but I'm looking at food as medicine and, once I get my migraines under control, I will review and consider becoming a vegan again.
Feli! Thank you for covering this topic!! "WHAT? You're German and don't eat meat!?" I get a lot of that too!!
While your 1st name is German, your last name seems Dutch.
I still live here, am a big dude, and vegetarian. The looks I get when saying so are funny...
Thanks for the video!
Team Vegetarian / Vegan over here 🐮🐷🐰💕.
North Germany:
If you want, you can buy here all your food as a vegan version without missing anything.
I love the products from the company GrünGold (located in North Germany), you can find them at the Rewe stores.
Lidl has also a huge variety of vegan products.
I am a dual UK / Irish citizen and have spent most, but not all, of my life in these countries. Your videos often appear in my feed and quite often tempt me to watch them. This one was particularly interesting and finally persuaded me to subscribe.
Of course the UK and Ireland are literally between the US and Germany but it is interesting to see that they are often culturally between the two. Sometimes the UK is more like the US in your videos and sometimes more like Germany and, quite often, it is different from both.
I am a lot older than you (over 60) which gives me a different perspective. I have travelled a lot in Europe, North America, and Asia (but little in Africa).
I wanted to be vegetarian from an early age but, when I was a child, you ate what your mother (occasionally father) served. My mother had no idea how to make vegetarian food and did not want to try for one awkward child (out of four). Once I left home, I became vegetarian. My strictness has varied over the years. I have never eaten meat since but I sometimes eat fish and seafood. Other times, I am close to vegan.
Let's cover Asia first. It is very easy to be vegetarian in India even back in the 80s. For example, a large railway station would have a vegetarian and a non-vegetarian restaurant. Ones which were too small to have both would have only the vegetarian restaurant. However, vegetarian always included milk and its products but never eggs. So, it was hard to be vegan. Today, it has changed a bit and, like here, there are many variants: milk and eggs, fish but not other meat, chicken but not red meat, etc. However, vegan still seems rare. The rest of Asia is quite different and varies from difficult to impossible. I have lived in two predominately Buddhist countries, Thailand and Sri Lanka, and it is hard to be vegetarian there as well. I have also lived in the Philippines where it is very, very hard to be vegetarian.
My experiences in the US are very similar to yours and they have changed only a little over the years. There are a few small areas in which it is easy to be vegetarian or vegan but mostly it is very hard. I look for Mexican restaurants and, if I fail, I often have to comprise with fish. Minnesota is the most challenging place that I have visited.
Europe has changed a lot in the last 40 years. Back in the 1980s, it was hard everywhere. In my experience, the UK improved first. For many years now, almost all restaurants have at least one vegetarian option. Even a steakhouse will usually have a vegetarian option. I doubt that many vegetarians would choose to eat in a steakhouse but without a token vegetarian option they would lose most group bookings e.g. office parties.
I used to regard Germany as a very difficult country for a vegetarian but remember that I saw Germany before you did. So, I never chose to go there. Business occasionally sent me there, mostly to a small town in Villingen-Schwenningen but occasionally to cities such as Düsseldorf. These visits confirmed my view. In the early 90s, I was sent to Berlin and this changed my views but they still seemed to applied to the rest of the country. A few years ago, I went to Munich and finally my opinion changed completely. Germany has now caught up and maybe overtaken the UK. Other Europeans countries, e.g. France and Spain, are heading in the right direction from my point of view but they still have a long way to go.
Thanks Feli! That was super interesting and I wanted to hear your personal experience in the US and Germany as vegatieren. :)
The meat industry had a huge ad campaign back in the day with the tag line, "Beef - it's what's for dinner"
I remember those ads. Made beef look so good.
Over the past year I’ve been decreasing my red meat intake and switched to poultry and fish mostly with lots of veggies and nuts. Mostly a Mediterranean Diet. Never heard of flexitarian till you mentioned it.
Been doing this to reduce weight and for a heart healthy diet.
where I live it's difficult to find restaurants that don't 'Americanize' their foods too much. At a restaurant recently I gave the waitress a shock because I ordered something that was much more a traditionally Chinese meal. It's not just the meat that is the problem, they like the food drowned in some sweet overly salty slop.
I recommended you read Prevent and Reverse Heart Diseases, The Starch Solution and/or How Not to Die. It becomes clear chicken and fish are not much better than red. I did the same thing you did for health reasons, but these resources helped me to truly clean up my act. I hope you get better soon.
@@jesseturner9865 this makes me think of Xiran Jay Zhao's video on Chinese American cuisine. You should check it out.
Hey I'm a German student who's vegan for ethical and environmental reasons. I haven't turned vegan for long but it was surprising to me how easy it has been especially considering that I live in the suburbs .
Often times I barely notice. I can usually always find something which I honestly didn't expect when I started.
Colorado has great vegetarian and vegan options, as well as options for meat eaters. I applaud you for how educational this was for me. I have been a huge fan of all your videos for years, and this video really opened my eyes to everything in relation to vegetarians and vegans versus meat eaters. I really appreciate that you went into such detail on your experiences with this.
Having grown up in the UK, meat was also basically the definition of a meal, i.e. "What are we having for dinner? Chicken." The rest was left unsaid, as if it were merely incidental. I'm glad to say that I've since discovered vegetarianism. Having said that, a lot of restaurants here in Germany still only offer salads that contain meat, especially Greek and Italian restaurants.
Beilagensalat is the real salad. It's the true salad without meat. I eat meat, but it has no place in a salad in my opinion.
I‘m from germany and I‘m a vegetarian too. In 2017 when I started to eat no meat nor fish I was the only one in my friendsgroup. Now many of my friends are vegetarian too. Sometimes they asked me for advice. Even my family reduce their amount of meat and fish. I hope this trend will continue to gain popularity
I'm on board with your line of thinking. I grew up with some selection of farm fresh meats, but outside of a hamburger with a garden on top, everything else was just food. And of course, a burger can now be made from various resources, meats or not.
When I lived in Germany, as a vegan in 1997 (yikes, long time ago), it was not easy to get vegan food. Everything had cheese, eggs and butter! Plus everyone thought that I am verrückt. I took a train from Bielefeld to Dortmund to visit my Onkel at his Schraebergarten for New Years Eve, and all they had was Schweinehaxen u.kartoffeln u. Sauerkraut. I had been vegan for some time and thought I would get sick. But instead I devoured it! I was hungry, and I always loved that meal growing up. That and beer and an Aspirin before bed and all went well. I just came across your channel and really like it, it's relatable to me..
