I should be a vegetarian. Logically, it makes sense on so many levels. I feel morally conflicted supporting a system that pollutes, abuses, and poisons. The mass production necessary for a carnivorous population requires factories that reduce living beings to a number, sickened and medicated simulataneously without offering any quality of life. At the same time, this corporate feeding system pollutes without consequences, poisoning land, water, air-- ourselves!--what?!--and the food we ingest. What?!
I shake my head. I need to be a vegetarian. I shake my head again. And sigh. I'd also really like to be a vegetarian. It feels better to eat "better." Try your next hamburger as a veggie burger, or just condiments, seriously!, and you'll notice that it tastes about the same. It's the condiments you crave, not the tasteless beef patty. Go veggie and getting your 5-a-day will happen before lunchtime. If you do it right, you'll actually get to eat more!! (now there's an incentive!)
I'd really like to be a vegetarian. Vegetariansim gives you automatic access to adventure. Have an artichoke for dinner! Make that quinoa salad! Try those sunchokes...A diligent vegetarian, a cooking vegetarian, can be the more creative cook: (s)he can't just throw a piece of meat in the oven, there's more thinking involved. Maybe that's why Einstein was a vegetarian! Hmmm...
I want to be a vegetarian, but I have this Achilles' heel. I can make an awesome salad with my own dressing, but I catch myself crumbling bacon on top. I can hover, stirring, over a risotto brimming with fresh sage, butternut squash, toasted hazelnuts, but there I am suddenly frying some pancetta for garnish. (It belongs there, I swear!) I'll throw together a quirky three-pea pasta, lemon zest, chives falling in from my scissors, a little cream, and then I feel compelled --yes! compelled!--to add proscuitto. Yum....!
Everything tastes better with bacon.
And so I waver on that fence because of a pig. Take away the steak, the chicken for sure (it's kind of tasteless anyway, right?), I don't even need the ribs, just that belly, striped with fat. Start cooking some bacon and people pour into the kitchen like zombies. (It even gets my teenager out of bed!)
Even the World Health Organization recommends vegetarianism for the sake of the population and the planet. I hang my head and pop another slice of bacon in my mouth. Crunchy, salty-sweet. I think back to my hippie days in Seattle (let's see, what can I actually remember?). I had the opportunity to see the Dalai Lama speak. I sat in reverence and watched this cute little man clean his glasses periodically on his robes and discuss everything, anything, with humor and wisdom. I sat rapt when he got a question about his diet: "You're vegetarian, right?" ....well, yes and no, he said. He meandered, discussing his health, his doctor, and finally reasoned, "I'm a vegetarian every other day." Ah! A lifestyle of moderation that even I could follow.
I follow the Dalai Lama in this way: I eat vegetarian. Twice a week, I even try to do vegan. I've even pushed myself to do Raw. I know, that seems so Out There, doesn't it? Eat a salad. (Raw) Have a smoothie with almond or coconut milk. (Raw) Bag of trail mix mid-morning? (Raw) I sprinkle my bacon, have a turkey, bacon, avocado sandwich, make mouthwatering braised lamb or boeuf bourguignon, but mostly, I'm vegetarian. It works out to about 75% vegetarian. I can live with that. We all can...
I was laughing out loud this one. I keep telling myself I could be a vegetarian if it weren't for the bacon, constantly finding my weakness and making me give up! Then I toss my hands in the air and eat a burger or some other horrible thing because I already blew it with the bacon!
ReplyDeleteI think we should amend fish to not count. They are two steps away from a bug. Which is only two more steps away from a plant. That should count! I do love fish...sigh(face, palm).
I totally agree that cooking sans meat is liberating. I am scared of nothing. I will try my hand at almost any mixture of flavors. Grapefruit and ginger, chokes with chili lemon sauce, its good times cooking in my vegan household!
Final thought. I wish I could get past the bacon. Truly. For more reasons then health. I honestly think we should not be eating intelligent animals. I could never eat my dog! Shes so smart. And her intelligence pales in comparison to a pig. Poor Babe. Poor Miss Piggy.
vegetarian for almost 9 years. it never was "hard" because I felt strong enough for the reasoning behind it. i never really cared for meat; at a young age I was disgusted with it simply because of what it was: a dead animal.
ReplyDeletethink about why you want to be vegetarian. it should be an easy thing to "give up". food for thought.
I think people should eat what make them feel good. Listen to your body and go ahead.
ReplyDeleteI need meat. But I don’t need to eat it everyday. If I have, though, to be strong and spend hours without having a meal, it’s best for me to have a nice peace of “something animal”. It lasts longer.
I think it all depends on each body universe. Meat makes you tuned with the earth energy. If you need this side, it’s good for you. If you can’t digest this protein, don’t eat. It’s simple.
The important is not to do something that is originated in the outside of you, just because it is a trend or because you are told to.
We are free and different. And the balance is unique, individual. I don’t like dictatorships!
Bacon changes everything. I want to taste your food Judi!!!!