KT Tunstall: I’m a Vegaquarian

Scottish singer KT Tunstall, 32, fills me in about her "vegaquarian" diet.

Why are you a vegaquarian?

I eat fish but I don’t eat meat. I’m so glad I do eat fish because it means I can go to a regular restaurant and – one of my backing singers is a full vegetarian, and sometimes it’s so difficult because the vegetarian option is the fish.

In my everyday life, I feel like I ‘ve got the choice to not eat those animals. I love them too much.

Also I have the feeling that fish have a fairly uninterrupted life until they’re caught whereas the battery farming of animals and the hormone injections and antibiotics and all of this – the modern farming technologies for cattle can be really alarming.

When did you become a vegaquarian?

It was when I moved to London five years ago. When I left Scotland. I grew up in a pretty rural part of Scotland where you’re driving along and there’s a field of ten sheep next to the supermarket or you see the local butcher van going to the slaughterhouse, which is next to a field with sheep or cows in it. You see the cows grazing, living out their life. You know that that’s where it comes from, and it’s all a fairly natural process. You hope that it’s done humanely, but certainly the animals have a quality of life.

Then I got down to London and I remember having a ham sandwich in a gas station and going ‘I have absolutely no idea where this had come from or even what it is. It’s processed meat. For all I know, this is just the stuff on the floor and they’ve shoveled it up and put it into a package. I’m sure that’s not far from the truth as far as processed meat and a gas station sandwich.’

It really put me off, and also I started dating my boyfriend. He doesn’t eat meat. He didn’t eat fish for a long time but he started eating fish.

I actually found that I felt much better when I started. My physical makeup seems to react really well to not eating meat. I’m a big food lover, and I find that I can eat more and suffer less of the consequences of indigestion or putting on weight from not eating meat. That’s why I feel healthier not eating it.