Great video Feli. I am a Brazilian living in CA. I grew up eating meat and loving Brazilian BBQ. I stopped eating meat here in the US about 7 years ago. I stopped eating meat for the animals. I was surprised how easy it was to just incorporate more fruits and vegetables to my meals and remove the meat. My health also improved tremendously which was a plus. I get teased a bit by some friends and family back home, but I also noticed an increase of vegetarian/vegan alternatives at the grocery stores down there.
Thank you for being awesome Feli. Having been a vegan for health reasons for 10 years now in the US, thank you for putting this together. Remember the next time someone asks "Where do you get your protein?" in the US use my come back with is "Where do you get your fiber and have you had a good bowel movement lately?" That normally shuts them up. See you at the Patreon live Q&A.
Yessss hahaha I love that response!!!
Agree well said. I usually say the same place as the gorilla and elephant...
How does that shut anyone up? I get my fiber from vegetables and I had a dump earlier this morning.
For some people who are vegan have not enough of protein. A friend of mine was a vegan and she didn't get enough protein. She ended up drinking protein shakes to get her protein.
BTW fiber is a lot of stuff. If your diet consists of fluids, protein, vitamins, and fiber you're good to go. Turkey and chicken has some the highest protein out there.
I’m not a vegan and I also get plenty of fiber. Vegetables, breakfast cereals that are high in fiber and even a couple of protein bars out there are high in fiber (36% of recommended daily amount) are all part of my diet.
As for protein, brown rice and beans can give one nearly all of the protein needed.
On my 60th birthday I became intolerant of cow dairy except for feta cheese, for some odd reason. Fortunately, there are a couple of pizza chains that have a vegan cheese option so I don’t have to miss out on that.
Where I live, there is an excellent vegan Mexican restaurant and another restaurant that specializes in nachos and has an excellent vegan cheese sauce.
In other words, there can be quite a few options and ways of making up for any perceived deficiencies in any dietary choice.
I'm German, not a vegetarian, and moved to the US in 2006. My wife is American, a vegetarian, and lived in Germany for 18 months in 2004. When she asked Restaurants what vegetarian options were available they either offered he fish dishes, noodles, or actually cooked vegetables. Must have improved alot since then. Probably also more options in bigger cities in Germany.
really cool hearing the percentages of diff info!
Wonderful topic, that was really interesting.
I remember in early 2000s it was tough to find a restaurant with vegan or vegetarian options in Berlin, we went through almost the whole city to find a hidden restaurant close to sport's area. Nowadays it's pretty easy to find something nice, the opportunities raised in numbers. Especially in the major cities you some veggie options on the menu to survive.
I mean I know when i was a kid, we had meat twice a week, mostly on Sunday, it was far to expensive. Unfortunately it changed, meat is sometimes much cheaper than other foods like fish, vegetables or even cheese.
A little caution is required with large companies that produce both meat and vegetarian dishes, so you should read the contents very carefully
When it comes to keeping animals, a lot has to change and improve.
Arabic and Oriental cuisines offer an incredible range of vegan dishes, with food for all tastes and preferences.
I don't believe it was hard to find vegetarian options. Never had that problem anywhere in Germany since the late 80s. Even traditional German places usually had some meatless dishes. Chinese, Vietnamese, Italian restaurants would always have them, and every West German town with 20000 inhabitants would have one of those. Veganism is relatively new here, most of us are not extremists, so that would indeed have been tough back then.
Traditional german cooking has plenty of non-meat dishes, as you mentioned, on an average income most people could not afford to have meat everyday until the 60s.
Catholics like my mum would not allow meat on Fridays. Her Bratkartoffeln with eggs and pickles are both delicious and nutricious.
My German partner is always complaining about the trend to "de-meat" foods for vegetarian/vegan options instead of just making something that's supposed to be vegetarian/vegan. That is, he thinks it just makes you wish you had meat or feel like something is missing if you're trying to emulate meat dishes instead of making dishes that are intended to be meatless.
The whole need and demand for vegetarian or vegan products that mimic meat products it's kind of hilarious.
You have this way of presenting a lot of information on any topic in a concise, informative, interesting way. It is a talent.
So I will say having an alternative diet, vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, or something else is definitely getting a lot easier to do. My oldest daughter has been vegetarian for about 6-7 years now and for her it was a personal choice too. She eats a lot of eggs and beans. She does sometimes eat the meat substitutes but not usually due to cost. A common thing we do at home is make something everyone can eat or do the meat separately. For me personally, I need to eat meat regularly due to the types of work I do. Most of my jobs over the years are labor intensive and don’t provide an opportunity to snack much. Without meat I burn through my meals very quickly.
My experience has been very similar to yours, Feli! I am not a big meat eater by nature (don’t like the texture or taste), and the differences between vegetarianism/veganism in Germany as compared to the US has been one of the biggest surprises for me since living in Germany. I’m from the San Francisco area, and I now live in Saxony-Anhalt, and I find there to be much more “equality” in non-meat options here than even in SF. In California, while there are typically options for vegetarians and vegans, they are not as varied or as affordable as they are here in Germany. I often travel around Germany with my vegan friend and we never have trouble finding things for both of us to eat, even at a lot of “traditional” German restaurants. There are a LOT of meat substitute options at even the smallest supermarkets in my area, and they are never more expensive than actual meat. There are also multiple vegan cheese and yogurt options here. I found that at my “regular” supermarkets in California, there weren’t many meat substitute options, and hardly any vegan cheese or yogurt options, and the ones available were usually not very good quality. Whole Foods or other niche “health” food stores had extensive options, but they were always hugely marked up in price. The majority of Germans I’ve met are strictly vegetarian, with the rest primarily being flexitarian. I’ve really only met one or two Germans that eat meat routinely. And since I’ve been living here, I’ve moved back to a completely vegetarian diet. You’re 100% right about the US meat lobby and “protein” pressure, even as an American who KNOWS there is nothing to the “you need meat to have enough protein” argument, I still find myself slipping into a mindset of that I need a protein substitute with my meals. It’s a hard habit to break, but being in Germany has made it a lot easier!!!
