Sunday, 2 a.m. You’ve been drinking pints all evening and you’re starving. Your friends pounce on the last kebab still open. Problem: you are vegetarian. Two choices are then available to you. The first: be patient and wait until you get home to devour a load of pasta. The second: listen to your rumbling stomach, put your principles in your pocket and swallow the fatty meat with your mouth full.
More than one in three vegetarians (37%) have already opted for the second choice, according to a study carried out on 1,800 English people in 2015. Lina, 27, is one of them. “I’m not going to make a steak but often, when we drink with my friends, we order a board to soak up the alcohol. When I see the rillettes and I say to myself “I’m not allowed to touch them, I have to settle for the stale camembert and the pickle”, I break down a little”, admits the pescetarian (who no longer eats meat but still fish) for a year and a half.
Alcohol, an “excuse” to eat meat
This desire can be explained physiologically. According to an Australian study carried out in 2022, alcohol increases the level of the hormone in the body that makes you want proteins and “bad fats”. A call from the body therefore, but also from its peers. “Meat consumption is often associated with a certain conviviality, especially in France, with the triptych of wine, cheese, charcuterie,” explains Claire Petin, clinical psychologist and psychotherapist. A pressure that Lina often feels. “I see my friends enjoying it and I often don’t have a vegetarian alternative, so I give in. »
Furthermore, “alcohol is a psychoactive substance having a disinhibiting effect and can cause an impairment of discernment,” recalls the psychologist. We are no longer in self-discipline, in conscious control of our words and actions. » According to the psychologist, this alcohol consumption can serve as an “excuse” for some vegetarians to eat meat.
A crack that depends on the reasons for his vegetarianism
Eating meat when you’re crazy, Perrine, 31, a pescetarian since she was 11 and a vegetarian for a year, understands this. But this does not apply to his case. “God knows I do shit when I’m drunk, but never eat meat!” “, she swears. Because for her, breakdowns mainly depend on the reasons why we no longer eat animals.
She hasn’t eaten meat since a mouse dissection in seventh grade. “When I see meat, I have the impression of seeing a corpse, it grabs me to the guts and disgusts me deeply. » It would therefore never occur to him, even at 3 grams, to throw himself into a rib of beef. “The people who are likely to break down are, in my opinion, those who have stopped eating meat for rational reasons, particularly environmental ones. When they are drunk, their brain forgets this rational part so you have to have a lot of mental strength not to break down,” she believes.
Even more difficult if you’re a former meat eater. “In this case, the brain remembers the notion of pleasure associated with meat and when we are alcoholic, we can have this sensation of craving [de manque] », analyzes Claire Petin.
Become a committed flexitarian rather than a frustrated vegetarian
If some feel guilty about having broken down, Lina is not one of them. “We have to stop hurting ourselves. If you already make efforts on a daily basis, you are entitled to a little fun from time to time. The consequences are not very serious. » According to Claire Petin, to last in the long term, the diet must make sense to you. “We may have to agree to deviate from it from time to time without it being seen as a failure.” Lina assures her, these “little kifs” allow her to limit her frustration on a daily basis.
These deviations from the diet are viewed negatively by some vegetarians. “They’re just not vegetarians,” says Céline, 32, who hasn’t eaten meat or fish for six years. If you eat meat every time you’re drunk and you often have parties…” Perrine is more measured. “I don’t really care, unless the person is moralizing and condescending towards those who eat meat. In that case, I’m going to room it. Convictions that go away after two pints last two minutes. »
If cravings and breakdowns are very common, Claire Petin advises a change in diet: “Rather than being a frustrated vegetarian, you can become a committed flexitarian. » And if we are terrified at the idea of eating meat when we are drunk, it can also be an opportunity to consume less… alcohol.