I’ve been a vegetarian for more than 25 years. Being a vegetarian is as much a part of me as my height or my eye color. Unchangeable. I started out just being mildly repulsed when I thought about what I was preparing or cooking. After a while I was unable to separate the bellowing, frightened animal I could see in my mind from the steak on a plate.
While taking a class in college (yes, I went to college late in life) I was assigned to do an in depth report on a topic of my choice. I chose the ethics of vegetarianism, and my eyes were opened in a dramatic way. I wish I still had the report to refer to, but I will never forget my introduction to the realities of factory farming in John Robbins’s Diet for a New America
Since then I have read a variety of books – Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals
I also watched several movies. Do you remember the 1995 movie Babe? If you didn’t, you can watch the three minute “That’ll do, pig” scene here. How about the movie Food, Inc? It is an eye-opening and award winning documentary that every meat eater should have to watch. If you click on the link you can watch a trailer and check out their recommended reading list. Food Inc.
Everything I’ve been talking about above has to do primarily with the perspective that our food choices are our ethical choices. I don’t think that it is a responsible choice to choose meat when the same amount of plant food that is used to raise animals could feed the world. Truly.
But there’s another perspective, too… and that is the impact meat has on our health and our public health systems. At the top of this post you see a screen shot from the Forks over Knives website. It’s a new documentary about how to reduce or even reverse diabetes, heart disease, and cancer by adjusting your diet. The documentary was released in May 2011 and everyone I know who has seen it has found that they are thinking much more critically about their food choices every day. The meaning of the title is that you can choose how to manage your health – either through surgery (cardiac stents, etc) or through food choices. One of the inspirations for the movie is T. Colin Campbell, the author of The China Study
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Above is another screenshot, this time from another new documentary, Vegucated. This is supposedly a very funny documentary where several meat-eating New Yorkers agree to become vegan for six weeks. The website link above has a trailer and more info. It got excellent reviews when it opened at the Toronto Film Festival a couple of weeks ago and IMDb gives it a 9.7 rating. If you live where it’s showing, please go see it and then come back and tell us about it! They’d also like you to take the challenge and go vegan for one month – why not give it a try?
Last February, Oprah and 378 of her staff took a one week vegan challenge. The link at left has tons of links to information about eating vegan and much more.
Because of all the reading I’ve been doing lately, I have been considering becoming vegan. I’ve been eating cheese, eggs (usually as part of a cake or something, not on their own) and occasionally yoghurt. I never drink milk. The modifications I am trying now is to not eat eggs or dairy at all except for occasionally a bit of cheese if it is a minor player in the dish. So I will sprinkle a bit of parmesan on my pasta, or eat a salad with organic feta but not a grilled cheese sandwich. Everyone has to work things out for themselves!
As this has turned into a vegetarian resource post, I am going to put some links below to my very favorite vegetarian cookbooks.
Vegetarian & Vegetable Cooking – Christine Ingram
The 30-Minute Vegan – Mark Reinfeld & Jennifer Murray
The Food Matters Cookbook – Mark Bittman
Smith & Hawken: The Gardeners’ Community Cookbook – Victoria Wise
Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen
The Bold Vegetarian – Bharti Kirchner
Lean Italian Meatless Meals – Anne Casale
The Engine 2 Diet – Rip Esselstyn
I love to read about food and eating, too. Here are my favorites.
The Gastronomical Me – M. F. K. Fisher
An Alphabet for Gourmets – M. F. K. Fisher
The Art of Eating – M. F. K. Fisher
American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza – Peter Reinhart
Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef – Gabrielle Hamilton
Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating – Mark Bittman
These links are just a few of my favorites – there lots of wonderful books and websites to help us create delicious, healthy meals. I hope you’ll consider making some or all of your meals meatless in the future. Buen provecho!
September 19th, 2011 at 3:09 pm
[...] Vegetarian resource round up [...]
September 19th, 2011 at 4:01 pm
This post couldn’t have come at a better time. I’ve been thinking that my next cookbook (which I’ll probably buy this week) needs to be a vegetarian cookbook. Can’t wait to check these out.