The protein pressure prevalent today really gets me thinking sometimes. Years ago, it was the sugar industry demonising fats to get people to eat more carbs and sugars. Is it now the era when the meat industry demonises carbs to get people to eat more proteins? Whose turn is it next?
(German:) When I was studying in university, I was cooking for myself nearly every day. I lived away from home and loved to try out different vegetarian or vegan dishes every day! I almost never grabbed any meat products, except for some cold cuts every now and then, to put on my bread.
But because of the panini, I moved back in with my parents. And my meat consumption has skyrocketed every since. My dad will have meat with almost every meal of the day. And since I don't want to cook seperately every day, I mostly follow along.
But I fully intend to go back to pseudo-vegetarianism, once I move out again.
If I recall correctly, at our Mensa (university cafeteria) , except for Milchreis, all the standard (i.e., not the ones that were more expensive) noon (dinner) meals were meat-based, with almost never any fish. My Asian friends found it very difficult to eat the Mensa. This was in the 90s and the first half of the first decade of this century.
@@kimdammers3838 ok, nowadays it's always a variety of vegetarian and vegan options in the mensa available.
@@kimdammers3838 at my university now the vegan option is the cheapest most of the times so I never had any problems
@@kimdammers3838 In Heidelberg university it's the complete opposite. Vegetables EVERYWHERE. And also not overcooked. The consistency and taste is intact. They also have alcoholfree beer and the most tasty one (Jever Fun). I wish I could eat there everyday whereever I am in the world.
They also have meat, but it's a heaven if you like meat but love vegetables and salad even more than meat.
In Mannheim there is a nice vegetarian/vegan restaurant called Heller (they write themselves: Heller's iirc). I can recommend it even for people like me who do eat meat every now and then, and especially if you love vegetables. Very tasty.
Great information, Feli! Thank You!
Another great video! You at your best delving into a topic. So comprehensive and articulate . thank you!
I am close to being a vegan. I make my own homemade veggie burgers with black beans, mushrooms, carrot shreds, onions, buckwheat, flaxseed meal, quinoa and various seasonings. I do eat 2 meals a week of fresh Alaska wild salmon.
Here's something funny about grilled cheese. The specific area where I currently live in central Illinois calls them cheese toasties.
As a German who didn't eat meat for 20 years and is vegan for 10 years now, I can say it was pretty incredible to witness the development of veganism and vegetarianism in Germany. I would not have believed even a few years ago how vegan this country would become and I hope we continue this way.
The only issue about someone choosing to become vegetarian is making sure one gets all of their essentials amino acids. Eat beans and rice, you’re good. Eat peanuts and bread you’re good. But, if you eat meat, it’s just easier. Eat some chicken, you’re good. Do it right, and a vegetarian diet is extremely healthy, I’ve simply ran into a few people who didn’t eat well rounded enough when they became vegetarian, and their health deteriorated. But, that was 20 years ago. It seems to be easier to have a healthy vegetarian diet today and that’s great. Dairy and eggs also make getting enough of complete protein easier if those are part of your diet.
Hi Feli! Interesting video! I was surprised by the stat comparisons between Germany & the US, but thinking about how focused most US chefs focus on creating delicious meat dishes & the lame-in-comparison effort that goes into creating non-meat dishes, it makes sense. I think I'd eat less meat if there were more satisfying, craveable non-meat dishes that were more readily available. For myself, a freshly made falafel pita sandwich, with sides fills that role & makes for a satisfying meal. Nearly every other tasty non-meat food just seems like a snack & leaves me feeling g like I need something else or something more. I think a nice follow-up video might be one where you share your comfort foods, because it'd be nice to be able to find more satisfying, craveable non-meat dishes/meals.
BTW since it seems your objection to meat dishes is texture & taste, would you be OK with a Japanese dish made with a traditional dashi stock (which includes dried tuna shavings.) I'm asking because I was initially shocked when I overheard a lady complain that there wasn't anything for her to eat at a Japanese food festival because she was vegetarian.. I thought that there was lots of stuff without meat or fish in it! And then I remembered nearly everything used dashi as one of it's components and had to cede her point. I think she could have plain white rice, except they weren't selling that separately. That drove home how hard it can be to find something to eat depending on how stringent one holds to their dietary categorization (& why I'd be miserable as a vegetarian or vegan)
Anyway, thanks again for another entertaining & informative video! Keep up the great work!
Vegetarism has quite a long history in Germany, due to the Theosophical Society in the late 19th, and the anthroposophical movement in the early 20th century. Only small subcultures, but with significant influence in culture.
I stayed in Ashaffenberg, Bavaria back in 2005 for few months and it was a little hard for me to find too many "vegetarische" options at that time. It was understandably a little easier in Munich and Berlin though. Good to hear about the change. By the way - totally loved my experience. :)
This was a really neat video, and another one that is highly relevant to me. As you may or may not remember from previous comments, I live in the US in Missouri, and my longtime sweetheart Carmen lives in Bavaria, Germany. And, she is ALSO vegan/vegetarian. I guess you could say I'm a flexitarian these days, as I've been trying to reduce my meat intake somewhat. One thing that really surprised me, is that McDonald's there has more vegi options than we do here. I know you do the Hello Fresh thing, but have you considered doing an episode about favorite vegan or vegetarian recipes from scratch, that are common in Germany? I think that would be awesome. Tschüss!
I’m Vietnamese-American and been vegetarian for almost 20 years, my moms side of the family was mostly vegetarian and growing up I was introduced to many delicious plant based cuisines. I used to weigh over 300 lbs and would eat a vast amount of meat for every meal, as soon as I stopped I lost 40 lbs. just from not eating meat alone. Been vegetarian ever since.
Also been active in the Punk/straight edge hardcore scene and they’re bands and whole movements that promoted vegetarian/veganism since around the early 1980’s. Not eating meat is definitely still seen as counter culture though now Big corporations now are seeing how much money they can make/exploit from plane based products. I always try to support the smaller, local brands or brands rooted in a mom and pop environment.
Great video! This is the first time I saw you cooking. It made me think it might be cool for you to do a video in which you prepare a German dish we don’t have much in the USA. It might even be an occasional series.
