I find that of all the choices I’ve made in my life, becoming a vegetarian is the one that everybody has an opinion about. A lot of people get instantly defensive, like the fact that I don’t eat meat means that they need to defend the fact that they do. There are both moral and health reasons for my decision not to eat dead animal carcasses (yes, there I go with my inflammatory vegetarian word choice), but the thing that threw me over the edge firmly into vegetarian territory was seeing the film Fast Food Nation, which shows what America’s insatiable hunger for meat is doing to our health, to those who work in the industry, to the environment, and of course, to the animals. I cried for hours after that movie. And I haven’t eaten meat since.
Of course, it’s not just meat that’s making America sick. It’s hormones, by-products, pesticides, corn syrup and other horrifying synthetic “food” that our bodies don’t know what to do with. That’s why I’m so excited to see Food Inc. Michael Pollan who wrote The Omnivore’s Dilemna and Eric Schlosser of Fast Food Nation (he wrote the book and produced the film) teamed up to make this film, and maybe, hopefully, it will change things. Or at least get people thinking about change.
Very interesting. I've been reading Jillian Michael's book "Master Your Metabolism", as well as a few vegetarian books. I was talking to Ryan last night, and honestly, I'm really nervous to keep reading -- because, it means a major change on my part. Major changES. Mostly giving up convenience and also giving up money. I told him I don't know if I can stomach paying $3.50 for a half-gallon of organic milk, or $7/lb. for chicken, just to take a stance (and also eat better). At the same time, I don't know if I can stomach NOT doing it. It's like my friend, who is majorly on the path of organic and healthy eating, said: "Once you know, you can't go back." It's daunting to read about the so-called "food" that is produced -- that is really just hormones and antibiotics and cheap proteins in plastic wrap -- and know that it is probably slowly killing me and my husband and kid, not to mention the rest of my family and every other person who is eating it. If nothing else, it's doing it's best to make it nearly impossible to lose weight or be very healthy. And then the sad part is -- you get the knowledge...but putting it into play (i.e. throwing out canned convenience foods, or getting a special water filter, or eating vegetable after vegetable instead of whatever sweet crappola is available) is muy muy difficult.
Really makes me want to garden all my own food...except I'm lazy. So it's off to the farmer's markets! The Clothes Horse’s last blog post..Black And Blue
have you read "in defense of food''? it's a shocker compared to fast food nation. Diana’s last blog post..Exclusive Giveaway from Swaydehead!