last night i finally sat down to watch an oprah show that i pvr'd last week about "the vegan challenge". i forced the hubby to watch it with me and it was informative. since last year i'd been thinking about adding more vegetarian/vegan meals to our menu in an effort to be healthier and environmentally-friendly. there was one particular segment in the show that really affected me. lisa ling went to visit a cattle slaughterhouse and you essentially see the whole process of how a cow goes from farm to grocery store. call me a softie, but i really couldn't help but cry through the whole part. if i had to hunt my own food, i would most definitely be a vegetarian. food expert michael pollen was on the show as well and made a comment along the lines of "if you're not willing to know how your food gets to your plate, maybe you shouldn't be eating it." i don't know that i agree with it entirely, but i guess it holds a kernel of truth to it. with the exception of when we eat out, we now buy only antibiotic-free/hormone-free meat. i'd say the drive to make this change was for our son. i would love to be able to find a local farm to buy meat from, but being that we're in toronto, it might be a trek to get to one. if anyone knows of any, please let me know.
i'd really like to try this 7-day vegan challenge (or even possibly the 21-day challenge), but i think it would be really hard if the hubby wasn't on board with it. i tend to throw myself into things full-throttle and then quickly burn out. i guess the trick will be to slowly introduce things and see what works for our family. if eating more vegan meals would give me a ton more energy, i'd be all for that! but it's also been a particularly rough week with the kiddo being sick. :o)
here's a link to a list of vegan substitutes as recommended by "The Veganist" Kathy Freston:
http://www.oprah.com/health/Kathy-Frestons-Vegan-Alternatives
2 comments:
My friend was telling me about this episode, and she also bawled through the farm visit! She said that they asked a lot of slaughterhouses if they could film, and only one said yes!
Good luck with the vegetarian/vegan recipes. I have a tofu cookbook if you want it! :)
yeah and that one only said yes because the methods they used are considered humane. apparently it's one of the cleanest ones too and most of the others are *a lot* worse. *shudder* i wanted to watch "food inc." as well, but i don't know if i can do it. i watched another oprah where they visited a chicken farm and bawled through that episode as well.
thanks for the offer for the cookbook. any particularly yummy recipes you'd recommend? i've got a block of organic tofu sitting in my fridge (i've never cooked tofu before!) and i've been wondering what exactly to do with it other than douse it in hoisin sauce. haha
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