It has always been a curiosity of mine to see how a diet change would effect the way I feel on a daily basis. I have recently been diagnosed as gluten and dairy intolerant - so you can imagine that most of my life has been a bloaty, ill and ,sometimes extremely, painful mess. You would think I would have blamed the food I was eating faster, but due to suffering from anxiety, it was easily blamed as the cause. That was until I was finally able to seek the help of a dietitian, who gave me a full diagnosis and helped me along the way to feeling a little better. However I still wasn't entirely happy with the food I was eating.
I was vegetarian for 9 years of my life, and for a while it has been something I have wanted to return to. Due to being vegetarian from birth, my body cannot break down meats such as lamb, pork or duck - they make me very ill. Part of my anxiety is caused by food preparation - especially when it comes to meat. I will not go into detail of "why" right now, but for hours after consuming meat I'm constantly thinking about what I've just eaten and whether it was cooked properly. This worry consumes my daily life and exhausts me.
Since beginning to research in detail vegetarianism and veganism, I also found myself wondering if the meat I was eating had been ethically sourced. I have always been a lover of animals, and from a very young age have cared for several pets. Animals have no way of voicing how they are feeling other than changing their behavior. They cannot just tell you they feel unwell, or are in pain, or that they just know something is wrong and need to go to the vet. The thought an animal is suffering with no way of voicing their pain, and is being put in that uncomfortable situation to contribute to consumer items that humans don't really need, stirs up such anger and upset in me that it is hard to explain. Food is not the only thing animals are exploited and used for. The cosmetic industry has not escaped my research, and neither has fashion - these will be covered in future blogs. Yes there are of course different ways to source meat, but for me, not being able to prove that meat or eggs came from an ethical source is enough to put me off.
And it is not just the animals that benefit from humans choosing to live a vegetarian or vegan life. Planet Earth does also. Global Warming can no longer be denied, and everyone should start thinking about their carbon footprint... veganism and vegetarianism can help reduce yours. In order for an animal to reach your plate it takes land, fuel, water - a tonne of waste.
"If we really want to reduce the human impact on the environment, the simplest and cheapest thing anyone can do is to eat less meat. Behind most of the joints of beef or chicken on our plates is a phenomenally wasteful, land- and energy-hungry system of farming that devastates forests, pollutes oceans, rivers, seas and air, depends on oil and coal, and is significantly responsible for climate change" (The Guardian, 2016).
In conclusion - I get to reduce my carbon footprint, eat knowing that the food I am eating has not contributed to unnecessary pain and an unfulfilled, miserable life and I get to feel much better than I ever have before. No more bloating and feeling spodgy. Personally, I feel like that is a win, win. And my bunnies love all the extra veggies in the fridge <3
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| They love just watching they world go by. |
Resources used in this blog:
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/jul/18/vegetarianism-save-planet-environment
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