Yesterday I ate:
– Bowl of cantaloupe, apple slices, grapes, and 1/3 banana
– 3 oatmeal raisin scones with a small amount of almond butter and jam. For the scones, I subbed part of the whole wheat pastry flour for flaxseed meal, wheat germ, and 1 tbsp of FitNutz Pro. I also used unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze in place of the soymilk and added 1 tsp cinnamon (and the raisins). They were excellent.
– 3 beanballs wrapped in nori, some mushrooms with hummus, and a salad (romaine lettuce, Swiss chard, cucumber, tomato, cauliflower, carrot, and hummus)
– 2 1/2 slices gingerbread with icing and peanut butter
– Some almonds and grapes (maybe a couple tbsp of each?), and 2 tbsp PB2 with raisins
– A couple handfuls of Guiltless Gourmet blue corn tortilla chips, a couple falafel balls, and some yam fries
– 1 barbecued Tofurky frank with homemade ketchup, 1/2 beer, a few tomato slices, and 1 barbecued cob of corn
Yesterday was a tough day- I really had the munchies but was having a lot of difficulty being satisfied (as you can tell!). This resulted in me eating far too much and by the end of the day just feeling over-stuffed… though I found that the falafel, chips, and Tofurky really hit the spot, strangely enough. This was the first time in the past few weeks that, although I wasn’t craving meat, I still felt dissatisfied with what I was eating. Mentally, I don’t seem to have any issues with being vegan, but I think that physically my body is starting to wonder where the animal products are. Either that, or being cooped up indoors with studying was making me go stir-crazy and munching out of habit…
Vegetarianism, veganism, and the stigma attached to them
A month(ish) ago, I would have been the first to openly state that I don’t believe veganism is a very healthy way to eat. In fact, looking back at previous posts, I’m sure that I made my position on veganism explicit. I’ve learned a thing or two from eating vegan and doing research, and now I understand that there’s a whole lot more to it than I thought- which is what we always will find when we do a little digging! But I’m shocked at the real animosity that exists between people with different diets.
There was recently an upsetting situation at VeggieGirl’s blog, when she was “accused” of posting photos with meat in them; the commenter slandered her for it and said some rude and hurtful things toward her about displaying photos of murder etc. For the record, these pictures were of meals. Regular meals on a plate. Our dear VeggieGirl is, after all, a food blogger!
Even though she had to deal with the uncalled-for cruelty of the commenter, VeggieGirl handled it beautifully in a follow-up post in which she made it clear that food is nourishment and something to be enjoyed, and no one has any right to judge anyone else based on their food choices.
We all have our own opinions as to what way of eating is a “good” way to eat. Most of you know my personal nutrition philosophy of eating real food and trying to avoid or limit processed food (or rather, *replace it* with the real stuff), but you can read more of that on the sidebar (and, er, please ignore the above tortilla chips/Tofurky etc… well, eating real food is what I strive for; I don’t pretend it’s something I always manage to achieve ;)). I very strongly believe in it, and am wary of diets that are very high or low in any one particular nutrient or of diets that promote processed foods and supplements, but that’s just me. If other people really want to try any of those kinds of diets, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. I’d urge them to do a lot of research to learn more to determine if it is a safe way to eat, but I think it’s also very important to not assume our expertise on the matter.
Me? I was wrong about veganism. I’m full of energy. I’m able to maintain my weight. I’m not lacking in nutrients. I’m not hungry or weak or ill. At this point I’m prepared to say that eating a mostly (key word!) vegan diet as a rule could quite possibly be one of the healthiest diets, in terms of our own physical health, environmental health, and financial health too.
Most people who, upon hearing I was going vegan for a month, immediately said “Oh but that’s not healthy, you need animals to survive”, probably haven’t done a great deal of research on the subject.* Some became downright hostile and said that they dislike people who eat this way “because they adopt a holier-than-thou attitude”. I think that’s a pretty big leap to make, and an unfair, discriminatory one at that. I don’t believe it’s a valid argument at all.
I recently found a passage from Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential to be absolutely appalling:
Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter-faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn. To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living. Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food. The body, these waterheads imagine, is a temple that should not be polluted by animal protein. It’s healthier, they insist, though every vegetarian waiter I’ve worked with is brought down by any rumor of a cold.
The assumptions he makes are insulting and hurtful, no matter what your diet is like. There are countless reasons for why any of us eat in any particular fashion; there are ways to be healthy and unhealthy for any kind of diet, and every individual has his or her own needs with the way their body reacts to certain foods. There are so many things that are rude, hostile, nonsensical, and just plain wrong with Bourdain’s passage** that I am going to hand over a proper analysis of it to Living Rhetorically in the Real World in the future.
Hearing about how VeggieGirl was treated by another vegan, and hearing omnivores railing against vegans, is very disheartening. Why is there so much stigma? Why is there so much judgment?
I can’t help but think that everyone would have much healthier physical bodies and much healthier body image if we got rid of that stigma.
Questions are good. We learn by asking questions. Asking why one person eats that way and someone else eats a different way can broaden our perspectives and help our whole selves to become healthier. That kind of healthy curiosity is good for us all, especially because it will reduce the likelihood of making judgments and jumping to conclusions. If we find ourselves making assertive judgments on a certain nutrition plan, that’s a good indicator that it’s time to delve into some research on that topic.
Have your thoughts and opinions changed on a particular subject recently after doing more research and learning more about it?
*Yes, I do agree that we need animals to survive. On a number of levels. Hence my earlier statement about eating a mostly vegan diet.
**I’ve read about three pages of Bourdain’s book, so there’s always a chance here that I’ve completely misinterpreted his words. Maybe he has a really warped sense of humour and didn’t intend for the passage to read as it does. But I’m not very impressed with it as it stands alone.
Edited to add: Check out Westwood’s post, Pretty in Plastic, for an interesting discussion on the ethics of plastic surgery!