Category: Veganism

Where Was *MY* Meatgasm?

A woman's orgasm face

Seriously, many people try many things and move on after deciding it is not for them. Is there a reason for suspicion when someone goes on publicly for weeks, months or years after something doesn’t work out for them?  How about publishing blog posts, entire blogs, newspaper articles or even books?

Virginia Messina R.D. recently debunked the nutritional misinformation of the latest iteration of the publicly dramatic, histrionic ex-vegan thing.

In the comment section to Messina’s debunking, some people brought up that a common element in these accounts is how the ex-vegan,…..who always SWEARS that they were “very careful” with their diet,  experienced a rush of energy after eating meat again,  a sense of health, well being, bliss, low taxes, etc.

What I want to know is, where was *my* meatgasm?

I don’t repeat this often, as it isn’t flattering. I went vegetarian when I was 14 as part of a health kick. When I was in college I quit for about 2 years, because I thought eating meat would make me more buff and make me more fit.  Neither happened.  I also didn’t experience any rush of energy or feelings of well being after eating meat again.

Anecdotal accounts are not considered to be legitimate evidence, but I think my anecdotal account should count at least as much ( or as little ) as the anecdotal accounts of the meatgasmic.

Aside from those 2 years  in college it has been over 30 years since I went vegetarian. I’ve been a vegan since the early 1990s. I have none of the cardiovascular issues that run in my family. I take no prescriptions or regular medications of any kind. Many people my age and younger do. The only health issues I have are old sports injuries.   I often get mistaken for being younger than I am.

BTW, another pattern emerging among the meatgasmic  is the claim that eating “naturally” and “sustainably” raised animals is actually better for the environment than eating a vegan diet. You would not know it from the way the book is marketed, but Jonathon Safran Foer in his book “Eating Animals” does a stunning refutation of that argument. Foer did 3 years of research for his book and hired a fact checker to QC what he wrote.

Anyway, if a vegan diet is as deficient as the meatgasmic claim,  why has my health been so good and more importantly:

Where was *MY* meatgasm?

 

Note: everything you need to know to have good health on a vegan diet can be fit on ONE page.

Table Fellowship

I didn’t care much for Jonathon Safran Foer when I first read his book excerpt in the New York Times. That changed when I got to see him speak at a book fair on the National Mall. So much so, I decided to read his book called “Eating Animals”.

He is a writer. He uses words as skillfully as a surgeon uses a scalpel.

I’m enjoying it so far, especially this one quote in particular ( page 55 ):

Sharing food generates good feeling and creates social bonds. Michael Pollan, who has written as thoughtfully about food as anyone, calls this “table fellowship” and argues that its importance, which I agree is significant, is a vote against vegetarianism. At one level, he’s right.

Let’s assume you’re like Pollan and are opposed to factory-farmed meat. If you’re at the guest end, it stinks not to eat food that was prepared for you, especially (although he doesn’t get into this) when the grounds for refusal are ethical. But how much does it stink? It’s a classic dilemma: How much do I value creating a socially comfortable situation, and how much do I value acting socially responsible? The relative importance of ethical eating and table fellowship will be different in different situations (declining my grandmother’s chicken with carrots is different from passing on microwaved buffalo wings).

More important, though, and what Pollan curiously doesn’t emphasize, is that attempting to be a selective omnivore is a much heavier blow to table fellowship than vegetarianism. Imagine an acquaintance invites you to dinner. You could say, “I’d love to come. And just so you know, I’m a vegetarian.” You could also say, “I’d love to come. But I only eat meat that is produced by family farmers.” Then what do you do? You’ll probably have to send the host a web link or list of local shops to even make the request intelligible, let alone manageable. This effort might be well-placed, but it is certainly more invasive than asking for vegetarian food (which these days requires no explanation). The entire food industry (restaurants, airline and college food services, catering at weddings) is set up to accommodate vegetarians. There is no such infrastructure for the selective omnivore.

And what about being at the host end of a gathering? Selective omnivores also eat vegetarian fare, but the reverse is obviously not true. What choice promotes greater table fellowship?