Going Veggie
Last week, I decided to become pescatarian. It's been a long time coming, and I have come up with a number of reasons to try it:
1. I have the worst eating habits of EVER, and the worst of the foods that I can't live without yet will give me a heart attack by the age of thirty-five with all of their artery-clogging goodness have meat in them. Not eating most meat will force me to eat healthier.
2. Apart from fish and things of greasy fantasticness, I really don't much care for the taste of meat. It either tastes like nothing (chicken in most dishes) or vaguely greasy (beef or pork). It's not a bad taste, per se, but it's nothing so remarkable or delightful that I have to keep eating it. Fish, on the other hand, I could rave about for days.
3. I do not find meat substitutes objectionable. I know it's trendy to hate on tofu and crack the obvious seitan jokes, but I've never thought that they were particularly gross (okay, raw tofu is. But who eats that?), nor was using them instead of meat a horrifying thought for me. In the case of veggie/mushroom burgers, I actually prefer them to the meat alternatives.
4. The vegans who demonstrated on campus at the beginning of the year who were polite, respectful, and didn't suck. I think it's because they were not affiliated with PETA, whose tactics, cute t-shirts notwithstanding, make me cringe.
5. Various exposes on the environmental unsustainability and impact of meat-farming, the unhealthiness of the animals that we eat (mainly, how they're pumped full of hormones, antibiotics, and lord knows what else), and the cruel and unethical practices of the meat-packing industry. Even though I do not have a problem with eating meat in and of itself, I can't support the way that the meat industry operates. Since I do not live on a farm, it seems that becoming vegetarian is my best option.
I'm on the fence about the fish thing, mostly because I love it, but also because I have little familiarity with they ways in which fish are produced for consumption (and the environmental impact thereof). I'm also concerned about my protein intake, especially given the quality of Vanderbilt's vegetarian options. I think that once I'm living on my own and preparing my own food, I'll get more into this thing.
I am also in love with this site: Vegan LunchBox.
Comments
One of the great things about where I lived was everything is free ranged and GE and all those hormones are strictly forbotten.
The cafeteria salad bar was my best friend. The chickpeas there probably accounted for half the protien I ever consumed on campus. Unfortunately, I also ate a ton of french fries, chips, pastries, cookies, soda, veggie dogs, and various forms of carbohydrates-and-nothing-else. So my diet, though less artery-clogging than the pizza and McDonald's I ate before going veg, was still unhealthy in its own special way.
My diet is good when I take the time and energy to fix my own food at home, but that didn't happen much as a student. Even now, I fall back on my crappy food choices whenever I feel rushed or stressed. The good news is that, after four years off and on, it hasn't killed me yet, and I almost always feel better than I did when I ate a crappy carnivorous diet (I think it's the grease factor). And I'm gradually getting better at taking the time and effort to cook. . . .