It was around 2010 when I moved to the U.S. after a lifetime in Europe that veganism piqued my interest. The reason was simple: as someone who already cooked a lot and had a good understanding of ingredients, I couldn’t ignore a strange little detail in my first years in the U.S.—the meats and cheeses just looked and tasted different. And not in a good way.

I specifically remember buying chicken breasts one day, only to find a strange layer of slime on them. I couldn’t recognize it, and that moment made me pause. Maybe, I thought, it would be a better idea to step back from meats and cheeses for a while.

Unlike many others, at the time, who turned to veganism after watching Netflix documentaries about animal mistreatment or the dark side of the modern food system, I didn’t. (In fact, to this day, I’ve only seen one of those documentaries.) My shift was more instinctive. I had a reference point—how food tasted and felt in another part of the world—and something just seemed off.

At around the same time, the civil war in Syria broke out. While I never lived there, my mother is Syrian, and I spent every summer there until the war began. Witnessing the violence from afar made me more sensitive to the sight of blood, even in my own home, and by extension: there would be no blood in my kitchen.

Eventually, I transitioned to being fully vegan—a process that took several years. A trip to Jamaica, where I decided to eat strictly Ital, helped move me towards a plant-based diet too. And the more I replaced meat with vegetables, beans, and grains, the better I felt. The first thing I noticed? My energy levels improved significantly.

Of course, over the years, people have constantly asked me the classic question every vegan hears at least a gazillion times: Where do you get your protein?

And I’ve also heard many vegans explain their protein sources to skeptics. One of the most common arguments? Cows eat grass all day, yet they’re big and strong—so we, vegans, don’t have to worry about getting enough protein either!

Even now, I still hear people say this, and deep down, I want to scream: Please stop comparing yourself to a cow!

Because cows and humans have very little in common. And honestly, using herbivores as an argument to justify veganism as a diet for strength just doesn’t hold up.

Let’s break it down.

For starters, why are some animals herbivores while others aren’t? One widely accepted theory is that in most ecosystems, plant matter is more abundant and accessible than animal protein. Animals adapt to their environment and avoid competition—so if they can survive on plants without having to fight for limited meat resources, they will.

But here’s the key difference: herbivores, including cows, eat far more food than omnivores. The reason cows get so big is that they spend most of their lives eating—about six hours a day. They eat about 2-3% of their body weight whereas humans ideally eat 1.5-3% of their weight (depending on factors like age, activity level, and metabolism).

And on top of that cows are quite sedentary. A stark contrast to a cheetah or tiger, which expends huge amounts of energy hunting and moving. And I’d like to think, a stark contrast to an active lifestyle us humans should all embrace.

Then there’s digestion. Cows have a four-chambered stomach (rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum), which allows them to break down tough plant fibers through fermentation, regurgitation and microbial digestion. This process lets them extract nutrients from low-energy foods like grass. Humans, on the other hand, have a single-chambered stomach with acidic digestion, meaning we rely on enzymes and stomach acid to break down food quickly—which allows humans the option to become omnivores, if they wish to do so.

And perhaps most interestingly, cows don’t just eat grass. They consume 25–50 different types of plants, intuitively selecting what their bodies need at any given time. This diversity in their diet is a huge reason they get the nutrients necessary for their size. And as we all know, the more diverse your diet, the more nutrients you absorb.

So, if you’re willing to spend six hours a day eating 25–50 different plants and processing them through a four-chambered stomach, then sure—come back and tell me how you’re getting enough protein to be “big and strong like a cow.”

Otherwise, let’s retire the cow argument once and for all.

I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t be vegan. In fact, I’m the first to celebrate and push a plant-forward diet (my specialty is making vegetables delicious and exciting after all), but rather than compare with a simplistic idea of a cow eating grass, let’s talk about the rich diversity of a plant-based diet available to humans, and what we can do to understand it better so we can tap into all the nutrients we need.

Phew… I finally got this off my chest.

Feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me at thefoodcuriouslife@gmail.com