Hi neighbor. I am also from the Midwest (northern Michigan). So if we ever meet, my wife and I will be glad to eat flexitarian with you. Like your videos, always learn something. Never knew I what I am is called a "flexitarian." My wife and I were vegetarian (for health and religion) which was easy to do at a large university town. After moving to rural northern Michigan it became very difficult, so we gradually transitioned to flexitarian. For your questions: 1. Sorry to be boring, but agree with all you said. 2. Harder to avoid meat in the US (except University towns, New York, etc.). Was not an issue in Europe. Had several vegetarian restaurants to go to when a year in London. But in Norway they always seemed to find a way to work fish into a meal. 3. Meat (fish, chicken, or turkey) is part of one, or fewer, meals a day. Land Grant University Extension systems, with their nutritional training, present "protean" sources from much more than just meat (like you pointed out). 4. The topic has been with me for most my life.
When I was a hippy backpacking thru India in 1976-77, I met a surprising number of young Germans who were enthusiastic vegetarians. Nowadays I usually use plant-based ground chuck for chili or spaghetti sauce. With 5% inflation across the board in Canadian grocery stores, meat is becoming a luxury item!
Nice observations for such a young person. I note that what you experience in Ohio, as American, will be quite different on the East and West coasts.
Southern California and NYC are different from each other and certainly different from the Midwest. A huge country with a huge population, so it is difficult to say some behavior is "American". Lots of vegetarian options on both Coasts!
This Bidenflation economy is practically forcing me to become vegetarian.. I mean have you seen some of the prices per pound of chicken, fish, or beef in the grocery markets these days!? 💲😔
@@Isaac-qe2in - Even eggs are through the roof.
Somehow Americans turned an otherwise non-political discussion into one out of nowhere. It’s a special talent we seem to have
This applies to other countries, too. Not least of which is Germany.
Part of the problem with the lack of veggie options is that you are in Cincinnati. In Denver there are lots of vegetarian restaurant options (not for me, I like the meat based options) but over in Ohio (I am doing some work there) it is very different in many ways.
I'm a vegetarian in Cincinnati, and I do not feel limited at restaurants here at all, especially at the abundant Asian, Middle Eastern/Mediterranean, Italian, and TexMex restaurants. Burger places here almost always offer a veggie patty option (and not just Impossible burgers), and the famous Skyline Chili has a very good meatless version.
Columbus and Cleveland are equally good for vegetarians, but smaller Ohio towns can be problematic.
@@davidneman6527 I live near Cincinnati and while I find usually at least one Vegetarian option everywhere I go, it’s not always the case and usually it is only that one option. Now I live in the suburbs so maybe it’s different in the city (I don’t go much unless it’s for the zoo or sporting event) but I can’t imagine it’s that crazy different. I get by well for sure, but I wouldn’t say it’s the same as before I was a vegetarian.
@@steggyweggy jd190d hypothesized that Feli had problems finding vegetarian meals because she lives in Cincinnati. I have lived on both coasts, and while there may be slightly more veggie options in, say, Washington, DC and San Diego (and Denver, for that matter), the difference is small. No matter where you go, you can expect your choice of meals to be limited unless you eat in a vegetarian or vegan restaurant, or certain ethnic cuisines -- like Indian. I am happy with a restaurant as long as I can construct a full meal that I like.
I fully share Feli's frustrations in two areas, however: the tendency of fast food and American Pub Food restaurants to insist on putting meat on every salad they offer, and the difficulty getting a vegetarian carry-out meal in most hub airports.
@@davidneman6527 The salads thing annoys me so much. Luke it’s a salad bro, it’s not supposed to be meaty
This is a very educational and interesting video. Thank you.
As a vegan I totally agree with what you said in your video. Last year I was studying in Bavaria, which was veggie-heaven compared to where I lived before, in France. I guss more and more French people are also becoming plant-based BUT I rarely had any problem getting around in Germany : from traditionnal restaurants, subway stations to grocery shopping, there was so much more choice and it was also cheaper ! I usually don't eat a lot of "impossible products", I just use oat milk and tofu as alternatives, but is was nice to treat myself one in a while.
As I visited my family in the US last spring, things where totally different. I was also in the midwest, more specifically Iowa and everyone seemed surprised that I was plant based, also because I was the only vegan they knew, whereas I met so many vegetarians or "flexitarians" in Germany.
What you said about marketting was also very interesting. A lot more people in my family had questions regarding what I eat on a daily basis, do I have health problem... For most Germans it also seems "normal" to be vegan but I noticed people also eat more veggetables (or beans, etc...) as in the US....
My niece chose to became a vegetarian in her early 20's. Over the years, she had lots of health issues and she saw many many nutritionists, dieticians, and other medical experts. In the end, several doctors concluded that a small percentage of the population actually cannot maintain their health without at least a tiny amount of meat, and she fell into this category. She tried absolutely everything. I know she was pretty heartbroken about it for a time, and her body had to re-learn how to digest meat (it made her sick at first when she re-started). These days I think she routinely has chicken once a week or something like that, and she doesn't refuse to eat meat if she goes to a party or other special occasion. I'm not sure about something like steak.
@@rng_stuff humans are omnivores
I can count myself more in the group of "flexitarians" in Germany. And if I turn back time in my mind, then real meat consumption was mostly limited to Sunday + leftovers on Monday. Sometimes there was perhaps another type of sausage as a warm meal during the week + the obligatory fish dish on Friday.
Up until the early 1980s, meat was expensive relative to average income, and it wasn't often found packaged in supermarkets. You had a real meat and cheese counter in almost every supermarket or bought from regular butchers. In fact, nowadays you have to search online for addresses of butchers ;)
@@rng_stuff I would add that factory farming and production has had a rather negative impact on the quality of previous meat products. Instead of adding spices/plants, but injecting the meat with water and the sometimes extreme administration of antibiotics and other medicines to the animals makes it less healthy.
