February 02, 2011

Food

Yesterday's Oprah show focused on veganism. I found it fascinating that so many of her employees were willing to try a vegan diet for a week (no meat, poultry, fish, dairy or eggs). Although watching the section on Cargill Meat Solutions made me squirm in its depiction of animals headed to slaughter and processing into the packaged meat we buy in stores, the comment from the Cargill general manager, about treating the animals with dignity at every stage, was very thought-provoking. I don't know how the kosher slaughterhouses stack up next to the Cargill model, but I hope better than others.


I try to eat with intention, and enjoy a diet of mostly whole foods, since I like to cook from scratch. The only packages I tend buy are flour, sugar, cereal, pasta, and bread (there very few boxes in my pantry), and I do buy whole grain products. But I enjoy eating meat, poultry, dairy, eggs and fish. Author Michael Pollan's comment on the show, that we should eat with intention and a care for where our meat etc. is sourced, resonated with me. For some time now I have been buying only cage-free eggs and organic milk.

If more Americans could be persuaded to eat a whole foods diet, I believe we would have a great impact on the way meat is processed in our country and be healthier as a people.

3 comments:

  1. Excellent post, Jill. Today on my website I posted a link to Mark Bittman's Food Manifesto for the Future which addresses just this issue.

    http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/a-food-manifesto-for-the-future/

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  2. Michael Pollan is a fantastic and knowledgable writer - I highly recommend his articles and books as a rational and balancing viewpoint ('Good Calories/Bad Calories' talks about cancer quite a bit, and is eye-opening). I think Bittman's Manifesto (and I love Bittman's recipe books, btw) is a good start - but I do have problems with his position on taxing 'unhealthful' foods, on account of the current faddish thinking re what is 'healthful'... the FDA's recommended low-fat, high-carb diet may be healthy for about a third of the population, but it is death to many of the rest of us.

    And since they and the Dept. of Agriculture are the ones who are likely to be put in charge of deciding what is 'healthful', that means that (organic, grass-fed) meat will be taxed, raw dairy will be even harder to get than it is currently, and GMO foods will still rule the day and be called 'healthy'.

    Very interesting and thoughtful post!!

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  3. Very nice post. I happened by your blog through Debby at http://lifesfunnylikethat.blogspot.com/ .

    I watched a documentary on Netflix called Food Matters. It's amazing the effect eating Natural and Organic foods can have on your body. But this documentary spoke of Vitamins/Nutrients curing diseases. If you can find this documentary and watch it....I think you will like it.

    Gina
    http://motoxmom72.blogspot.com/

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