In recent months I have drastically changed the way I eat. To be fair – I have been making a slow change for years. Cutting out additives, synthetic ingredients, chemicals like aspartame. I made efforts to greatly reduce the amount of processed foods I eat. To look at the ingredients and cut out the demon high fructose corn syrup that everyone is so worried about.
Then I saw Food, Inc. And it really messed with my mind. I have never been a fan of industrialized agriculture and the affect it has on so many facets of our society – let alone the potential for inhumane treatment of animals on a mass scale, many times for that meat to just be thrown out because it isn’t moving off the shelves and goes bad. But regardless of how you feel about animals – it was hard to argue to damage it was doing to small regional farms, sustainable agriculture and our health in general. Who knew that the run off from cow manure in large slaughter facilities caused deadly e. coli outbreaks in our spinach? I didn’t. Until Food, Inc. And don’t even get me started on genetically modified soy beans and legal actions that target small farmers to put them out of business. Terrible stuff.
So after Food, Inc I started to pay attention to where my meats and vegetables came from too. I made efforts to buy locally. I paid attention to the type of beef and chicken I bought. Organic, grass fed, free range, velvet pillows. I paid upwards of $10 a pound at times because fortunately I could afford it. But I felt better. I wasn’t supporting big agriculture. I wasn’t destroying the world one burger at a time. And trust me, given recent revelations about ‘pink slime,’ I’m happy about that.
Then came Forks Over Knives. And the downward spiral continued. I am presented with case study after case study on why a ‘whole foods, plant based diet’ is the only one you can eat without killing yourself. They can’t call it vegan, because let’s face it, the word vegan just annoys us before we event get to the table. So there I am, beginning a crisis of conscience over the consumption of meat. I started looking at my meat and feeling….well, bad. Seriously. So I started to think. Could I cut meat out? If so how much? Just beef and pork? or could I cut out chicken too? What about fish?
Well, I worked at it. I made it psychologically off limits for myself. It required more effort than I thought but I managed to cut out everything but seafood. And I have stuck to it. And it isn’t always easy. Sometimes I really want a burger. Or a meatball. Or my old favorite – chicken fingers and ranch dressing at midnight after a night at the bars. But I have resisted. I went to Texas for a week and I resisted. I went to Lawry’s The Prime Rib and had a salad and a baked potato. I went to Fogo de Chao and had the salad bar. I mean, I have really done this. And sometimes I was sad about it.
Then, well…then I was watching 60 minutes. And some doctor came on and told me SUGAR is toxic. It is poison. It is killing us, giving us heart disease. It is fueling cancer. And instead of looking at the next great villain – the next item I need to scrutinize and phase out of my diet, I had a reaction that was quite the opposite. I actually got angry. I was fed up. It isn’t the doctor’s fault. He is just pointing out what science is telling him. But I can’t help but think in this day an age, and in the way we (commercially) consume food, NOTHING is healthy. And since I am not supposed to consume more than 100 calories a day in added sugar (less than what is in a can of soda) I KNOW I am missing the mark on this health benchmark.
Since I can’t wander the plains and pick berries off trees and occasionally have the treat of some sort of prairie animal killed by my mate and roasted over an open fire, maybe I have to live with love handles. Sometimes going hungry, sometimes eating things that tasted disgusting to survive in the wild like the folks did in ancient times, that is not my reality. So am I destined to be unhealthy? Unless I move to that prairie – or to a farm – am I destined to be at risk for these health issues? All I can say is I gave up my meat. I gave up most dairy. What I can’t give up? My cheesecake.
C’mon. It’s all I got!