And it makes sense that planting and mass-producing for the vegetarian/vegan market can be just as damaging to the environment. (e.g. through further slash-and-burn to gain more farmland)
This was an awesome video that I needed to see! We’re going to be moving to Germany later this year, and so nice to hear how non meat forward it actually is! We’ve only been vegetarian for the last 3 years, and did it to see how it would make us feel. Both my husband and I got told by our docs, 9 months into eating no meat, that we needed to cut down on our meat intake since our protein numbers were really high from our blood drawl 🤣 we told him we hadn’t eaten meat in 9 months and he told both of us to keep doing what we’re doing. The numbers a year before that, our protein was really low, eating all the meats. And yes, I firmly believe that we are taught here in America, at least I was going to school in the early 80’s, that meat is the only way I was gonna get protein, and why the question of, but how do you get protein, always comes up. We show how uneducated we truly are on the subject by even asking such a silly question. But when you are raised that way, how are you gonna know any different? I know how hard I’ve had to educate myself from the pyramid chart I was raised on. Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, which now is bursting with veggie options! It’s so awesome! And hello fresh has been beyond helpful! We’ve been using them for just over 2 years now, and their veggie options are so good! We love that sun dried spaghetti 😋
Good luck in Germany! As a fellow American Vegetarian I was looking at that German shelf in envy. Maybe one day I’ll visit there myself
As someone that deals with type 2 diabetes, and manage it only by diet instead of by medication (down to an A1C of 5.9), I find it difficult shopping for groceries and food at restaurants. My problem is kind of the reverse though, in that even the meat and vegies are combined with bread, pasta, or sugar filled sauces. Meat is often the best option in avoiding the carbohydrates, and meat substitutes often have enough extra carbs that they are just not an option. I do consume a lot of dairy, cheese, and eggs, as well as other options like salads, fruit, vegetables, etc. One of my go to snacks instead of something like chips is pork rinds due to the lack of carbs, though if you look in a chip aisle you'll see there are few low/no carb options. Sure there are snacks like nuts, but have you seen the prices?
I've seen a lot of places now have hummus or hummus and veggies/ pretzels.
You can even get it in little cups that are great for trips if you have a small cooler bag to put them in.
My favorite snack is hummus and little cherry tomatoes.
I've also found chickpea pasta to be a great way to get more protein in day to day.
I'm from Germany and a vegetarian for about 5 years now. My girlfriend is vegan so everytime we cook something it's vegan. I switched for a number of reasons. 1) Like you Feli I only liked grinded meat products as a kid 2) I love animals and think it's unethical to kill them if you have other plant based alternatives to eat 3) I thought and learned a lot about the environmental impact of the meat production industry and came to the same conclusion not to eat meat like in the ethical argument, why when there is a healthy and tasty alternative 4) the plant based alternative products especially for grinded meat replacements became so good over the last year's that I can now even cook and eat the meals that I once loved in their meat version again.
So for me there is just no reason at all to eat meat anymore for everything said above.
Sehr gut Englisch! Ich bin ein Amerikaner und ich denke das auch. Hopefully mehr Leute will see it the same way as humanity progresses
Not eating meat is actually really easy in Germany, but being vegan attracts a lot of hostility. I can understand why, because people get very upset about the cruelty involved and emotions run high on both sides. But eating plant-based is quickly becoming easier and more common. I didn’t realise Americans eat twice as much meat per person as Germans - that shocked me! They must eat a lot of meat…
Hallo von Amerika!
We do eat a lot generally. Before I became a vegetarian I probably had meat 4-5 times a week and that would’ve seemed low to most other people. For dinner it is almost a given that you have meat in the meal. A good example of our culture on this is when asking, “What is for dinner?” Just saying, “Chicken” or whatever meat is the main course would be plenty an answer. Since becoming a vegetarian I have often been asked, “What do you even eat?” By multiple people. This is one American stereotype that is pretty true from my experiences
@@steggyweggy it used to be like that in Britain, now I recall it because of your comment. Just the same.
@@LaureninGermany That makes sense. Also quick random question, what does the idiom, “do I sound like I’m ordering pizza?” Mean? That’s the English translation but I found this phrase in my studies and my German teacher wasn’t sure what it meant
@@steggyweggy I need more details. Can you write it in German and explain more context?
@@LaureninGermany Klingt das als ob ich 'ne Pizza bestellen will?
Not 100% sure the context for it anymore
One American stereotype is that cooking meat is a faster way to finish preparing dinner because you don't have to do that much chopping or slicing.
You just get the hunk of meat out of the freezer, throw it in the skillet, cook it an appropriate amount of time and then serve it.
Thank you for this video! As a lifelong vegetarian for the same reasons you state, I definitely get a lot of the same questions/comments you do, especially when I'm outside of the west coast. I am traveling to Berlin for a month this summer and get a lot of questions along the lines of, "will you be able to find anything to eat there" and this video was super helpful in that regard. As a vegetarian I think the mid-west and, especially the south are the hardest places to be a vegetarian. Traditional American fast food joints are definitely the worst for vegetarians but Starbucks, and places that cater to being a "healthier alternative" like Panera or even Chipotle, are pretty veg friendly. One thing you didn't discuss in your video that I think contributes significantly to the american obsession with meat = health is diet culture & the prevalence & proliferation of meat/protein based diets like keto, low-carb, paleo, whole30, and so forth.
HI feli i dont know if you will read or even see this but i want to say that after this month i will have one year learning Deutsch/German. You have become a great motivation amongst other factors for Learning it. Especially with the pandemic. I have a pretty great grasp at the beginner level such for small talk and to get around. Therefore i consider myself a trilingual person who speaks English Spanish and now Deu/Ger. I absolutely love the language i feel such accomplishments whenever im able to connect ideas from one language to another. I also hope to visit Germany one day in my young adult life and test out my language. Once again im practically one year learning german because of you! Your awsome and hope this channel lives on as long as possible. Much greatness 🇺🇸🇩🇪!
That's awesome, congratulations on that amazing achievement! 🥳 Glad I could be an inspiration :)
Hey, das ist echt toll, dass Felis Kanal dich motiviert hat, Deutsch zu lernen.
Der Kanal Passport Two, ist auch sehr informativ und lustig.
2 Menschen aus Oklahoma erzählen aus ihrem Leben in Deutschland.
Schöne Grüße aus Norddeutschland 🏖️☀️
This was interesting and funny because back in the late 80s when I was working with MTU engines and dealing with German technicians that would fly into town. Usually the first question they'd ask was," Were was the best steak restaurant in town?
You can't generalize this, even not today. There are huge differences between age groups and population density regarding meat vs. vegan/vegetarian. The bigger the population density is and the younger the people are it will be much easier to find vegetarian alternatives. In a small town in bavaria: Not so much. It's similar with the beer variety.
