I have now officially gone one whole year without eating fast food.
One year ago, I read the The Omnivore's Dilemma and it completely traumatized me. Those factory farms that produce the meat that fast food restaurants serve are hell on earth! They are filthy, dangerous to the employees, toxic, and not mention cruel to the animals themselves. I am a huge believer of the circle of life. I know it sounds cheesy (especially since it's the title of a Disney movie song) but it's how nature thrives in a perfect balance. Or, at least, it did before humans came along. Now, nothing we eat is natural. The cows we eat are fed corn, something their stomachs can't even process. Sometimes they are even fed cows! They're also pumped up with hormones and live in an enclosed area full of shit. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell you that when you feed a cow something that it's not supposed to eat, and inject it with chemicals it's not supposed to have, and make it live in a huge pile of shit, it's gonna get sick. Would you want to eat that sick, unnatural, shit infested meat? I didn't. So I said bye bye to fast food. I know that fast food joints aren't the only kinds of restaurants that use factory farmed animals. In fact, pretty much every restaurant in the country uses factory farmed animals. You really can't escape it. But in my mind, I felt like giving up fast food was a good place to start.
After a few months, I started to miss it. Not a lot, but I would get cravings. I do enjoy Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich quite a bit, and there's nothing better than a Carl's Jr. Western bacon cheeseburger at midnight. Not to mention the fact that you can't really be a Californian resident without having In-N-Out on a regular basis. So after a few months I decided that maybe I wouldn't give up fast food completely. Maybe I would just keep this up for one year. So I did.
Now, after one year, I gotta say, I don't really miss it anymore. And it really wasn't that hard to avoid. There were a couple of times when I thought I would have to eat fast food (once with family who wanted to do an In-N-Out run, and another time, also with family, who wanted to order in from KFC) but both times the fast foodness didn't actually end up happening. So I was in the clear. Other than that, it wasn't hard to not eat fast food. (I will confess that I did eat at Quizno's but only because it's the only place near my office that was fast enough for a 30 minute lunch. Quizno's is most definitely fast food, but I didn't count it in my little experiment and I hope you don't judge me for that.) So now my one year is over, and I'm not gonna lie. I do want to eat fast food again. I want to taste it and I want to know if it'll taste as good as I remember.
But just when I was looking forward to gorging on chicken McNuggets and Popeye's fried chicken, I had to go and read another book about the factory food farm. I just finished Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer and unlike The Omnivore's Dilemma, it didn't focus on fast food. It focused on all animals, everywhere. It's even more traumatizing because it turns eating animals into a moral dilemma, not just a health one. I've always loved animals, and I've always said that if I had to choose between helping animals and helping humans, I would choose animals. Only because I think for the most part, humans can help themselves. However, I never believed that eating animals was morally wrong. I justified it because animals eat other animals to survive. Humans are animals, too, so it's perfectly natural for humans to eat animals. We need to eat to live after all. But Eating Animals points out that in the 21st Century, and in this country, humans can stop eating animals and be perfectly fine. It's not like we're cave people hunting down woolly mammoth to store for the winter. Food has become laughably accessible.
The number one thing that traumatized me most about Eating Animals was the declaration that food transportation is the number one causing factor to global warming. Think about it. We are not supposed to be able to eat apples in the summer and strawberries in the winter. And yet we do. We do because massive amounts of fruits and meats come to us from all over the world. Did you know chicken is actually a seasonal food? Can you imagine only eating chicken during a certain time of year? We don't even think about what's in season anymore. We can pretty much buy whatever we want whenever we want. Can you imagine the amount of fuel it takes to transport all that food to and from all over the world on a daily basis? That is what is polluting our Earth! I am a hippie at heart, so when that fact was pointed out to me, I panicked. I thought, "You did this, Kim! You're supporting the factory food system! You're killing Mother Earth!" I looked at my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The peanut butter came from a factory in Texas. The jelly came from a factory in Ohio. The bread came from who knows where, and the plastic bag I stored it in is so bad for the environment! That's when I decided to try another year long experiment.
This time around, I feel like taking on a bigger challenge. I went a whole year without fast food. Could I go a whole year without meat? This would be extremely difficult for me. You have to understand where I come from. I am a Chinese American girl from the Midwest. I live for meat. I used to subscribe to the Anthony Bourdain school of thought when it comes to vegetarians: "Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn. To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living. Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, and an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food." (from Kitchen Confidential.) I stood behind Bourdain a thousand percent because I love food! And I love meat! And I couldn't imagine a diet that didn't have meat! But now, after reading about where my meat comes from, I'm not so sure I want it anymore.
So I have decided to seriously consider going vegetarian for one year. I haven't done it yet. And I'm not even sure if I'll even end up doing this. It'll be one of the hardest thing I've ever done. And I'll probably disappoint a lot of people by going vegetarian. I have quite a few foodie friends who would be ashamed of me if I did this. And admittedly, I would be ashamed in myself. But I feel like it's something I have to try. It's for the good of my health, it's for the good of all the animals I won't end up eating, and it's for the good of the world.
So what do you think? Should I do it?