September 19th, 2011 at 6:00 pm
My wife of 34 years has been a vegan for most of that time. She tells me I’m going to hell for eating meat, my friends tell me that meat eating is the least of my worries on that count. My diet at Linda’s table is healthy and tasty postponing that dreaded visit with Saint Peter and the issue of my meat eating habits.
September 19th, 2011 at 6:18 pm
Very good resources. Thank you for listing all those books and the link to Veducate! I will check it out for sure. I just got a good vegan cookbook called The Concious Cook. It’s not for the non-foodie type or someone looking to cook on a budget of time or money, but when you really want something gourmet and beautiful that even a non-vegan would enjoy, it’s an amazing book. Some of the ingredients might be hard to find but you can always find a good substitute. I agree with everything you said 100 percent. I too started really thinking about the poor animal that had to die because of me, and how many people are starving because I had to have my meat. It doesn’t make you feel like a very good person when you look at it like that.
September 19th, 2011 at 8:14 pm
Superior beings, you vegetarians
September 20th, 2011 at 7:03 am
Lovely post – Thank you so much. I too was vegetarian for just over 15 years. I turned slowly back to animal consumption, in both food and products. I have been considering strongly to return to vegetarian, not vegan – I do like honey in my tea and as a part of my salad dressings. Being lactose intolerant makes the dairy almost a non-issue, although I can and do enjoy goat cheese.
I regularly cook vegetarian even thoough I do consume animal, and I would really hate to give up fish.
I still receive my Vegetarian Times magazines,and frequent vegetariantimes.com
again – great post – makes me step closer to vegetarianism.
If anyone did actually watch some of those shows they’d have to quit eating meat, at least the mass manufactured meat.
There are independant farmers that raise and slaughter humanely???
September 20th, 2011 at 1:40 pm
Leslie, I hope you find one of these cookbooks interesting, let me know!
Norm, To each his own. Speaking of Hell, a very funny and odd book is Hell by one of my favorite authors, Robert Olen Butler. Check it out!
Andrea, If ingredients would be hard to find for you in the States it would probably be too hard for me here in Maz. I have enjoyed sharing your vegan challenge, sounds like you are feeling great, that is wonderful.
Ron, I’m so glad you put a smiley face there or I might have thought you were serious and thought I was preaching. I wasn’t, truly. But this is an important part of who I am and I like to share…
Debi, Thank you! Everyone has to find there own way, and we can shape our diet to coincide with our ethics, our body, and whatever else goes into personal decision making. One of the reasons I wrote this is that the topic of food and its affect on the environment and whether our earth can sustain this level of meat eating is a very current topic these days, especially with China becoming more prosperous and eating much more meat. Hope to see you in Nov.
September 20th, 2011 at 4:54 pm
Thank you for this post Nancy, it has come at exactly the right time because I have recently made a huge change in my diet in all the directions you describe.Not vegan yet, but you never know. The huge surprise (and what a bonus!) is how delicious food seems to me now! Zucchini fritters for dinner last night almost put me in a swoon! I’m enjoying food so much more. Who knew this could feel like an exciting, a new adventure?
September 20th, 2011 at 8:21 pm
Here is some research a good friend of ours is doing
Eat lots of guacamole
http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_18923181?IADID=Search-www.dailybulletin.com-www.dailybulletin.com
September 21st, 2011 at 2:14 pm
We also have been vegetarians for close to 30 years. At one point we modified our diet to strict vegan. Other than more time spent preparing meals it was never an issue until we started RVing about 12 years ago. We have added eggs, ( the first egg I ate after none for 8 years was just sinful, I couldn’t believe what I was putting into my mouth ),cheese was easier to add, we also added fish for ease of travel. It is very difficult to be on the road and not find the foods you need although grocery stores are stocking more ‘alternative’ food these days. As we only eat fish a few times per week it is so nice to have is fresh off the boat like we get it in Mexico.
September 21st, 2011 at 4:59 pm
Ron, I love guacamole, this is great! Thanks!
Contessa, Thanks for sharing how you and Colin work it out. We all do it our own way, and I love hearing how everyone balances for themselves.
October 15th, 2011 at 8:27 pm
[...] or eliminate meat from their diets. I did a blog post not long ago on the topic that was called Vegetarian Resource Round Up if you’re interested in more of my views on the [...]