Ok, so it’s been quite some time since I’ve updated this blog and I don’t have any really good excuses for it. I could say I’ve been too busy, but that isn’t really true, or that I’ve been distracted, but that doesn’t quite fit either, although it’s closer to reality. But the real truth is that I just haven’t been motivated in the last year very much.
I finished up my senior project in 2011, writing a 64 page, 19,000 word paper entitled, “The Plant-Based Market: Consumer, Regional, and Global Aspects,” and published it in hard cover with gold embossing as the university required. The paper required a huge amount of research and field work, and I put my whole heart and soul into it. I gave my presentation that fall before my colleagues and administrators, although it was rushed, and didn’t quite live up to my expectations as the capstone of my program. I even defended my work as I was bombarded with questions (I guess I really struck a few people’s core constructs and made them stop and think for sure). I don’t think anyone had ever been bold enough at that state university to approach the subject as in-debth as I did, and my recommendation of how to overcome what I called the “Animal Production/Consumption Circle of Causality,” was met with stiff resistance, if not animosity. My conclusions were that everyone should consider severely reducing, if not eliminating all animal protein based foods from their diet. This went over about as well as I expected, and while my audience showed respect outwardly for my work, their comments and facial expressions spoke volumes. One of my colleagues quipped that he could hardly wait for class to get out so he could throw some steaks on the barbeque. Ah, par for the course.
One thing I can tell you is that I stayed faithful, for the most part, to my whole foods, plant based diet well into 2012, but I did eat a very small percentage of fish toward the end of last year. I did not at that time, nor have I until this date returned to eating chicken, pork, beef, or any other land-based mammal, and I have mostly avoided all dairy products. I ate a little shrimp (but not anymore), and wild Alaskan salmon, which I still have occassionally. I avoid the farm raised kind, as I know too much about the production process (canibalized salmon anyone?), and I am aware there are still problems with the wild kind as well.
I don’t make excuses for myself in regard to my very small fish intake, and I would say I’m still a solid 90 to 95% or more meat and dairy free the majority of the time. I have found some favorite dishes like lentil soup, homemade hummus or bean burritos, and fresh fruits and vegetables in more than adequate amounts to fulfill my energy needs.
One of the problems that I’ve run across in the last 6 months has to do with an autoimmune illness that I was diagnosed with a few years ago called Lichen Planus. This affects my mouth mostly and if I stop taking my medication, I get very painful sores which make it difficult to eat some kinds of fruits and vegetables unfortunately. Recently I’ve had to increase my dosage of the medication I take for it as the effects have flared up, forcing me to eat often flavorless food that is non-acidic and non-spicey. The disease does not have any cures, and even eating a pure plant based diet has not helped the condition, since it was the same before I gave up eating animal protein based foods. This has become a bit of a conflict for me in my vegetarian conquest as I have to limit some of the plant based foods I enjoy and sometimes that leaves me no other choice other than to eat animal protein based foods, which I know are bad for me.
Another reason I have lost interest in being as outspoken for the cause as I was in the beginning has more to do with some people’s attitudes in the mainstream plant-based genre. It’s as if they feel that animal ethics must be the main motivation for a permanent change in one’s diet. I disagree, believing that health and environmental reasons can be just as legitimate as a foundation for thinking and acting. While I understand the animal ethics part of the equation, I also see how controversial and difficult to swallow it is, particularly when the more zealous in these thought collectives present their views in an agressive, in-your-face kind of fashion. I’m not saying they shouldn’t do this, only that it’s not me.
I continue to eat a plant based diet for health reasons, primarily, and secondly for environmental reasons. Since my decision to eat this way impacts positively on animal ethics, I figure I’m good all the way around.
Happy and healthy eating and living in 2013.
Image may be NSFW.
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