That’s more of a question I’ve been asking, rather than a promise of directions.
I’ve been renegotiating the aspects of my diet. Again. With it encompassing so much of our existence, how can one not evaluate the impact their dietary choices make not only on their life but on the world around them? And therein lies the conflict. How does one weigh the options and their consequences without becoming confused. And with (ever-conflicting) information abound in the world around us, it’s hard to know where to begin. Perhaps I should start by evaluating my options.
Vegetarian:
I have been a vegetarian for about 6 months now. Before that point, I was an organic meat-eater and meat-reducer. I eat this way for its small environmental impact. I’m not an animal rights activist, although I am against inhumane practices (like scalding a live chicken to get rid of its feathers or confining a cow for its entire life). Yes, I fully understand that many animal rights activists will say killing an animal for meat is inhumane, not matter how you kill it, but I don’t agree.I believe humans are omnivores by nature, as are many other animals out there. Death – especially death for the purpose of feeding another creature – is just a part of life and the food chain. So while I’m not against eating meat, I don’t support our practices of raising meat and the poisoning of our environment to feed our over-consuming habits. So I abstain from it. Perhaps one day when I can raise my own chickens or turkeys, I’ll rethink my actions. But I’m fairly certain red meat is out completely and the rest is out for now.
But I’m on the fence about eating fish or other seafood. Does it have quite the same eco-footprint? I don’t know. I do think it is healthier than most other forms of meat, unless you’re eating canned tuna. I think I need more (ever-conflicting) information on this one.
Locavore:
I also attempt to eat as locally as possible. I have cut out things with a ginormously sinful eco-impact – such as bananas, which I miss terribly. But in general, “local” is a relative term for us in Southern Nevada.I think eating locally should be at the forefronts of anyone’s minds. But it’s difficult when only one farm exists near you and they produce a measly array of options (less than 10 options annually, I believe). Much of our “local” produce comes from the farmer’s market, which comes from California.
So I know this is something I wish to do consistently, which makes me more eager than ever to reconstruct our yard and garden into something as edible as possible.
Vegan:
I’ll admit it. I love my cheese. But when I make my food choices, I tend to look to nature as an example. And I personally don’t believe dairy to be a very good or natural option. I mean, where else in nature does a mammal drink the milk of another mammal on a regular basis? Would we drink the milk of an emu? Or a zebra? Why a cow? Because it was easiest to domesticate? And have you ever given thought to the fact that a cow’s milk is suppose to grow a calf to several hundred pounds in a few months – that’s a lot of naturally occurring hormones, no matter how organic your milk is.I’ve easily made the switch to vegan rice milk and vegan butter, but have you tasted vegan cheese? Not my fave. But then I must ask myself why it is I feel the need to have something like cheese at all. Why can’t I simply find new recipes that do not call for cheese or cheese-like ingredients? Probably because I’m lazy and do not enjoy cooking all that much anyway.
Raw Vegan:
The Raw Vegan diet is among my favorite ways to eat. It’s beautiful, creative and yummy. I’ve heard critics say it’s not complete or balanced, but I don’t agree. Once you’ve seen a raw vegan in all their energetic glory, you know it’s fantastic.But in order to really get the best of it, it seems to rely heavily on things you cannot find locally, like the aforementioned bananas. In terms of the non-local ingredients it relies on, I wonder if it evens out in the wash. Especially once I start to grow my own more consistently. Will a few bananas equal out to all the cheese I now consume in terms of carbon emissions, land needed, etc.
It also requires a heavy amount of creativity and talent, neither of which I seem to have which is precisely why any previous attempts at eating raw have floundered. It became boring or simply tasted like crap.
So there I am, stuck between ideologies without a compass. I’ve been toying with the idea of giving up dairy, reintroducing fish into my kitchen and eating as much raw food as possible with the occasional whole grain thrown in for good measure. But then I must remember I’m not the only one in my home and will my husband and very picky 8 year old go amiably along? Will I find suitable recipes that still stick to my locavore aspirations and don’t frustrate me with failed attempts of deliciousness? Will it cost an arm and a leg?
I’d be interested in knowing how others have managed to feel and be healthy with their diets while also pacifying their environmental leanings. Or if you’ve blogged about, would you share your link?
I'm Tara Wagner, life coach and creator of the Digging Deep process, where I coach women out of survival mode to recreate their lives and families.
I cook and eat 100% dairy free for health reasons. I have adapted and would be willing to share my knowledge. I do understand your dilemma. Do I buy “organic” produce which is overwrapped with plastic and shipped by trucks over long distances or do I buy conventional produce which may be more local, fresher, and more nutritious? With food choices its especially hard because you cant opt-out, you have to pick a side. Simply asking these questions shows that thought is put into your food choices, thats an important step!
