I haven't really written again in a while since it seems what to eat for breakfast or lunch or dinner is not an exciting depressing adventure. I know where to get meat-free dishes and what to get to avoid dairy. Not exciting. I guess I am still not willing to throw a fit over dishes that appear to be all animal-product free but totally probably contain some sort of animal ingredient. Like a veggie burger on a kaiser roll or a roll that has the top that's shiny. Pretty sure that's egg wash.
One thing I figure out is that I am better off without dairy. I love cheese. Whole Foods' cheese department was my candy store. So many cheese, from so many sources and countries. All different shapes, consistancies and deliciousness. However after no longer stopping to get pizza about 2x a week when neither me nor boyfriend want to cook dinner noticebly made me feel better the next morning at work. My stomach doesn't make weird growly noises. It took a while to notice but I don't feel bloated anymore. I didn't eat too much cheese anyways, but not having it definately helped. I knew I was lactose intolerent but could always eat cheese with minimal issues. So I do have to admit, no cheese has been pretty nice on my body.
Which kind of brings me to another issue. We went out to a restaurant for dinner. There were actually a lot of nice choices for dinner tapas-style including a vegetarian palleya - amazingly delicious with that crunchy bottom. However, I decided to eat a bit of shrimp as it was part of one of the dishes. And then it kind of dawned on me... I really don't feel that much remorse eating things pretty low on the food chain like shrimp. I decided to think about that a bit - vegan vs. vegetarian vs. ... pescaterian (?) - hey there is a term for everyone!
I don't think anymore being a vegetarian is that much more morally sound that eating meat for me. The conditions that milk cows and chickens live in is just as bad as the conditions that the animals raised for meat live in. Eating a product coming out of a tortured animal doesn't seem to be any different than eating that animal, at least ethically in my mind. If one goes by suffering as their standard for their dietary choices, then eating meat and consuming dairy has similar level of suffering. And if my lack of farm knowledge serves me correctly, milk cows and egg chickens eventually end up meat anyways. So after my 3 months of veganism is over, I don't think that I can be vegetarian and argue that this choice reduces animal suffering. Since animals still have to be fed and bred it doesn't reduce impact on the environment. And using a rational argument for better health - at least for me, I would be less healthy if I started eating dairy, even at small amounts that I was eating it before.
So the fish... That left me conflicted. I think our ceviche had shrimp and crab with amazing vinegrette. Is eating shrimp better or worse then eating cheese? Actually, both of those things make me slightly ... well... gassy... But rationally/morally - how would they compare? Few people would argue that shrimp mental capacities are on par of those with sheep or cows or even chickens. But in a busy urban existence where homemade food would be preferable but practically sometimes is impossible... is eating shrimp/crab/fish/oysters for a nutrition boost such a bad idea?
One vegan claims oysters are vegan and environment friendly.
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2010/04/consider_the_oyster.html
If we look at farming today and if one doesn't have constant access to small farm raised crops, all our vegan staples come from giant farms usually from far away. How many animals, considered pests, were killed off to bring us that harvest? Someone had to gather all those soybeans. Someone had to gather all that corn and wheat. Someone had to make it into a product vegans integrate into their diets - tofu, fake meat, seitan, wheat gluten. Does animal death in harvesting of such product get into the equation?
And of course I'm asking not to be an ass but really to measure animal suffering vs. nutritional benefits of different foods.
Measuring suffering of something that has a really foreign nervous system is quite hard. Many people seem to say that any response to stimuli indicates consciousness - but that's faulty reasoning as sunflowers and most plants respond to sunlight by growing towards it - plants respond to certain stimuli as well.
Well that brought me to the website mentioned below... So what label would I have to carry? I like all aspects of vegan and I want to eat fish once in a while. I agree with the argument in a pro-oyster vegan - getting all the B-12 vitamins from an oyster rather than a process vitamin capsule made in a factory that probably produces waste and uses fossil fuels is not that much morally superior option than sucking down an oyster with some lemon. That plastic bottle the vitamins come in will take a while to recycle.
And then I figured out what I was dreading - the explanations. Since less people heard about the trendy pescaterians I would have to go into details about not eating dairy or eggs but eating fish, since pescaterian implies the fish but doesn't exclude dairy. I would have to explain that I don't gorge on fish every chance I get and eat it sometimes to get vitamins and some enjoyment. Sometimes it's the only "vegetarian" dish on the menu. Sometimes you are too f*cking tired to make anything and frozen fish/shrimp is the most filling and quickest option. Sometimes you don't feel like fish at all just eat veggie salads. It doesn't mean that I eat fish every single time I see fish. That kind of thing...
The ungodly amount of labels one can call oneself ranging from sexual life to fashion sense to food choices is truly amazing. On one hand I am sure it can build a sense of community and on the other it's just a pain in the ass and an excuse for self-absorbed people to feel good. "You are special, just like everyone else" totally comes to mind.
All the possible dietary nicknames to call yourself
http://veganism-l.blogspot.com/2012/03/like-lacto-versus-ovo-versus.html
