Sunday, September 11, 2005

To eat or not to eat... red meat

I don't eat red meat. Well, actually, that's not true since I eat maguro, which is definitely red, but not "red" meat. More specifically, I don't eat mammals; that's cows, pigs, and other animals with nipples for all you Kansas Board of Education members out there. I wear mammals, but I don't eat them. I eat chicken, turkey, and I love fish and seafood.

I haven't intentionally eaten mammals since some time in the late 80s. I even check the labels and ask restaurants if they put ham or bacon in their clam chowder before I'll order clam chowder. There are a few exceptions, though: I love turkey or chicken sausages and they're usually packed in sheep intestines, I also have no problem eating gelatin, although if given a choice, I'll choose pectin over gelatin. I also don't have any problems with eating dairy products.

When I tell people that I don't eat red meat or that I don't eat mammals, I get a lot of "oh, you're a vegetarian" comments. But, I'm not a vegetarian. Sure, I order "vegetarian" on airplane flights and in restaurants, but that's more a matter of convenience. I eat meat, damnit, just not all types of meat.

I gave up red meat for health reasons; my cholesterol was sky high, the doctor said I should cut back on red meat, and I listened. It wasn't as if I really liked the taste of steaks, so it wasn't that big of a deal to me. The hardest things to give up back then were the enchiritos at Taco Bell and the Beef and Cheddar sandwiches at Arby's. I also really missed summer sausages, but I can get the turkey summer sausages from Hickory Farms during the holiday season, if I'm lucky.

I wear leather shoes, though. See, it's not about animal rights for me; it's all about health. And, quite frankly, mammalian meat is not very healthy for humans. Or, at least, it's not very healthy for me.

The biggest pain for me, though, is the fact that I'm allergic to soy soy intolerant. I can't eat anything made with tofu or "textured vegetable protein" unless I want to spend a lot of time reading in the bathroom. You can't imagine how much a bitch that is unless you've tried to go vegetarian. Damn soy is in everything.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:33 PM

    your an idiot.

    how would you feel if i chopped you up and wore you as shoes ?

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  2. Anonymous11:11 PM

    "you're" is a contraction of the words "you" and "are". "your" is the possessive form of "you". YOU'RE the idiot.

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  3. I don't eat mammals either, for a few reasons:
    It is not healthy, if we could use every single part of the animal (like the Native Americans did a long time ago) instead of wasting lots of it like we do now, it might not be so offensive. Most of the corn that is grown in the US is inedible to humans and is feed to cows to plump them up. Cows aren't supposed to eat corn as it makes them really sick after a couple years but by then they are fat and ready to butcher. Just think if we grew better corn that we could actually feed to people and gave it to homeless people instead of cows we would not have hungry people in our country. I don't buy leather or fur either. I do eat poultry and fish because having type one Diabetes my body needs protein from these sources every once and a while. If I didn't have Diabetes I would be a vegetarian.

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  4. Anonymous12:09 PM

    "Just think if we grew better corn that we could actually feed to people and gave it to homeless people instead of cows we would not have hungry people in our country"

    Jennie, you are laughably ignorant of how a capitalist society works. Do you even live in America? I'm surprised you live here and don't know how the country works. Do you have a job? Do you work hard and then hand over all of your money to the homeless? Probably not, since you're on a computer posting comments. Do you have financial resposibilites? Bills? A mortgage or rent? Or does someone hand you everything you need or do you actually work for it? Why would you think that farmers should spend millions of dollars to grow more human-edible corn just to hand it over to homeless people? Are you going to pay for that? Are you going to go out in the fields and work for free so that can happen? If not, why not? If it is because you have bills to pay, don't you think farmers do too?

    It's easy to be idealistic at the cost of others. If you really want to make a difference in the world, it's not going to happen by oversimplifying the nation's problems and fantasizing fix-all solutions that will never materialize, or by looking down your nose at what other people eat. Get out there and do something tangible, make a positive contribution to your society. Voluteer your time and money to make a difference, don't wait for others to do it for you! Refusing to eat mammals is not fighting hunger or homelessness, if that genuinely is a concern of yours.

    Also, don't use your Diabetes as an excuse to eat other animal flesh. There are plenty of vegan and vegetarian nutritionists who can help you formulate a diet rich in protein without any animal flesh. If you can't consult a nutritionist or a doctor, just try Google. Using Diabetes as an excuse to eat any animal is an insult.

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