Working for an organization that advances the cause of sustainable development by empowering young people to question and change their lifestyles, I knew I was in trouble. The moment I entered the communal living house where all the staff take turns cooking and cleaning, I stepped into a world of vegetarians and vegans that I knew little or nothing about. A world where my meat-eating habits were frowned upon.
How would I be able to stay healthy without my regular chunk of salmon full of omega-3s? Would my fitness routine suffer without my dinosaur-like portions of beef after a strength training session? Where would I get my proteins, iron and other key nutrients?
It was time to do some research. Upon a friend’s suggestion, I fired up my new Kindle and read a book that would have a profound impact on me: Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer.
The book opened my mind not only to a wealth of facts about the way meat gets to our tables and the effects it causes along the way, but also about the socio-cultural implications of being a vegetarian, the complexity of the subject (is it better not to eat animals at all, or to make their production as sustainable and humane as possible?), the different reasons people choose to change their eating habits (including environment, ethics, religion, health) and the necessity to think about not only what’s best for myself, but also what will I be telling (and feeding!) my children when the time comes to make a decision.
As a result of reading that book, as well as an excellent other text (Four Fish, by Paul Greenberg), I have now been for almost a year a flexitarian – to be more specific, a weekday vegetarian. I’m on a plants-based diet, plus dairy and eggs, from Monday to Friday; on Saturday and Sunday, I have one meal based on meat (as organic, local and sustainable as possible) and another one based on fish (similar considerations apply).
Today, I’m healthier than I’ve ever been in my life, I still feel like I’m doing my share to relieve the world of the burden of animal consumption, and when the weekend comes – that piece of meat/fish is a heaven sent for my taste buds!
This post is my personal contribution to Blog Action Day 2011, an annual event that unites the world’s bloggers with the goal of sparking discussion and collective action. This year, it takes place on World Food Day, October 16, and centers around the topic of food.
