Hello there blog buds!

Recently, one of my Facebook friends posted a link to an article from the NY Daily News about how becoming a vegetarian can help save the planet.  (Thanks Sonya!)  It was a quick read and an interesting article so I thought I’d share it in case any of you are interested.  I’m not fully vegetarian (yet), since I do eat the occasional piece of tuna, salmon or shrimp — I guess that makes me a “pescatarian”.  But I’ll be honest here:  the more I read up on the topic, the faster I think I’m headed toward full-fledged vegetarian, and possibly vegan at some point.  Not too long ago, I received an email from a friend and reader who asked if I’d commented somewhere on the blog about why I don’t eat meat anymore.  So I figured this would be a good time to touch on it.

There were a number of reasons that propelled me to give up meat (excluding fish):  digestion troubles, studies linking consumption of animal protein to disease, animal treatment, and environmental impact of factory farming were the big ones.  I had been headed in this direction but the movie Food, Inc. was what ultimately pushed me off the fence. 

I’m not writing this post in an effort to change anyone’s mind by any means.  As I’ve stated in the past, we are each on our own journey and will find what is right for us in our OWN time.  But what I would like is for each person to consider their own health and wellness, and spend some time on educating oneself with further reading.

One book that I find to have a very down-to-earth perspective is written by Mark Bittman, called Food Matters:  A Guide to Conscious Eating.  What I respect about Mr. Bittman is that he isn’t asking people to give up meat completely.  He’s not a vegetarian.  But he does write about the impact the meat-packing industry has on the environment.  So he only eats meat with dinner.  Anything before that is vegetarian.  Here are two quotes from the first chapter of Food Matters:

“60 billion animals are raised each year for food - ten animals for every human on earth.   The projection is that just to sustain current consumption levels, by 2050 we’ll be raising 120 billion animals a year…  Even if we could find the space to meet the demand, the number also assumes the atmosphere, land, and oceans could tolerate it.”

“The only way to reduce factory farming is to demand less meat.”

“…meat consumption would have to fall to about three ounces a day just to stabilizes the amount of greenhouse gases produced by raising livestock.  And stabilizing production isn’t going to cut it, since even at current levels global warming is deadly.”

I also happened upon a book called The Rave Diet by Mike Anderson while I was at the library on Friday.  I took it home with me and made an initial scan-through and am now going back to look more in depth.  It’s definitely a stricter program than I follow now, but the author does include plenty of references and resources.  I also saw that he has a documentary called Eating.  Well wouldn’t you know that while I was channel-surfing Friday night, our local PBS station was showing that documentary!  (Talk about cueing up the Twilight Zone theme right there…)  While the documentary appears somewhat low-budget, the message really hits home about moving to plant-based nutrition.  One fine point made in the show is regarding cancer:  the only actual CURE for cancer we have right now is our own immune system.   That makes me want to take even better care of my immune system NOW.  I am terrified of cancer TREATMENTS.   I’ve recorded Eating and am about halfway through.  What I’ve seen so far is very compelling and I’m looking forward to seeing the rest. 

Like Bittman, Mr. Anderson covers the impact on the environment in Eating.  For example, the average American uses 106 gallons of water per day for our domestic activity.  If that same average American ingests just ONE quarter-pound fast-food burger they have upped their usage to 3,106 because it took an extra 3,000 gallons of water for the 1/4 lb worth of that cow to be raised and processed.

Here are some of his bullet points:

Basically, to answer the question posed to me about eating meat, I’d arrived at a point where (personally) I felt there were enough questionable issues with consuming meat that the RISKS began to outweigh any BENEFITS. 

Today’s discussion:  What book/movie made an impact on you at some point and caused you to make a change?  (Whether fitness related, diet, green living, etc.)

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Which brings me to my PLANT-BASED eats for Sunday! 

Mmmm…. mango tango breakfast!

A very ugly brown (but SUPER tasty) green smoothie (acai smoothie pack, 2 fists full of spinach, 2 stalks celery, 1/2 large cucumber, 2 tsp white chia seeds, handful of sprouts, 1 pear. Ppurple ACAI + green SPINACH = not so pretty photo!

Lunch was out at Tokyo Joe’s:  tofu + brown rice, with mushrooms, long beans, zucchini, broccoli and snow peas with curry sauce on the side.   Half of this bowl came home in a doggy bag!

Soup-n-sandwich dinner:  pita with tomato, cucumber and avocado, with leftover squash soup.  I am still SO in love with this soup!

And an after-dinner herbal drink compliments of Cindy (who included some fun new teas for me to try when she mailed my beautiful scarf!)  Cindy, that is a GREAT tea flavor – I’ve already added it to my grocery list!  Thanks for sharing!

We had a wonderful (and brisk) 2.5 mile sunset walk with the dogs which capped off the weekend perfectly! 

Does it really have to be Monday?  I’d love to rewind back to Wednesday night and enjoy this holiday weekend all over again!

– Shari B. =)

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Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

• A Veggie-versary of Sorts
• Windburn
• Why You Should See “Food, Inc.”