Change #1

It happened innocently enough. 

There was no motive behind my purchase other than I was out of reading material and needed a new book.  I mean, I had heard a few people talk about it in the past and they raved about how it radically changed them for the better. The topic didn't fall within my normally sought after genres that I bury myself in but, still ... I picked it up off the shelf even though I cringed at the crude and brash title. 

Skinny (insert the letter that comes after A and before C) itch. 

It was the subtitle that got me (like they always do). 

"A no-nonsense, tough-love guide for savvy girls who want to stop eating crap and start looking fabulous".

Ok, I do! 

 I bought it.  

I saw me in the subtitle.  

Don't hand me "soft" and "easy" but give it to me straight!  

It did ... and I will never be the same again.

Here's what happened.  I read the book and within hours was completely horrified at the way I've been eating or, to be more exact, at the nonexistent attention that I have given to what I've been eating. No, I'm not talking protein, carbs and fat content here or diet mamby-shmamby... I am talking - where did the food come from in the first place and what is the process of how it gets to my dinner plate.  

The book has a lot of spicy language with some funny jabs at the reader to keep it pretty sassy.  But, the big deal for me, was the book made me stop and really think about the statement - you are what you eat.  And, I realized I was eating crap!

 

So, I've made one radical change, Change #1, with a few others up my sleeve in the upcoming weeks and I'll keep you posted.  

Hang on to your forks and knives, friends, because .... (light drum roll, please)

I am now a vegetarian.  

Or, as Mr. Smart Guy laughed and said, "veg-a-freak-0"! 

Here's why and I've listed the page numbers of the book if ya wanna check it out for yourself:

• The USDA does NOT protect the population with pure motives and is untrustworthy.  "Many high-ranking staff members at the USDA were employed by, or are otherwise affiliated with, the meat and dairy industries.  And if the group responsible for the safety of meat, poultry and egg products is run by people from the same  industries they're supposed to be protecting us from...well, that would be a conflict of interest.  And it is. An enormous, ridiculous, outrageous, catastrophic conflict of interest." (p93)  
• The EPA is allowing us to eat an insecticidal protein deemed unsafe for human consumption.  "But the Environmental Protection Agency allows the use of StarLink for livestock feed.  Let humans eat the animals who ate the corn?  That's safe? Duh." (p110)
• The meat we put on our table most likely came from a slaughterhouse. "Humane protocol calls for animals to be "stunned" before they are slaughtered.  For cows, this means getting a metal bolt shot into the skull and then retracted.  When done properly, using working equipment, this renders the cow unconscious.  But time is money, and slaughterhouses operate at lighting speeds, some killing one animal every three seconds.  Because thousands of frightened, struggling cows are not easy to stun, it is extremely common for a "stunner" to miss his mark.  Panicked hogs, also difficult to "hit", are stunned with an electric device." (p66)   The book goes on to explain the disturbing "bleed rail", hogs thrown into 140-degree scalding water to remove the hair from their bodies, and chickens with their beaks literally chopped off their faces so that won't peck each other and workers because of stress.
• You are what you eat.  "Assuming you started with a healthy animal (highly unlikely), you've now eaten hormones, pesticides, steroids, antibiotics, fear, grief, and rage.  You are what you eat." (P77)
• Antibiotics are not an appealing appetizer. "Half of the antibiotics made in the United States each year are administered to farm animals, causing antibiotic resistance in the humans who eat them.  A study at the University of California-Berkely linked eating beef to urinary tract infections (UTIs) in women.  It just so happens that the most common infectious disease in women is UTIs.  You do the math. (p45)  

... and there's so much more information in the book!  I know some of it's pretty gross...but I hope you'll think about what you're eating today.  

Remember, you are what you eat.

Signed with love,

~ a one-week vegetarian ~