Of all the foods with which I am acquainted, meats are not the “be all end all” of nutrition. While a juicy, charbroiled pepper-crusted steak or a thick slice of sausage and mushroom pizza certainly hits the spot, I am just as likely to salivate over a meat-free dinner of whole-wheat pasta with avocado chickpea salsa and broiled yam fries.

One of the girls I live with decided to try vegetarianism for the new year. And so far, it’s been a questionably successful affair — let’s just say, Thank [Your Deity] for pescetarianism (the inclusion of seafood in a vegetarian diet despite mercury levels).

Really, though, I support her, and I have followed her lifestyle choice quite a bit. Taking nutrition classes altered my perspective on red meat, and an upbringing with emphasis on healthful food choices has given me a broad appreciation for vegetables, fruits, whole grains and all of that other “health food” stuff.

Here’s why I don’t go vegetarian, though: I like meat. While I work to limit my meat intake and lean towards pescetarianism, I focus my nutrition on a well-balanced plant-based foundation. When I want an amazing steak or burger, I have one. My lifestyle choices don’t make me feel like I have to substitute the food I want with the food I feel obligated to eat.

I respect a wide range of lifestyle choices, but want to point out something: when vegetarians claim their diet is cruelty-free, I cannot believe how they overlook the feelings and rights of the plant life they devour. I consider eating part of the necessary enrollment in the Circle of Life, and I acknowledge that someday, I might get devoured by a cougar or other large cat. And I hope I bear the wretched feline no grudge, as I myself have devoured a great deal of flora and fauna in my own efforts at prolonged and continuing existence.

Who can claim that a cabbage undergoing the guillotine for coleslaw doesn’t suffer? Science aside, what proof is there that our vegetative food is treated any more humanely than those tragic tortured animals?

Fruit is grown in densely planted fields. Vegetables are choked under a haze of pesticides and fertilizers. Tofu is made to labor in sweatshops without light or clean water.

Actually, I made that up. Tofu isn’t made to work at all — it’s confined to tiny plastic tubs where it stays pale and tender (think of it as veal, but made of soy.)

So much of our vegetative food recalls the monstrosities of the poultry industry. All of those stories and horrific images conjured in the meat industry are overlooked where they pertain to our leafy friends trapped in greenhouses and dense orchards.

I know plants don’t have the nerves biologists find in animals, but there was a time when we didn’t think that critters or even babies felt pain. How do we know that plants don’t have these feelings too? They like classical music and communicate with one another using chemical signals — how on earth can they be said to not deserve the respect we give animals by swearing off consumption of the moving living things?

While my numerous houseplants listen to more Snow Patrol, Muse and Dandy Warhols than Mozart, I can’t imagine the horrors they witness every time I serve a vegetarian dinner. To save them this indignity, I’ve actually entertained the notion of draping tablecloths over them so they can’t see what we’re eating.

Now, you may think I’m crazy. I’m a proud omnivore but don’t eat much meat. I believe that cruelty is the same whether it’s a bag of carrot sticks or beef jerky I tuck into my messenger bag for a mid-class snack. Either way, I couldn’t possibly color my lifestyle choices based on how cruel or compassionate I think I’m being — life is life, no matter what sort, and who are we to claim that eating a cow is bad while eating almonds is good? (Eating almonds is good, by the way.)

Just eat the food you like and realize that everything eats something else; you might very well be eaten by a large cat tomorrow — so you may as well eat one of them today. Or rather, eat trout, pork or cow. Don’t eat cats.

Reach columnist Matt Jackson at opinion@dailyuw.com.