For the past year or so I have been leaning more and more towards the veggie only wagon. Joseph and I already don't eat very much meat, we don't eat it every day, we have tofu as our protein of choice at least one dinner a week, so overall I don't think it would be an incredibly hard transition. Plus the more and more I think about the source of meat and the processing that goes into it, the more I shy away from it. I feel like, more so that with other foods, meat is just much more contaminated. For fear of grossing any one out I will stop my rant, but this is really something that has been on my mind a lot lately.
I don't think that I will ever make the official leap, mostly because I don't ever want to be a burden on someone else. Also, I really like seafood and I just don't know if I could give it up for good. Declaring myself a vegetarian just seems like way too much work. However it is stories like these that make me want to make it official.
http://chicagoist.com/2012/03/07/pink_slime_meat_rejected_by_mcdonal.php
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/is-pink-slime-in-the-beef-at-your-grocery-store/
http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/seven-million-tons-8220-pink-slime-8221-beef-180500764.html
So overall, I will still consume meat, but I will continue to have caution and try to be as mindful as possible about where it is coming from and what it actually is.
Any thoughts or opinions, all three people who read this blog, I would love to hear them.
OK, here's my two cents. First, I can't watch those clips because I know they will scare me and then I can't think clearly. I think a healthy diet is mostly plant foods, but I think a balanced diet does not eliminate any food group, and animal protein is a legitimate food group. I also think that becoming more and more extreme in one's diet lends to more extremes and imbalance in thinking, so as a guard against becoming more peculiar than I already am, I refuse to obsess on all new food info.
ReplyDeleteI've read a lot of Michael Pollan, studies, articles etc and decided I just want to be more mindful about my food intake. I love food, and I think animals are for the munching, but that said I make an effort to try and buy locally farmed grass fed meats from animals treated humanely just simply because it cuts back on the amount of meat we actually consume and it doesn't put money into the pockets of politicians. I know how much of a faux hippie tool that made me sound. I'll balance it out by saying that if I eat out at a restaurant, I don't really care where my food comes from. I also think those desperate to be known as vegans/vegetarians may be equally concerned with their identities as their food habits. I think you're pretty much on the right track just with the whole mindful approach. But yeah, I hear you on the gross-out meat contaminated business. Not to mention how half the money from manufacturers like Tyson just goes into politics. This may have been the dumbest comment I've ever typed out but I'm submitting it. Just watch me.
ReplyDeleteThat is disgusting- I have never liked touching or cooking meat, especially ground beef, and over the last few years I won't even buy ground beef or chicken breasts if they are not organic. I completely agree that there is a lot more processing and possible contamination that goes into meat, but I also think that there are regular fruits and vegetables which are treated with a lot of chemicals that I do not necessarily want to ingest either. Did you read about the potato farmers that grow different crops for their own use because they don't want to feed their families the potatoes that go to the general public because of what they are treated with? I definitely think being mindful of where your food comes from is important. I just read this interesting book called This Life is in your Hands, which is about a family that decides to basically live off the land in the 70's. Their lifestyle was pretty extreme but I did think it was interesting that almost everything they consumed they grew, canned, cooked themselves. I mean they had a goat for milk and cheese. It was a very interesting contrast with how the general population eats.
ReplyDeleteI guess there are four people who read the blog because I'm the 4th comment not the third. :) haha You know I can't really comment on this considering my parents raise and sell cows for a living so you know how I feel. All I will say is that I love meat and could not be strictly vegetarian. Do whatever you feel is best. I love me a good burger way too much.
ReplyDeleteP.S. My opinion might be slightly skewed too because I don't buy red meat from the supermarket. I know the cows I eat and the elk I eat are not filled with fillers.
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