Feli, another great and balanced production. As a person who eats meat, I do appreciate your perspective. Also, I am an American who lives in Germany, and I would a add Germany (and most of Europe) eat better. What do I mean? On average they buy food fresh, prepare whole meals, and prefer quality over quantity. Now bulk meals are starting to hit the markets, and Globus does resemble our large markets in the states. But the food choices and quality is higher. My post is about food quality in general. Here are my observations so far:
1. Markets: When you enter a German Market (Aldi-Lidl, notwithstanding, you usually enter through the Bread area-great croissants for the price), you usually enter through the fresh produce section. Produce has a tendency to more seasonal as well. Often there are quick packaged vegetables for the folks on the go.
2. Beef: the beef in Europe has a tendency to be grass fed (in Germany usually from Argentina). Therefore, the meat is leaner and has a deeper flavor. America (and Japan) like grain fed which produce more fat in the meat for flavor. I have heard the analogy of grain fed v grass fed is like the difference between cooking with butter or olive oil. Both are great, but one is arguably "better" for you. Growing up eating wild game from Wyoming, I prefer grass fed. Also being leaner, it is a better option. Grain fed is cheaper and heavily marketed. Nothing wrong in moderation.
3. Diet: When I was a kid 40 years ago, we had meat maybe 4 times a week. It was not that we weren't anti meat, by any stretch. We love it. It was back then (as well as most of human history) something we could afford. And we treated it as a luxury or special occasion. And we wasted none of it.
4. Zoning/Markets/Access: access to quality food in the US is restricted partially by zoning laws. Where I grew up in LA, we actually had a corner market with fruits and veggies. Today, that would no be allowed. As most new neighborhoods are zoned single family units. That means that no market to walk to to buy fresh produce, so must buy in bulk. That means more processed meals and bulk veg (that tends to morph in most fridges over time). When my daughter moved back to the US (Dallas) she had no care at 18 and quickly found out that to do any shopping would be a walk of 2 miles each way. Which she did, but would often have people ask here if she was "ok" while she was pulling her wagon for food.
-In most urban areas of Europe, there are "express" markets from the larger stores in many neighborhoods.
5. Variety: Here, the US does reign best. Got it, "what about the bread?" Except for that. Bread in Europe, even at the chains is fantastic. Sorry Germany, French bread is still better. However the variety comes at a cost of importing over large distances. At the restaurant level. The food prices are now the same as in the US. Whereas the US has better variety (and Mexican Food, sorry all the Mexican Restaurants I have visited here in Germany, France, Netherlands pale in comparison. Landstuhl has a good Chipotle like place called Benji's. That is Tex/Cali Mex); Europe has the quality. But there are quality establishments in the US, you have to stay away from the chains.
6. Marketing by components: I have always hated the labeling of my meat as "protein." For me, the difference is that it deconstructs my meals into a post-modern/new-age/quasi-scientific balderdash that distracts from the enjoyment of eating good food. It might as well be "Brave New World". I enjoy dining. Europeans tend to enjoy dining. Americans do as well, but I think we are commoditized to dine for x.5 hours and move out to next event. The dinner is part of a program as opposed to the end of itself. We dined with some German friends and the meal lasted 4 hours. Quality, not quantity or type.
After all that rambling, all I will say is that whether you are Vegan, Vegetarian, Flexitarian, or a regular meat eater, balance diet is important.
I must admit whenever I hear someone is vegetarian (or any other restrictive diet) I often ask "why?" not because I have a problem with it but I'm interested in learning what their motives are (i.e. if the have moral, health, religious, or cultural reasons; or if it really is as simple as they don't like the things they don't eat). My sister (Scottish) is also vegetarian for similar reasons to yourself, but doesn't mind chicken (its a nicer and more consistent texture than a steak for example)
As a vegetarian I don’t mind people asking why because usually it is in good heart. Just sometimes it goes from a nice conversation to someone attacking me for no reason.
Here in Austin, there are many more vegetarian options than many other places in the country. It helps that Austin is the HQ for Whole Foods.
We have great meat options, too, but this makes more of a difference on the veggie side.
Austin where??? lol
@@DENVEROUTDOORMAN -- Austin, Texas. In case you haven't been introduced to Whole Foods Market, I would encourage you to try them out.
The vegetarian friendliness of Austin has been replaced by the insane BBQ culture which was made popular by the tech bros.
I wish meat substitutes like impossible and beyond were comparable in price to the real thing, like they are in Germany, as you said. I think a lot more Americans would eat them if they weren’t so expensive. Thanks for the video. Excellent as always
Oh, so they are expensive in the US, too? I thought that that applies only here in Europw cause of transport expenses or sth, since beyond meat' distribution comes from the US
@@chadyfrs93 usually at least twice the price per pound compared to real meat.
@@scotty4770 that's a bummer.. So there's no hope that with increased demand the price will drop
If it was close I'd definitely go for the substitute option. Maybe I. The next decade the gap will shrink as technology and scale evolves.
@@chadyfrs93 it’s all relative, yeah it cost more then real meat, but I can buy a whole cooked chicken for $5, same as a cauliflower head. ground beef is $4 per a pound, same as broccoli. It’s cheaper then some veggies and any fruit.
Ordinarily I'm critical of vegetarians, but you saying that the taste of it is off putting, I understand. There are some vegetables, that people love, that I find off putting.
Hi Feli! My daughter is also a vegetarian. She now lives in Denver and the options in larger metro areas are so much more varied and easily accessible. My son lives in Phoenix, and there as well, options are so amazing and fresh. I have family in the mid-west and I've always struggled to find, not necessarily strictly vegetarian options, but even just really fresh, locally grown produce and organically grass fed meat sources. I hope you get the opportunity to travel more outside of the midwest to experience all that other US states have to offer. Genieße den Essen or Bon Appétit!
I am from LA and weirdly when I was a vegetarian in college, I found out that a lot of people didn't get it and hated it and thought I would push my thoughts on it, so they bullied me instead. I do feel like America does push that not eating meat isn't healthy. I only went back to eating meat because the opinions weren't as great as they are now and I'm now eating less meat.
What a pity, as a German vegan I can't understand why people who eat meat should hate vegetarians or vegans. I mean, we're not harming them in any way. I hope, if you want to, that you can become vegetarian again without people hating that. (Hope my English is okay 😁)
That is the problem when vegans/vegetarians and meat eaters try and push their way of thinking they will always cause the other side to push back as most humans don't like being told what to do
@@ChrissiFCA Your English is as good as Feli's which is good enough for WKRP!
