I’ve been listening to the audio book “Veganist: Lose Weight, Get Healthy, Change the World” (by Kathy Freston) and it’s actually starting to influence me!
No, I can’t see myself living a full time vegan lifestyle, but I’ve been leaning into reducing our meat consumption more and more. Just this week, we ate several meatless and almost-meatless meals, and they were really satisfying delicious meals!
But some of the health claims in the book I feel are a bit exaggerated, but there is definitely some good advice. No, I don’t think that meat literally is the cause of all our health problems, but I do wholeheartedly believe that the QUALITY AND QUANTITY of meat is extremely important. If we could just shut down all factory farms (both plant based and animal based), our world would be so much better!
The one thing I emphatically do not agree with in the book is her recommendation to consume highly processed vegan products like soy hot dogs and fake chicken. Personally, I think foods like this pose absolutely no benefit over eating true meat. I just can’t understand recommending a fake soy sausage vs eating an organic humanely-raised chicken leg.
Another surprising revelation is I am starting to alter my position on natural soy products. I just bought some (fermented) miso and am actually thinking of maybe trying tofu again, and also tempeh (shh, don’t tell my DH). I still haven’t decided if soy estrogens are bad or not. I need to do more research, but it’s not 100% out of the question, like it was a couple of weeks ago.
So, I feel like my life is beginning another exciting transition. It’s what keeps it fresh, right!?
I believe it’s really important to eat more plants and less meat! (thanks to Mark Bittman and Michael Pollan!)
I want to be more responsible about the type of meat that I put on my plate, making sure the animal is being treated humanely, and at the same time not causing further damage to our environment.
Plant based foods are delicious, and it’s exciting and intriguing to learn more about new recipes and cooking techniques. I don’t know why the Food Network hasn’t offered an official vegetarian/vegan cooking show. I would be SO interested, as would a lot of other people too, because a lot of us don’t know HOW to cook vegetarian! It’s easy to throw some cheese or eggs into a dish and call it meatless, but I want to learn more. I don’t want to rely on eggs and cheese as a crutch, which I know I’ve been doing. I would like to reduce ALL animal products! Yes, I’d like to be veganish a few times a week!