I’ve always been pretty health conscious. Growing up I always loved the food/diet/nutrition part of health class and even studied it in college. I even considered becoming a Nutritionist (obviously I am not but hey it’s never too late).
In 2007 I read a book with by the lovely name of “Skinny Bitch” and it shed a whole new light for me on nutrition and the way American food is prepared. After reading I stopped eating meat and other animal products (ie milk, cheese, yogurt) completely. So…overnight I became a Vegan. Now, that only lasted about a week because it was extremely difficult to do this so quickly. So, I decided to just cut out meat (except for fish and egg whites) instead of meat and dairy. This type of diet/lifestyle is called Flexitarianism. I’m not sure that’s a real word but that’s what people call it. Haha. I did this for about 2 years and then slowly started eating chicken and turkey simply because it was convenient…my Husband eats meat and it was really difficult always preparing two different meals for the two of us as well as picking out restaurants to go to. However, I still haven’t eaten any other type of meat (aside from fish/seafood) in almost 5 years.
That was in 2009 that I started eating poultry but now…I’m starting to want to cut it out again. I know it won’t always be easy since I’m not just cooking for myself BUT Matt has been changing his eating habits a lot lately and I’m so proud of him so I think I’m going to slowly go back to being Flexitarian. Actually, I haven’t eaten chicken in almost a month so I don’t think that part will be hard at all but I do eat turkey frequently so we’ll see how it goes!
I just find it so disturbing how meat is prepared for human consumption…the factory farms that are crawling with bacteria and the way the animals are kept in stressful environments and then slaughtered so inhumanely. It just really bothers me. If you think about it, it really does make sense - These animals are kept in cages/crates that are way too small for them and they have no way to roam free and live a healthy life so therefore the animals are under enormous amounts of stress. Because of this they produce stress hormones and then those hormones are passed on to the humans consuming them. Not to mention they’re treated with antibiotics, they’re genetically altered, then mechanically separated by a machine once they’re dead (eww). Today it is drastically different from the “old days” when local farmers did their own slaughtering (still a yucky thing to think about but at least back then it was safer for human consumption, no hormones, fecal matter or ammonia in your food).
That being said, I think I see more sushi in my future ;). Also, here’s the link for the book I mentioned if anyone is interested in reading it:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/skinny-bitch-rory-freedman/1101133983?ean=9780762424931&itm=2&usri=skinny+bitch
It’s graphic but worth reading. If you can make it through Chapter 6, you’ll make it to the end. Cheers to good health and happiness!
~Renee
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