AN IMPERFECT VEGETARIAN MANIFESTO: It\u2019s been about 18 year now since I stopped eating animal flesh. Well, mostly stopped. At first I didn\u2019t give up eating fish, but about 10 years ago I did. Admittedly, I still eat clams sometimes; clams don\u2019t seem to have any more intellectual life than a head of broccoli. But I had to give up on shrimp, as they have eyes and move around and appear to have more of a social life than I do! We all draw a line somewhere. I\u2019m also still eating things with milk and eggs in them, but I\u2019m trying to minimize that. For example, I recently discovered soy yogurt at the local stores (I\u2019ll do a review soon), so I\u2019ve reduced my moo juice intake a bit.<\/p>\n
I will also admit to using leather products (although I have a pair of non-leather dress shoes that are pretty good, and I plan to buy more so long as Payless keeps selling them). Also, I\u2019ve been in social and business settings where I needed to relate to a group of carnivores and thus decided not to make a scene when offered their kind of food. Chowing down together is an extremely important social ritual and when you\u2019ve got important business to do with the unenlightened majority, sometimes you\u2019ve gotta swallow your ethics. Today I have a job where I don\u2019t need to socialize very much. I otherwise live a fairly reclusive life, so I haven\u2019t had to munch on any rubber chicken or bland beef lately. Thank goodness.<\/p>\n
Yea, I\u2019ve generally lost my taste for meat. On those rare occasions when I\u2019ve reunited my digestive tract with the dead flesh of some poor animal, I didn\u2019t feel any urge to go back to that kind of eating. The problem with meat is that it\u2019s too easy to prepare and consume. Admittedly, meat is a \u201ccomplete\u201d food, having most of the stuff we need to stay alive (but not necessarily<\/span> in a healthy<\/span> fashion). Just add a little starch, say a piece of bread or some fries from Mickey D\u2019s, and you can keep on digging ditches until the sun goes down. Then add some extra fat and sugar, say a slab of cheese on top of that burger and some ice cream for dessert, and most people are in culinary heaven.<\/p>\n The thing about being a vegetarian is that you\u2019re forced<\/span> to work harder to get the right mix of nutrients. But in doing that kind of work, you learn to care about two very important things: taste<\/span> and health<\/span>. You start learning that there are other ways to have a nice dining experience without consuming a lot of fat, oil, salt and sugar \u2013 the four horsemen of the cardiovascular apocalypse. You start appreciating the textures and scents of a wide variety of grains and fruits and nuts and vegetables and legumes and spices; then you learn to combine and transform them in wonderful ways using various cooking techniques. Yea, it takes more time; I know that most people today are pretty darn busy. But the truth is that everyone makes time for what they feel is important. And if having wonderful culinary experiences every day and a healthy body to boot is important, then vegetarianism is the ticket.<\/p>\n Yea, I know that the big craze today is the Atkins<\/span> thing; eat meat to lose weight; kill the carbs<\/span>. Well, there are still a lot of arguments and disagreements regarding the wisdom of that proposition. But the bottom line is this: if you had followed the vegetarian philosophy all along, you probably wouldn\u2019t be so desperate right now to lose weight. The enlightened vegetarian mixes carbs and proteins and spices in the right proportions so as to satiate the need for savor, and in so doing limits the role of fats, oils, sugars and salt. The carnivore seeks to satisfy the soul by injecting large quantities of such gook into the bland \u201cmeat and potatoes\u201d at the center of his or her plate. Is it any big surprise that a whole lot of Americans are overweight these days?<\/p>\n There are a number of good arguments for vegetarianism. Reduction of cruelty to animals<\/span> is the usual lead-off batter for the V-Team. Sure, we humans have got a whole lot of other pressing issues involving cruelty amidst our own species, but I argue that concern for the feelings of our fellow critters would help us to deal with all breeds of violence and depravity. The second argument is that vegetarian eating would make us all healthier. Given the crisis of spiraling health care costs, you\u2019d think this argument would make people stop and think. But admittedly, there is a creepy, narcissistic side to it; recall that Hitler was a vegetarian for purposes of \u201cbody purity\u201d.