Odi's astoundingly incomplete notes

I have gone vegetarian since the beginning of the year. I have stopped drinking milk. Although I am not avoiding milk altogether: I still consume milk as an ingredient (like butter in cookies), eat yogurt and cheese. I have stopped eating egs. Although I am not avoiding eggs strictly: I still eat cake, pasta that contains eggs, but not an omelett. I only eat fish when by the sea. The sea is an 8 hour's drive away.

Why? Several reasons:

• health: meat is the most unhealthy food in the long term (obesity, cancer, heart diseases, diabetes, rheumatic diseases, osteoporosis)
• disgust: I work next to the slaughterhouse. Sometimes the smell is unbearable. The screams of these animals tear your heart apart.
• ethics: animals are no longer born - they are produced (sounds familiar? Like that scene in The Matrix?). Industrialized killing of lives for their meat. Mass breeding. Each about year 10 times as many animals are killed than people live on earth.
• sustainability: meat is horribly inefficient use of resources. Farmland vs. grazing land. Crops for animal food. Rainforest for farmland. Water. CO₂. Methane. Dung. Name any environment problem.
• fairness: the 3rd world produces the food for the animals of the rich instead their own food. Most people on earth have a nearly vegan diet, but most of earth's resources are used to produce meat.

Since I have moved in together with Annika (who is a vegan vegetarian), my cooking has become almost completely vegan these days. Mostly out of practical reasons and respect. But it's also a very interesting experience. And I haven't missed a thing, I must say. Our meals have always been delicious.

So what do I actually eat? This is what this new catgory in this blog is going to be about. Random facts surrounding a vegetarian/vegan diet. Random recipies or notes of what I eat. Random experiences I make while becoming a vegetarian.

posted on 2010-05-10 20:45 CEST in Food | 1 comments | permalink