Herbivore
For the past year or so, I've been toying with the idea of not eating meat anymore. My problem was, with a husband who is essentially 100 percent carnivore, how the hell could I do that? He just bought a new grill and loves to use it! The idea alone of me not eating dead animal flesh anymore would probably break his heart.
I started doing a little research. Starting with the PETA website - because if you ever need a graphic picture of a factory farm animal being tortured burned into your memory, that's the place to go. I know a lot of people think PETA is nuts, and yes, they are a little on the militant side. But I'm all for treating animals humanely, hence my volunteerism, so I lean a bit more on the crazy side of things.
So I checked out PETA and that was all I needed. I can't look at a chicken nugget the same again. I can't look at a steak without thinking about how it was once alive, probably impregnated repeatedly, separated from it's babies while it cried out for them, and then shipped off to the slaughterhouse once it got too old and weak for the hormones and shit they pumped into it to have any more babies or produce any more milk. See where I'm going with this?
Essentially, I thought about doing this, not necessarily for the sake of the animals, but for the health reasons. High cholesterol runs in my family, and both my mom and my dad take incredible amounts of drugs every day (instead of changing their diets). My dad had a double bypass for christ's sake. If there was ever a reason to think about what I was stuffing in my maw, there it is. But the animals definitely convinced me.
So for almost three weeks now, I've been meat free. I've lost 8 pounds, interestingly enough. I feel better. My entire family (besides Lyric, who could give two shits about meat - she'd rather have fruit and vegetables any day) thinks I'm nuts, of course (but they're the ones taking the drugs, remember?). Ryan freaked out on my when I told him - this past Sunday. He didn't notice that I wasn't eating meat. Seriously. My mom's response was a little less negative, although crazy - "well, you can still eat chicken, right?"
I've heard from various sources that organic animals suffer even more. Because antibiotics and other medicines are not given to them when they're needed - they live with open wounds and ailments while the more conventional animals at least get some relief from modern drugs. All animals used for food suffer in some way.
Putting suffering in my belly doesn't sound nice to me. I don't drink milk, but dude - cheese. And ice cream. Not sure I can go vegan (like the 21 day cleanse that's been getting a lot of buzz lately thanks to Dooce). But I'm going to see how this goes, and so far, it's going well. Thankfully I love vegetables and fruit, so I'm not lacking on protein, and I rarely stuff bad carbs into my body, which is what my coworkers said - "If I didn't eat meat, I'd just eat carbs all the time." I tend to enjoy healthy food, so this is working out pretty good.
More later - after I figure out a good alternative recipe for my buffalo chicken wing dip. Maybe black beans would be good in place of chicken? Hmmm...
Happy 82nd - I mean 32nd birthday, Buddy. Sorry that you hate vegetarians. Reconsider filing those divorce papers, ok?
I started doing a little research. Starting with the PETA website - because if you ever need a graphic picture of a factory farm animal being tortured burned into your memory, that's the place to go. I know a lot of people think PETA is nuts, and yes, they are a little on the militant side. But I'm all for treating animals humanely, hence my volunteerism, so I lean a bit more on the crazy side of things.
So I checked out PETA and that was all I needed. I can't look at a chicken nugget the same again. I can't look at a steak without thinking about how it was once alive, probably impregnated repeatedly, separated from it's babies while it cried out for them, and then shipped off to the slaughterhouse once it got too old and weak for the hormones and shit they pumped into it to have any more babies or produce any more milk. See where I'm going with this?
Essentially, I thought about doing this, not necessarily for the sake of the animals, but for the health reasons. High cholesterol runs in my family, and both my mom and my dad take incredible amounts of drugs every day (instead of changing their diets). My dad had a double bypass for christ's sake. If there was ever a reason to think about what I was stuffing in my maw, there it is. But the animals definitely convinced me.
So for almost three weeks now, I've been meat free. I've lost 8 pounds, interestingly enough. I feel better. My entire family (besides Lyric, who could give two shits about meat - she'd rather have fruit and vegetables any day) thinks I'm nuts, of course (but they're the ones taking the drugs, remember?). Ryan freaked out on my when I told him - this past Sunday. He didn't notice that I wasn't eating meat. Seriously. My mom's response was a little less negative, although crazy - "well, you can still eat chicken, right?"
I've heard from various sources that organic animals suffer even more. Because antibiotics and other medicines are not given to them when they're needed - they live with open wounds and ailments while the more conventional animals at least get some relief from modern drugs. All animals used for food suffer in some way.
Putting suffering in my belly doesn't sound nice to me. I don't drink milk, but dude - cheese. And ice cream. Not sure I can go vegan (like the 21 day cleanse that's been getting a lot of buzz lately thanks to Dooce). But I'm going to see how this goes, and so far, it's going well. Thankfully I love vegetables and fruit, so I'm not lacking on protein, and I rarely stuff bad carbs into my body, which is what my coworkers said - "If I didn't eat meat, I'd just eat carbs all the time." I tend to enjoy healthy food, so this is working out pretty good.
More later - after I figure out a good alternative recipe for my buffalo chicken wing dip. Maybe black beans would be good in place of chicken? Hmmm...
Happy 82nd - I mean 32nd birthday, Buddy. Sorry that you hate vegetarians. Reconsider filing those divorce papers, ok?
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