@@jillpruett4772 ok thx that's nice
@@jillpruett4772 Her English is great, but I doubt her knowledge of 70s American TV shows is as good.
1. I do think some of these differences are regional. It's hard to think of the South, for instance, without thinking of meat and especially barbecue. As you mentioned, that is not the case for the West Coast or the Northeast.
2. Thanks to the pandemic, it's been a while since I've been outside the US. In Mexico and the Caribbean, I tended to avoid meat because I didn't like how it was prepared. Most of those stops were in very touristy areas, though, so I have no idea what the meat situation is like for regular people. The only places in Europe I've been are Ireland and Northern Ireland. I got the sense that Irish and UK attitudes toward meat are closer to US attitudes than most of Europe. Turkey, which is wildly available as a cold cut in the US, was not available anyway in Ireland or N.I. Most of the major fast food chains in the US were there too, sometimes with some branding differences (Johnny Rockets became Eddie Rocket's for some reason, as I recall.) Middle Eastern and South Asian fast food options like kebab were far more common in Ireland and N.I. than in the US.
3. I live in upstate New York. I eat meat around four times per week. I tend to have cereal for breakfast, unless I'm going to a diner. When the pandemic hit, most of the local takeout options closed downtown so I got out of the habit of eating lunch, which also cut down on my meat consumption. For dinner, I'm much more likely to have a salad than a meat dish, though sometimes the salad will have meat in it. Fresh mozzarella makes for a good meat substitute in salads, I find, but there are only a few salad places near me that have really good fresh mozzarella.
4. I don't feel like schools and society have taught me that I need meat in my diet in order to be healthy, but it's definitely something my mother feels strongly about. School lunches don't seem to be great now, and they were probably worse when I was in school. But we would usually have a couple days a week with food like cheese pizza that didn't have meat on it.
5. The friends that are vegetarian or vegan are definitely super hardcore about it, whether it's for animal welfare reasons or because of the global warming impact of cattle farming; it's been made VERY clear to me in recent years that cattle are the number one agricultural source of greenhouse gases worldwide, with all of the methane belched and farted, and that cows require a lot of open land that can't be forested with carbon-absorbing trees. I do think the the global warming impact is overstated; it accounts for less than 5 percent of the United States's carbon footprint, and is a drop in the bucket compared to our over reliance on cars, fossil fuel-driven heating and electricity generation, and industrial manufacturing byproducts. One thing this video didn't touch upon was the hunting culture in the United States. Upstate New York has a severe overpopulation of deer, and recreational hunting (under strict quotas) plays an important part of keeping deer populations manageable. According to DW, there are around 300,000 hunters in Germany, so around 1 in every 280 people. In the US, just over 15 million people had hunting licenses in 2020, so around 1 in every 20 people. That is a massive culture difference. I'm not a hunter, but I know hunters and eat venison not infrequently along with (more rarely) black bear and wild turkey.
I’m from California and moved to Germany. I found it very easy to eat a vegetarian meal in California then I did in Germany. But it’s like you said, it definitely depends on the state. So in California I had so many options and then I got to Germany and felt like my options were very limited. I had to go to different stores to find vegan cheese but once I figured out which stores sold what. Then it made everything a lot easier
I am married to a vegetarian who has never really liked meat either. Because of that, I eat less meat too. I am from the US and when we have traveled vegetarian options can be hard to come by. Most times we have to seek out a specific restaurant because it is known to have vegetarian dishes, otherwise, it is like you said, you take a dish, take out meat, then are left with half a dish. When planning for a trip to Japan, my wife did actually eat a lot of sushi and fish to prepare her body to get used to eating fish, since it seems like fish is in a lot of sauces and dishes there, although that is changing too.
I'm not vegetarian but you make me almost want to be. Thanks for sharing why you are vegetarian. I think I follow the advice: when in Rome do as the Romans do
I share your dislike of meat and also have never eaten it since the age of 2, I am now 65 and find it really interesting how much easier it is to get vegan/vegetarian food nowadays. Cookery programmes often describe mushrooms as "meaty" which is exactly why I avoid them. The faux meat is also something I avoid. Like you I love dhal or anything Indian/ Mexican ideally with a good chilli kick. We're all different but I do believe the future is vegetarian/vegan and I think in the future history will judge the meat industry with horror. Have spent many holidays in Bavaria and have seen the veg friendly changes over the years. Keep making the great vids.
I wouldn't say that my wife and I have considered cutting down the amount of meat we eat (and yes, that can be at every meal), but I would say we have focused on getting better quality of meat, but also especially better quality of veggies, and having a higher ratio of veggies in our meal.
So, not really focusing on decreasing one side of that equation, but instead increasing the other side.
My wife and I lived in Belgium for almost eight years, but didn't really have significant experiences on the meat versus vegetarian axis. We did learn lot about organic (a.k.a., "Bio") food, and were quickly converted. Bio became our new normal. We were sadly disappointed by the organic options here in the US when we moved back in 2006, but things here in Austin have gotten a lot better -- in part, due to Whole Foods.
I laughed at your opener when you asked if it's even allowed to be vegan in Germany when as you pointed out, the U.S. eats a lot of meat and we have lots of vegans. I'm one of those people who feel a meal isn't quite a meal if there isn't meat. There are exceptions such as eating a muffin for breakfast. I have cut down on the amount of red meat I eat but that has been replaced by chicken.
I live in Dayton and grew up in different states in the US. I then lived in Germany for 8 years as an adult (along with France, England, and the Netherlands). I have been vegetarian since my 20s and became a vegan in Germany. Outside of Berlin, it was a bit harder to be vegan, but not impossible. I shopped often at the Bioladen and Rewe and was able to buy a plethora of vegan items. Produce is about 1/4th of the cost of US produce, so it’s easy to consume high quantities of fresh fruit and veg with wide seasonal variety. That’s something I miss significantly in the US as it’s always the same fruit and veg year round. 😢 I moved to Ohio from Germany in 2017 and it was a massive culture shock. Cheese and meat are in EVERY thing! I can never find anything vegan in petrol stations and fast food is terrible here. Even US McDonald’s fries are coated in beef flavouring. Not at all like Germany’s McDonald’s, or the rest of Europe for that matter! I remember going to Starbucks in the U.K. and was shocked to see so many veg and vegan options! In the US we have one veg sandwich and no vegan options. 😢
I can tell you why meat is so predominant in US culture and why Americans think you need it at every meal. It’s in part the meat industry and their lobbyists. They pressure the USDA to keep meat central in the food pyramid, which is now a plate, and this is what is used as guidelines in schools to feed kids. I’ve gone round and round with my son’s school to no avail. I even showed them menus from my son’s Kindergarten in Germany. They are beholden to the USDA’s food plate.
