Martin Freeman explained why he quit being a vegetarian after 38 years
38 years is an awfully long time, no matter how often the nearly-40-somethings will tell you how it all goes by in a flash.
It’s long enough to go from reception-year to A Levels almost three times over, or to do 12 three-year undergraduate degrees with change to spare. The Simpsons, 36 seasons in, is still short of its 38th birthday.
With that in mind, maintaining a particular diet over that span is no mean feat, and you might imagine that someone so committed as to do so would never consider dropping it.
Enter: Martin Freeman.
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After 38 years, Bilbo Baggins himself has gone back to eating omnivorously, and he appeared on the Dish podcast to explain why.
Sitting down with hosts Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett, they tucked into a bolognese while Freeman explained his major lifestyle change.
He said he initially went veggie as a teenager after growing uncomfortable with the idea of eating animals, but his mind has changed since entering his 50s.
“I've come off being a vegetarian," he said. "I started being a vegetarian in January 1986. I was never comfortable with the idea of eating animals."
Whilst chowing down he admitted he had “not had a really good bolognese” in all that time. “This is the first proper bolognese I've had for 38 years," he said.
"So I always had veggie stuff - it's really lovely. But I always had veggie sort of replacements and stuff," he said, but he noted that these alternatives can be “very, very processed”.
"I'm trying to eat less processed food," he explained.
You don’t need to lean into these vegetarian meat substitutes, of course. There’s more than enough protein in lentils, chickpeas and beans to keep you fit and healthy, but it’s understandable that former meat eaters may long for that indescribable meatiness now and then.
Nevertheless, Freeman has retaken an omnivorous diet, saying in the podcast that he’s now of the mind that he should just eat whatever he likes.
Some things he couldn’t indulge in as a veggie have been particular revelatory since he made the switch.
“Scotch egg was one of the things, I thought, ‘It's a free country, I can do what I like’," he said.
“And also, do you know the other thing - a pork pie with the jelly and all that s***," he continued.
“A bit of mustard on a pork pie - oh man. It's food of the gods."
While he’s entitled to eat whatever he likes, his comments in the podcast drew some umbrage online.
“For me it feels odd. It feels like he’s just giving into his meaty cravings,” Richard McIlwain, Chief Executive of Vegetarian Society, told MailOnline. Considering he’d resisted them for 38 years, can you really blame him for eventually caving to his meaty urges?
"Where he talks about tucking into a scotch egg and a pork pie, he should know that they’re just as ultra-processed.”
On that, McIlwain certainly has a point.
But who’s to deny an adventuring hobbit the occasional pork pie alongside his Lembas Bread and Old Toby?
Rachael Davis