Nutrition for the Body and the Soul
I just read over my first-ever post, from December 2005, and realized what a wiseacre I was in those ancient days. Rather than being appalled, I found myself hoping my writing hasn't lost that wacky edge.
I bring this up because some days I feel myself, and consequently this blog, heading off in a pretty serious direction. Today (this past week, actually), the topic is food. What it is that I eat, why I eat it, and whether I want to modify my choices. I've been interested for a while in the nutritional and philosophical implications of choosing to eat vegan. The last time I ate meat (on purpose, anyway) was in 1988. I've continued to eat dairy products and fish, but still figured that if I did choose to go vegan it wouldn't involve making any very dramatic change in my dietary habits.
I stopped eating meat in the first place right after I read Diet for a Small Planet. Frances Moore Lappe was so articulate in her indictment of the meat industry that after that eschewing (rather than chewing) dead cow flesh and dead chicken flesh and dead pig flesh seemed like a no-brainer. Okay, fine. I found the results of my decision made me feel livelier--I even lost a few pounds. Then, in 2005, I stopped drinking alcohol. Wow. I loved waking up for my morning run fully clear-headed and I rejoiced over no longer having to make the big financial decision between high-end merlot and Two Buck Chuck. So fine. I felt happy--and I admit it--sometimes even righteous.
Trying to eat in a more healthy way has always had a spiritual component for many people, me among them. I am not a heavily religious person (nor even a heavy person, anymore), but I do see myself as part of a larger creation. I find it so cliched to talk in these terms. It is hard to know how not to sound too airy-fairy on this subject.
But! Pacifist that I long to be, still I soldier on here. In the last year or two, reading the front page of the newspaper and signing onto Yahoo have become ordeals for me. So much violence, so much volatility, so much political and environmental chaos in this world of ours. Being from the generation of "the personal is political," I've asked myself, what can I do here? The answer that's come to me is, I can create as much peace as possible within my own heart and I can will for that peace to have some kind of effect on the world around me. If I really am the smallest cell in the organism of the universe, surely it's my duty not to be a cancerous cell. Plus, my practical voice chimes in on this internal monologue, a healthy being is a strong being--which is one definition of a good runner. Ta-da!
As a healthy, peaceful aspirant, I find I am uncomfortable consuming seafood these day. I read the news and my heart weeps for the oceans. I read that to farm fish, a practice that's billed as an environment saver, it takes two pounds of fish food (most of it ground fish), to produce one pound of farmed fish. Plus, the food is mixed with other products, products that create mold and pollution when the farmed fish excrete their waste in the huge, concentrated masses that are a by-product of fish farming. I also don't really want to eat eggs (salmonella! foul treatment of fowls) or milk (abuse of lactating cows by making them repeatedly pregnant and then not allowing them to raise their babies--plus, they usually end up as hamburger).
If you think you know where this is going, you are right:
The "dummy" would be me, and the subject would be veganism. I'm about halfway through this book and have to say, like Dorothy must have exclaimed when she awoke on the Yellow Brick Road, I am amazed.
To find out why I'm amazed, check back soon for Part II of the great food-awakening series.
Teaser: Don't miss the answers to these provocative questions: What has label reading revealed to the writer about her so-called righteous food habits? Also, can ya believe everything you read?
I might even write a post about actual running. What a concept!
I bring this up because some days I feel myself, and consequently this blog, heading off in a pretty serious direction. Today (this past week, actually), the topic is food. What it is that I eat, why I eat it, and whether I want to modify my choices. I've been interested for a while in the nutritional and philosophical implications of choosing to eat vegan. The last time I ate meat (on purpose, anyway) was in 1988. I've continued to eat dairy products and fish, but still figured that if I did choose to go vegan it wouldn't involve making any very dramatic change in my dietary habits.
I stopped eating meat in the first place right after I read Diet for a Small Planet. Frances Moore Lappe was so articulate in her indictment of the meat industry that after that eschewing (rather than chewing) dead cow flesh and dead chicken flesh and dead pig flesh seemed like a no-brainer. Okay, fine. I found the results of my decision made me feel livelier--I even lost a few pounds. Then, in 2005, I stopped drinking alcohol. Wow. I loved waking up for my morning run fully clear-headed and I rejoiced over no longer having to make the big financial decision between high-end merlot and Two Buck Chuck. So fine. I felt happy--and I admit it--sometimes even righteous.
Trying to eat in a more healthy way has always had a spiritual component for many people, me among them. I am not a heavily religious person (nor even a heavy person, anymore), but I do see myself as part of a larger creation. I find it so cliched to talk in these terms. It is hard to know how not to sound too airy-fairy on this subject.
But! Pacifist that I long to be, still I soldier on here. In the last year or two, reading the front page of the newspaper and signing onto Yahoo have become ordeals for me. So much violence, so much volatility, so much political and environmental chaos in this world of ours. Being from the generation of "the personal is political," I've asked myself, what can I do here? The answer that's come to me is, I can create as much peace as possible within my own heart and I can will for that peace to have some kind of effect on the world around me. If I really am the smallest cell in the organism of the universe, surely it's my duty not to be a cancerous cell. Plus, my practical voice chimes in on this internal monologue, a healthy being is a strong being--which is one definition of a good runner. Ta-da!
As a healthy, peaceful aspirant, I find I am uncomfortable consuming seafood these day. I read the news and my heart weeps for the oceans. I read that to farm fish, a practice that's billed as an environment saver, it takes two pounds of fish food (most of it ground fish), to produce one pound of farmed fish. Plus, the food is mixed with other products, products that create mold and pollution when the farmed fish excrete their waste in the huge, concentrated masses that are a by-product of fish farming. I also don't really want to eat eggs (salmonella! foul treatment of fowls) or milk (abuse of lactating cows by making them repeatedly pregnant and then not allowing them to raise their babies--plus, they usually end up as hamburger).
If you think you know where this is going, you are right:
The "dummy" would be me, and the subject would be veganism. I'm about halfway through this book and have to say, like Dorothy must have exclaimed when she awoke on the Yellow Brick Road, I am amazed.To find out why I'm amazed, check back soon for Part II of the great food-awakening series.
Teaser: Don't miss the answers to these provocative questions: What has label reading revealed to the writer about her so-called righteous food habits? Also, can ya believe everything you read?
I might even write a post about actual running. What a concept!
Comments
This post seems to be a natural direction for you. Congratulations on recognizing your values and feelings.
One minor comment that leads even more to your conclusion: it takes five, not two, pounds of fish food (mostly unsustainable anchovies and sardines) to generate one pound of farmed fish. Hardly a good bargain. You are making wise choices.