It’s also in part this push in America to curb obesity by eating a keto diet, which is low carb, definitely no bread, and high meat consumption. Somewhere in the early 2000s, Americans became fixated with protein and needing to consume enough protein to stay “healthy” and lose for or maintain a healthy weight. This is why people ALWAYS ask how vegetarians and vegans get their protein because they have been brainwashed by culture and pseudo science that protein at every meal is essential for health. You can walk into B&N anywhere and find a whole section on diet books selling this “science” that is often funded by the meat industry. Conversely, if you read any of the evidence Drs. Gregor, McDougall, Ornish, and Dr. Furhman discuss from peer reviewed journals, they show statistically significant stats of meat consumption’s relation to cancer, diabetes, heart disease, etc.
Sorry for my dissertation here 😂 but I’m very sad the US has such a poor relationship with food. I miss German food and their relationship to food every day. How refreshing it was to find amazing, fresh, seasonal food that did not have meat in it! ❤️ 🇩🇪
Yup
USA needs more veggies 🍠🥕🌶️🍅🌶️🧄🥬🥒🌽🌽
This from someone who likely believes in free will
Even in her old age my mother still fondly remembered the nut-based cotlet which her mother made when we visited Germany in 1972.
Everything you said made sense. I am from NY and consume meat a few times a week. However, for health reason I try to cut down. I eat lots of fruits and vegetables but I do feel cutting down on cold cuts and processed foods is a positive.
Du bist Grossartig Feli. Weiter so. Grüsse aus der Schweiz. 🇨🇭🙋🏻♂️🇨🇭
1:34 If you agree with ethical reasons why are you not vegan? There is so much animal cruelty in dairy and egg industries. It's so easy to be vegan in this day and age.
Vegans are terrible people.
@@TheSurrealGoose Yes we are because we don't want to support unnecessary animal cruelty.
@@lesgibson969 No, it's not that. It's mostly the self-righteous, quasi-religious attitude.
@@TheSurrealGoose Imagine learning that animal cruelty is normal for food from your parents, society, relatives, school, media, friends since day one on this planet and still saying that veganism is quasi-religious 😂😂
@@lesgibson969 That's not what I said, sir, but you're doing great at demonstrating the self-righteous part.
My husband is German, I am American. I also just never liked meat, even as a young child.. My husband also doesn't care for meat, we don't want it and don't need it.So many better options are available.Wow! eye opening information about the "protein" marketing in restaurants.Thanks, Felicia
Great video and topic! I’ve been dabbling in being a vegetarian or pescatarian the last few years, basically just reducing the amount of meat I would eat. Mostly considered myself a flexitarian. My dad had a heart scare years and years ago, and decided he wasn’t going to eat anything “with a face or a mother” for health reasons. So we would frequently have options like garden burgers and whatnot around the house. Most of the time I would prefer a good black bean patty or garden burger over some of the new impossible or beyond burgers. Over the past couple months I’ve been only eating a pescatarian diet, and mostly eating this way because of health and environmental concerns. I still enjoy the taste of meat, and could see myself having meat very sparingly in a rare occasion in the distant future , but for now I’m enjoying my diet and eating some pretty tasty food. I’m in Southern California (San Diego), so finding tasty options isn’t too hard. The only challenges can be when eating on the go or getting fast food where the options can be limited or nonexistent like you pointed out in your video. Side note, I’m currently obsessed with the impossible “chicken” nuggets from Trader Joe’s. Probably not the healthiest thing in the world, but they are amazing!
As a German it’s often cheaper to food shop without getting meats. So I’d say I’m flexitarian but for money reasons :)
Ihre Beherrschung der englischen Sprache und amerikanischer Akzent sind doch perfekt! Okay, ich bin selber Engländer und kein Amerikaner, aber ich hätte echt gedacht, Sie wären Amerikanerin! Jedenfalls hätte ich nicht geahnt, Sie wären in Deutschland geboren und aufgewachsen. Viele Deutschen können sehr gutes Englisch, aber nur die wenigsten können das so...ja...so verdammt gut wie Sie. Also gratuliere! ;-)
(Während meiner Studienzeit in Deutschland damals hätte niemand auch eine Sekundenlang daran gezweifelt, dass ich Ausländer bin! :-P)
Herrliches Video! 🥰 Ich komme aus Norddeutschland (Moin! ☺️), bin jetzt 47 und Vegetarierin seit über dreißig Jahren. Deshalb fand ich die statistischen Teile des Videos total spannend, da mir die Gesamtentwicklung bisher so nicht bewusst war. Beeindruckend! Ziemlich erschreckend hingegen finde ich die Situation in den Staaten, wenn ich das so höre. Es klingt gruselig - und erinnert mich tatsächlich an die Zeit, in der ich beim asiatischen Restaurant (!!!) lediglich einen Sojasprossensalat bestellen konnte. Das war ziemlich traurig, und aus heutiger Sicht glücklicherweise auch schon fast undenkbar. Ich persönlich bin sehr glücklich über die vielen zusätzlichen Produkte in den Regalen, zumal auch die Preisgestaltung inzwischen angenehm variiert. Was dich ebenfalls geändert hat sind die Diskussionen, die einem aufgezwungen wurden, sobald klar war, dass ich kein Fleisch esse. Puh. Das war immer sehr anstrengend. Heutzutage führt das eher zu Gesprächen über das Thema, oder es wird abgenickt. Sehr entspannend! Vielen Dank nochmal für das informative Video, und viele Grüße „from across the pond“!
Around 2000 when I first met my German sister-in-law she thought it would be funny to hide ham at the bottom of my vegetable soup to "see if the veggy can tell". I lived in Germany several times and was blown away when I last moved there three years ago with how many veggy / vegan options there are now and how it increased in the two years since my previous stay. When back home you must try some of the German tofu - its fantastic and there are much better options than there are here in the UK. My fav would be a smoked tofu made by Taifun in Freiburg, BW - I can even get it here now which I love. Great video, thank you.