\n<\/p>\n
I became a pescatarian when I was 16. At the time, I wasn\u2019t aware of any other vegetarians or pescatarians in my family or peer group, but it seemed like an obvious choice for me.<\/p>\n
It was the 1980s and BSE \u2013 the spread of which would soon result in a national crisis \u2013 had recently appeared in the UK. Emerging evidence and research indicated that eating meat could be detrimental to a person\u2019s health. That, added to the horrific smell that wafted from the nearby tannery in Yarm and an abattoir just up the road in Stockton-on-Tees, was enough to convince me that eschewing meat was the right call.<\/p>\n
It seems hard to imagine now, but my decision was regarded as extremely strange by my loved ones, a definite sign of audacious insurrection. Nonconformity wasn\u2019t something that was especially valued in a lower-middle-class family in the north-east of England at that time. People would have generally preferred it if I did as I was told. As a result of my unfathomable dietary preferences, mealtimes garnered a groundhog-day quality, peppered with endless, slightly hostile questions about what I would or wouldn\u2019t eat.<\/p>\n
<\/span>\u2018Nonconformity wasn\u2019t something that was especially valued\u2019 \u2026 Adele Parks (left)<\/em> with her mother and sister.<\/span> Photograph: Courtesy of Adele Parks<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll eat a bit of turkey at Christmas, surely?\u201d family would\u00a0say.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, I won\u2019t,\u201d I\u2019d reply, again.<\/p>\n \u201cBut turkey is<\/em> Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTurkey is poultry.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis seems like a fad. Put some meat on her plate.\u201d<\/p>\n And so it went. But even when I\u00a0was served meat, I ate around it. I\u00a0stuck to my guns.<\/p>\n To me, taking a decision on what I wanted to put in my body seemed perfectly reasonable and straightforward; after all, it\u00a0was my<\/em> body. I was often asked if\u00a0the self-denial was an effort to stay slim or to draw attention to myself. Food preferences are a privilege of the well fed, so some felt I was moralising \u2013 it seemed that my personal choices made others feel worse about themselves. I\u00a0remember friends discussing whether my assumed limitations in\u00a0the kitchen would lower my social attractiveness (\u201ca\u00a0man needs\u00a0a wife who can cook meat\u201d). Many thought that I must be that\u00a0thing dreaded in women: politically aware. And they were right \u2013 I was.<\/p>\n <\/span>\u2018Many thought I must be politically aware. I was.\u2019 16-year-old Parks (centre)<\/em> at school.<\/span> Photograph: Courtesy of Adele Parks<\/p>\n My pescatarianism led to greater activism as I became informed about bigger health and environmental issues. I was soon found protesting outside Boots, waving a placard that insisted on \u201cbeauty without cruelty\u201d. I read Linda McCartney\u2019s 1984 interview in the Vegetarian Society magazine and started to listen to the Beatles just because George Harrison and Paul McCartney were committed vegetarians. I was not trying to threaten anyone\u2019s moral identity. I just didn\u2019t like the idea of\u00a0eating\u00a0flesh.<\/p>\n I politely declined meat at least twice a day for years. Once my parents accepted I was serious, I still had to convince boyfriends\u2019 mothers, waiting staff at restaurants, almost everyone I met in Italy (where I spent a year in my early 20s) and absolutely everyone I met in Botswana (where I spent two years in my mid-20s). When I went to university, in 1987, the vegetarians were made to sit at another table (\u201cfor ease\u201d); clearly, we were seen as oddities. When I suffered a slipped disc, one doctor went so far as to suggest the cause was the lack of meat in my diet.<\/p>\n Looking back, I see how I was shaped by these challenges. I had grown up as a people-pleaser, excessively obedient, seeking approval from others as a measure of my own self-worth. I feigned interest in other people\u2019s hobbies, I\u00a0overcommitted my time and I took\u00a0the blame for things that weren\u2019t my responsibility in a constant quest to keep the peace and make everyone feel cheerful. Developing a preference for how I\u00a0wanted to live my life and protect my body taught me to establish boundaries. Often, it was simply swapping a lamb chop for a slice of halloumi, but it was great practice for the big stuff. Every time breakfast, lunch and dinner were served, I got better at saying no \u2013 something women, in particular, are not necessarily very good at.<\/p>\n Learning to articulate what made me feel comfortable, valued and happy gave me confidence that lasted well into my adult life. Over the years, I have had the courage to\u00a0ask for promotions and pay rises; I have asked people to leave and to stay; I have apologised and asked for apologies; I have found seats at many tables. Speaking up and speaking out for what you believe in takes practice.<\/p>\n Being a pescatarian is now considered uncontroversial. Even so, I am grateful for the baptism of\u00a0fire that I endured as an \u201coddball\u201d. These days, I celebrate any level of\u00a0eccentricity or even obtuseness\u00a0\u2013 it keeps people interested and interesting.<\/p>\n Our Beautiful Mess by Adele Parks is published on 28 August (HarperCollins, \u00a316.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I became a pescatarian when I was 16. At the time, I wasn\u2019t aware of any other vegetarians or pescatarians in my family or peer group, but it seemed like an obvious choice for me. It was the 1980s and BSE \u2013 the spread of which would soon result in a national crisis \u2013 had<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[1442,1591,1816,337,10759,90,891],"class_list":{"0":"post-18047","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-changed","9":"tag-gave","10":"tag-learned","11":"tag-life","12":"tag-meat","13":"tag-moment","14":"tag-style"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}