not eating animal X

[mellowtigger]

I have a question more about eating than "healthy" eating, I suppose, but it is heavy on the "diet management" aspect.  Are there foods that you will not eat as an omnivore? 

I've finally taken the time to write down my thinking on this matter.  Please critique if you find flaws in my reasoning.
http://mellowtigger.dreamwidth.org/210437.html

Comments

[mellowtigger]

All voluntary restriction diets are arbitrary. Ultimately, there is no free resource of any kind throughout the universe. Valuation of one kind of resource over another requires a subjective evaluation, which is arbitrary when viewed from anyone else's perspective.

A quote that has long influenced my thoughts comes from within a science fiction story by David Brin. Even this piece, however, was written before the meme became a popular abstraction. Not even thought is "free" because memes require energy to fuel the mind that perpetuates them. It's a fictional scroll of religion/philosophy/science from a pan-galactic civilization that states:

"The right to live is tentative. Material things are limited, though the mind is free. Of protein, phosphorus, nor even energy is there ever enough to slake all hungers. Therefore, show not affront when diverse beings vie over what physically exists. Only in thought can there be true generosity. So let thought be the focus of your world."

In my case, I come from a lineage of humans with life-threatening digestive problems resulting from the grains and beans that vegetarians promote. My great-uncle had a colostomy because of the large holes in his intestine. My mother is now on a medically required gluten free diet because of the small holes in her intestine. My own gut problems have continued for more than a decade. I intend to adopt an "anti-vegetarian" (as I affectionately refer to primal) diet to delay my own ill health.

Your "food" is my "poison", vastly oversimplified. Since I have to eat more meat against my own natural inclination, then I intend for it be the healthiest and least objectionable meat that I can find. Uncaged, local as possible, not given hormones or medications, and not from animals that could mourn their fate as food.

[mellowtigger]

p.s. Oh, and another related thought. As Daniel Quinn makes clear in his Ishmael books, humanity's crimes against nature began long ago with the invention of agriculture.

Pulling a weed to plant a seed teaches us that we get to choose which species must live and which must die for our benefit. The other crimes follow naturally from that first simple garden.

[raze]

Thanks for the insight on why you've chosen what you are referring to as a primal diet; I didn't mean to assume or insult, which is why I noted that I do know some folks have quite legitimate reasons for pursuing as much - I only figured I would offer a bit of caution since I have known folks who have followed such a path for reasons as oversimplified as "wanting to eat like a cave man!" and have wound up quite ill as a consequence.

I do agree that all restriction is ultimately arbitrary. I just think that while you can quantify things like desertification, decline in fishery populations, incidences of specific food borne pathogens in given foods, statistical frequency of human rights abuses, etc. it's a little less cut and dry to try and focus on something like the potential mental state of another species in a food production system. That's not to say there isn't science there as well - I just think that it's hard to stick a pin in how much a pig suffers mentally compared to a dolphin, and thus a dodgy thing to base an ethical argument on. At any rate, that's just my opinion; you asked that people give input on what you'd posted.

Re: no resource being free, oh, absolutely and an excellent point. I am keenly, perhaps excessively aware of as much - I do not consider veganism to a guilt free or death free diet like many of my perhaps more idealistic comrades are. The reality of all consumption is that it requires resources, and those resources came from somewhere and at the cost of something or someone else. Conscientious eating is enough to drive a person mad. I'm glad to hear, at any rate, that you're carefully considering the SOURCES of your meat - if nothing else it will definitely benefit your health in the long run.

*de-lurks*

[rydra_wong]

Just wanted to mention that there's a little comm for people interested in primal/paleo eating, playeatsleep. It's quiet but could use some love.