<\/p>\n The third theory \u2013 actually, pretty well documented \u2013 is that vegetarianism is a more socially efficient, less costly way to feed people. Perhaps in the old days, going out in the woods and hunting turkeys and deer was a cheap way of feeding hungry mouths. But in modern industrialized societies, you\u2019ve got to feed and shelter the chickens and pigs and cows for months or years, give them antibiotics, slaughter and skin them, then refrigerate and transport their flesh for hundreds of miles. It costs a lot less per calorie or per gram of protein to grow soybeans, oats, kale, eggplant, etc. and transport them to your local supermarket. That means less use of crude oil and other energy resources, and less pollution. If everyone went vegetarian, we\u2019d have more breathing room in terms of energy demand<\/span> (as I write this, oil has gone over $55 per barrel). As such, a bit less of our national income would go to the Saudis<\/span>, who quietly filter some of that money to our terrorist enemies. Our environment<\/span> would also get a break.<\/p>\n But the fourth batter \u2013 the clean-up hitter \u2013 is taste<\/span>! When you go vegetarian, you\u2019re going to enjoy your food more. I know that it seems hard to believe; what could be better than a dripping T-bone on a smoky barbecue grill or a bacon swiss double cheeseburger, or a big browned turkey with sausage stuffing at the center of the family table on Thanksgiving, or a full rack at a ribs joint? Yea, meat has it\u2019s peak experiences. But face it — on a day-by-day basis, most meat dishes are rather bland and uninspired. More meatloaf, more stew, more baked chicken, some pork chops, another burger, some cold cuts, frozen fillets … When you\u2019re a vegetarian, you\u2019ve always got a new spice to try with your black bean soup and cornbread, always have a different kind of rice to experiment with (maybe with lentils and zucchini), always have a new twist to the basic pasta-and-sauce duo, always have a new stuffing to use for acorn squash (although the basic one with apples and bread and walnuts is pretty hard to beat).<\/p>\n Back in 1985, when my ex-wife told me that it was time for us to stop eating meat, I immediately<\/span> went out and bought three packs of chicken breasts and stuffed them into the freezer. I ultimately went along with her in an unsuccessful attempt to keep the marriage going; and in my heart, I knew she was right. But I never imagined that cooking and eating would become more exciting and satisfying once we forswore the culinary pleasures of the flesh. This is what the 97% of Americans who still base their diets around meat and fish need to know \u2013 not only will the world<\/span> be better if you eat your veggies, but you yourself<\/span> will be happier when meal time comes round!<\/p>\n Let me leave you with this imperfectly vegetarian treat: a recipe for orange muffins.<\/p>\n 1 cup flour Just mix it all up in a bowl, get out your muffin pan, coat the pan with oil, fill the cups about 3 \/ 4, and bake at 400 degrees for maybe 15 to 20 minutes. Makes about 10 or 12. These are really good for dessert or as a snack, or even for breakfast. Better than another plate of soggy bacon!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" AN IMPERFECT VEGETARIAN MANIFESTO: It\u2019s been about 18 year now since I stopped eating animal flesh. Well, mostly stopped. At first I didn\u2019t give up eating fish, but about 10 years ago I did. Admittedly, I still eat clams sometimes; clams don\u2019t seem to have any more intellectual life than a head of broccoli. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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1 cup oatmeal flour (put oatmeal in a food processor)
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1 \/ 2 cup sugar
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2 teaspoons baking powder
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1 egg white (again, I\u2019m imperfect \u2013 try to at least buy free-ranging hen eggs)
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1 \/ 2 cup soy yogurt
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1 \/ 4 cup plus an additional tablespoon, canola oil
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1 \/ 4 cup orange juice (or orange juice concentrate, if you like it really orangey)
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1 \/ 2 cup golden raisins
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1 \/ 2 cup crumbled walnuts
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a little bit of grated rind from an orange or lemon, maybe 1 \/ 2 teaspoon<\/p>\n