One year ago, I read the The Omnivore's Dilemma and it completely traumatized me. Those factory farms that produce the meat that fast food restaurants serve are hell on earth! They are filthy, dangerous to the employees, toxic, and not mention cruel to the animals themselves. I am a huge believer of the circle of life. I know it sounds cheesy (especially since it's the title of a Disney movie song) but it's how nature thrives in a perfect balance. Or, at least, it did before humans came along. Now, nothing we eat is natural. The cows we eat are fed corn, something their stomachs can't even process. Sometimes they are even fed cows! They're also pumped up with hormones and live in an enclosed area full of shit. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell you that when you feed a cow something that it's not supposed to eat, and inject it with chemicals it's not supposed to have, and make it live in a huge pile of shit, it's gonna get sick. Would you want to eat that sick, unnatural, shit infested meat? I didn't. So I said bye bye to fast food. I know that fast food joints aren't the only kinds of restaurants that use factory farmed animals. In fact, pretty much every restaurant in the country uses factory farmed animals. You really can't escape it. But in my mind, I felt like giving up fast food was a good place to start.
After a few months, I started to miss it. Not a lot, but I would get cravings. I do enjoy Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich quite a bit, and there's nothing better than a Carl's Jr. Western bacon cheeseburger at midnight. Not to mention the fact that you can't really be a Californian resident without having In-N-Out on a regular basis. So after a few months I decided that maybe I wouldn't give up fast food completely. Maybe I would just keep this up for one year. So I did.
Now, after one year, I gotta say, I don't really miss it anymore. And it really wasn't that hard to avoid. There were a couple of times when I thought I would have to eat fast food (once with family who wanted to do an In-N-Out run, and another time, also with family, who wanted to order in from KFC) but both times the fast foodness didn't actually end up happening. So I was in the clear. Other than that, it wasn't hard to not eat fast food. (I will confess that I did eat at Quizno's but only because it's the only place near my office that was fast enough for a 30 minute lunch. Quizno's is most definitely fast food, but I didn't count it in my little experiment and I hope you don't judge me for that.) So now my one year is over, and I'm not gonna lie. I do want to eat fast food again. I want to taste it and I want to know if it'll taste as good as I remember.
But just when I was looking forward to gorging on chicken McNuggets and Popeye's fried chicken, I had to go and read another book about the factory food farm. I just finished Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer and unlike The Omnivore's Dilemma, it didn't focus on fast food. It focused on all animals, everywhere. It's even more traumatizing because it turns eating animals into a moral dilemma, not just a health one. I've always loved animals, and I've always said that if I had to choose between helping animals and helping humans, I would choose animals. Only because I think for the most part, humans can help themselves. However, I never believed that eating animals was morally wrong. I justified it because animals eat other animals to survive. Humans are animals, too, so it's perfectly natural for humans to eat animals. We need to eat to live after all. But Eating Animals points out that in the 21st Century, and in this country, humans can stop eating animals and be perfectly fine. It's not like we're cave people hunting down woolly mammoth to store for the winter. Food has become laughably accessible.
The number one thing that traumatized me most about Eating Animals was the declaration that food transportation is the number one causing factor to global warming. Think about it. We are not supposed to be able to eat apples in the summer and strawberries in the winter. And yet we do. We do because massive amounts of fruits and meats come to us from all over the world. Did you know chicken is actually a seasonal food? Can you imagine only eating chicken during a certain time of year? We don't even think about what's in season anymore. We can pretty much buy whatever we want whenever we want. Can you imagine the amount of fuel it takes to transport all that food to and from all over the world on a daily basis? That is what is polluting our Earth! I am a hippie at heart, so when that fact was pointed out to me, I panicked. I thought, "You did this, Kim! You're supporting the factory food system! You're killing Mother Earth!" I looked at my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The peanut butter came from a factory in Texas. The jelly came from a factory in Ohio. The bread came from who knows where, and the plastic bag I stored it in is so bad for the environment! That's when I decided to try another year long experiment.
This time around, I feel like taking on a bigger challenge. I went a whole year without fast food. Could I go a whole year without meat? This would be extremely difficult for me. You have to understand where I come from. I am a Chinese American girl from the Midwest. I live for meat. I used to subscribe to the Anthony Bourdain school of thought when it comes to vegetarians: "Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn. To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living. Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, and an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food." (from Kitchen Confidential.) I stood behind Bourdain a thousand percent because I love food! And I love meat! And I couldn't imagine a diet that didn't have meat! But now, after reading about where my meat comes from, I'm not so sure I want it anymore.
So I have decided to seriously consider going vegetarian for one year. I haven't done it yet. And I'm not even sure if I'll even end up doing this. It'll be one of the hardest thing I've ever done. And I'll probably disappoint a lot of people by going vegetarian. I have quite a few foodie friends who would be ashamed of me if I did this. And admittedly, I would be ashamed in myself. But I feel like it's something I have to try. It's for the good of my health, it's for the good of all the animals I won't end up eating, and it's for the good of the world.
So what do you think? Should I do it?
For what it's worth, I don't think I've ever met a "fat" vegetarian. All the anti-meat people I've ever made the acquaintance of were anorexia-skinny. So I guess that's something to look forward to? :-/
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be ashamed of you; I'd be proud. We're talking just meat, right? There are still tons of things you can eat. I'm trying to find more vegetarian options to add to my repertoire anyway. I wouldn't give up meat, but I'd be happy to support you.
ReplyDeleteTotally you should do it. I have been vegetarian for 10 years now - and yeah at the beginning it can be difficult, but so long as you are doing it for you, and don't push it into anyone elses face (people can get funny about that), you will feel better in yourself, have more money (amazing how much money meat costs), and be healthier (cholesterol and fat levels being just one element, there are multiple areas of the body that benefit).
ReplyDeleteI know this post is 3 months old, but good luck - and if you want any recipes - i am here to help!
-Erica