Hi Tara,
I’ve been reading your inspiring blogs for awhile now but have never commented. But since your asking about diet choices, I can add my two cents.
Personally, I’m vegan and have been for about 5 years. I do it for animal rights, health and for the environment. I hear you on the vegan cheese. Not many good choices but if you want cheese you get used to it. We’ve even found a pretty good mac and cheese recipe that has been pretty popular lately.
I’ve recently finished reading the book World Peace Diet by Will Tuttle. It’s a bit of spiritual vegan propaganda but it’s a good read that will make you seriously think about your food choices. You should check it out when you have time.
I’m proud and happy to be 100% vegan for ethical, health, and environmental reasons. I go between 100% Raw and High Raw as well. I feel wonderful and feel amazing!
People can survive on an omnivore diet, but they likely won’t thrive on it. Omnivores have incredibly higher rates of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, obesity, etc than vegans. YAY for vegans
My favorite books on the topic are The China Study, Diet For A New America, and The Food Revolution.
Cheers,
Kristen’s Raw
Thanks for the comments!
Katie, I know what you mean about organic from across country vs conventional right next door. It’s a hard call and as much as it pangs me I tend to choose local over organic – even more incentive to grow my own.
Josh, I am starting to cut out dairy for awhile to see how I feel. I think I’m going to try some of my friend’s raw cheese recipes. I’m a bit leery of excessive soy. Not to mention I just don’t like its taste. lol I’ll add the book recommendation to my looong list of books to read!
Kristen, I have yet to hear of “high raw”…Can you explain it? I’ve heard the statistics of omnivores being at higher risk for many health complications, but you also have to wonder what the risk would be to healthy omnivore’s…ones that do not eat a Mickey D’s, choose organic, eat smaller amounts (vs our culture thinking it needs meat at every meal), or stay away from other potentially harmful things. And you just never know who their subjects were. Whereas a study done on raw vegans, you can pretty much guess they all exercise, refrain from smoking etc. But if the study was done by say the dairy industry, you can bet they are gonna find the most unhealthy raw vegans to exemplify their preferred results. So is it really diet or lifestyle, kwim? All of that is why I don’t give two hoots about what any study says. They also seemed skewed one way or another. What I do look a is real life…any raw foodists do shine don’t they?
But I think another one of my dilemmas is that I want to enjoy what I eat. Of course I’ve said that in the past and no longer enojy certain things I once did and don’t miss them at all.
We’ll see. I think I’m just going to follow my intuition and let my body take me where it wishes. I trust I’ll end up in the right place.
~Tara
You strike me as a woman who cannot be put in a ‘box’ category of anything. You are the only one who needs to make their own rules on what to eat or not to eat. For goodness sake, if you like bananas and cheese, eat bananas and cheese! Choose Fairtrade bananas and organic cheese if it makes you feel better.
You should have to agonise over your food choices, life’s too short.
That’s my two cents worth anyway.
jen
sorry – should have said ‘You SHOULDN’T have to agonise over what you eat’……..my typing gets worse with age…
Ok, I have a couple of good books for you. One is “Integrative Nutrition” by… ummm… some guy….don’t have the book in front of me so Im not sure. But it is about educating yourself about your dietary choices and coming up with a diet that is right for you and your body.
Another is “Radical Simplicity” by Jim Merkel. Although, I will warn you that it’s likely to make you put more pressure on yourself to reduce your footprint. But, it also helps you measure your impact. Fish, for example have the highest environmental footprint of all the meats. Which sucks, because thats pretty much the only meat I eat that my body seems to thrive on.
But yeah, I have the same theories as you do pretty much. Right now Im mostly vegetarian, but I eat fish as well sometimes, and I try to go right to the farm to buy my groceries. Organic whenever possible….
Hey Tara..congrats on the new site. You’re sooo cool!
Knowing you, I would agree with Jen. You are not a person that can be boxed in. You are an enigma. Trying to fit within a label can be very stressful. I wouldn’t worry so much about being one particular type of vegan all the time, but instead strive for making the “right ” choices in the things you choose. And maybe those things are an occassional treat. After all, you still have to enjoy yourself, otherwise is it all worth it?
Your comments on studies of vegan vs omnivores I think is right on. You could look at my grandfather who just turned 92 this week. He ate meat everyday, fried foods, sweets. My grandma always cooked farmhouse style: meat, potatoes, biscuits, gravy, buttered, panfried, etc. He worked hard in a mill and grew a huge garden in his spare time every year. But he didn’t drink or smoke and his life was simple. You can’t look at just what people eat…it really is the whole package.
Food is a difficult choice, one that is controlled by corporations and tainted by marketing, cost-effectiveness, addictive additives, inhumane practices and a general disregard for the true purpose of eating; staying strong and healthy. Most of the problems associated with foods are problems with the method of production.
Milk and meat are the two biggest ones, but animals are necessary for a thriving farm ecosystem. When cows are shoulder to shoulder in a factory, there is waste problems and health problems. They are knee deep in excrement. They are eating unnatural and unhealthy diets of corn, soy and antibiotics. Their manure runs off and pollutes rivers, rather than fertilizing land. The meat and milk is high in omega 6 (found in seed and grain foods) rather than omega 3 (which cows make from green foods, like grass). The diet makes cows bodies acidic, strengthing the bad bacteria and making them able to survive our own acidic defenses in the gut. The milk is tainted with these bacteria and other, making pasturization necessary. Skimmed milks have powdered milk added, which is the largest cause of heart disease (powdered animal products become oxidized-free radicals-which are known to be a major contributor to heart disease and cancers). Animal foods need to come from small sustainable family farms. Meet the farmer, meet the animals, see how they are treated.
After enough research I decided that eating well balanced is the best option. Eating all raw, or all vegan, all low-carb, etc, etc is not balanced. We are omnivores and that means we can survive on almost anything, but that also means we need a large variety of nutrients. We don’t know the names of all these nutrients. Many have yet to be discovered. The best bet for health is to make sure the food is sustainable. Eat from local farms. Eat all kinds of foods. Listen to what your body tells you about each food. Eat vegetables raw and cooked. Some nutrients are more available raw and some cooked. Eat both.
Vegan and raw diets are useful for detoxing and cleansing, short term, but as a life choice will eventually deplete one of essentail nutrients cause teeth and bone problems and lead to loss of energy and health. Never in our short history has any group survived on only plant foods. Even mainly vegetarian cultures would go to great lengths to obtain seafood from other tribes to prevent disease. Vegetarian Hindus have the shortest life span of any culture. Japanese who eat all kinds of meats, fish broth, lots of plants and fermented soy as a condiment live the longest and with the least disease. Balance and variety. Besides eating vegan or vegetarian for animal humanness is not possible. Growing vegetable crops kills thousands of harmful and beneficial bugs with poison spraying. Harvesting of grain kills thousands
There is plenty of anti-meat propaganda out there. Most of it is totally true for factory farms. But animals foods are not dangerous in of themselves. They are essential to good health. If you want to know more about the healthfullness of pastured animal foods here is some recommended reading:
First and free to read: http://www.westonaprice.org Dr. Price was a dentist in the early 1900′s. He came to America from Canada and was aghast at the level of cavities and tooth decay and chronic disease. He wanted to study, but could not find a control group (with no cavities) in the US to figure out the reason for our poor dental health. You see, it is well known that dental health signals internal health. So, Dr. Price traveled to many isolated places where the people ate traditional, local foods. He found out that wheneven sugar, white flour and vegtetable seed oils (canola, sunflower, safflower, etc) replaced traditional foods health would decline. Almost without exception the groups he studied ate liberally of seafood and animal proteins and fats (rarely would the eat the meat, mostly organs, fat and bones) and dairy products. They ate fats, meats, fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds and whole grains in their whole unrefined state (and properly prepared to account for anti-nutrients). All primitive diets contained some raw foods, both animal and vegetable origin. These groups of people were free of chronic disease, dental decay and mental illness; they were strong, sturdy and attractive; and they produced healthy children with ease, generation after generation. Balance and variety.
What to Eat By Nina Planck is a newer book, which is an excellent beginners guide to food.
The Maker’s Diet By Jordan Rubin is based on the old testament and I consider it a good guide to primitive eating. Thousand year old dietary advice is definetly going to have some wisdom. http://www.makersdiet.com/public/about-the-diet/about-the-diet.aspx
Holy Cows and Hog Heaven: A Food Buyers Guide to Farm Friendly Food By Joel Salatin If you havent heard of Joel Salatin and Polyface farms you are in for a treat. http://www.polyfacefarms.com
And the bible of cooking; Nourishing Tradition By Sally Fallon
(Wow, you’re going to be sick of hearing from me, but I’m having such fun.) I’ve heard the theory about dairy products before- why would a mammal drink a different mammal’s milk?
It seems to me, and I may be way wrong, that milk was evolved to be nourishing to mammals- granted different mammals to us, but none-the-less, designed by nature to be very good food. And then there’s, oh, say, celery, which has been evolving forever to pass nutrients and water from the roots to the top of the plant. And to be structural, I guess. Not to be food. In fact, probably trying a bunch of defensive measures to avoid being eaten. And yet that seems more like food- weird, huh?
I used to know a raw fruitist- the idea being that fruit really wants to be eaten, to spread it’s seeds. I guess I could kind of buy that, if she had then been crapping in suitable places for the plants to grow.