^ In the comments to Hank's video, I saw someone who identified as "flexitarian", which--although not recognized by spellcheck--I'm assuming is closer to what you, Alex, have struggled to communicate to your family. There are vegetarians who occasionally eat meat. There are non-vegetarians who occasionally eat vegetarian meals. People are naturally omnivorous (and I personally think it's pointless to deny that), some people just lean more to the herbi/carni sides of the spectrum. And that's fine. The world isn't black and white, good and evil, Muggles and Death Eaters, carnivores and vegetarians, you get the idea.
However, I am going to try going lunchetarian for a month.* More than that, though, I'm actually going to eat vegetables. (Starting tomorrow. See below.) Because there are plenty of vegetarian meals that don't involve vegetables at all. (If the cards are played right, technically vegetarian food can be pretty unhealthy.)
What I had for lunch today:
1. Pita bread with hummus (roasted garlic flavor)
2. A few miniature pickles (kosher dill)
3. A can of Coke (regular)
(This was even vegan, whooo. I could never really be a vegan, though. Cheese is just so good.)
Pickles, while still strictly speaking are vegetables, are like the salt-and-vinegar-mutant-half-siblings of actual vegetables. I've always been more of a fruit person** than a vegetable person, and I've always figured that this difference is like the difference between cat people and dog people; no real difference exists, and they serve the same purpose. Rationally, of course, I know that they contain different nutrients and things and because of this I'm going to try to implement change in my life.
Footnotes:
* This is vaguely cheater-y of me, though, because it is now summer and I tend to sleep until late-morning, making the lunch hours my breakfast hours. I really dislike having to eat a large or even moderately sized meal soon after I wake up, so I tend to just graze on things. (. . .like a dainty little gazelle. "Graze" is such a weird word.)
** Excluding avocados. I hate avocados. I despise the taste, texture, and color of them. They remind me of baby vomit (whenever I make a comparison like this, one or both of my parents cleverly point out that I have never actually tasted the thing to which I am making the comparison. Hopefully you can understand the metaphor.); they are my nemesis. Like peanut butter is to Alex. (Do you mind if I ask why? I'm very pro-PB, and it boggles my mind to see someone so vehemently opposed to it. Unless you're deathly allergic to peanuts or something.)
2 comments:
It's interesting how you say that people are naturally omnivorous because there's actually a theory out there that humans are naturally meant to be herbivores, we've just sort of twisted the rules. There's some good support for it, although I definitely don't support it all the way, especially without a lot more strong evidence, but I definitely DO think that we're at least supposed to eat a lot less meat than we usually do.
Anyhoo, I support your efforts. :) Vegetarian, vegan, or straight-up meat lover, healthy diets = good. Agree with you regarding peanut butter, also. (Side note: WHY are so many people allergic to peanuts now? It's SO tragic! I'm not even joking!)
As a child, I hated peanut butter on principle. Like some kids hate broccoli just from looking at it? I detested peanut butter for its smell. So for about thirteen years, I stayed away from peanut butter (excluding the sugared up version found in Reese's Peanut Butter Cups).
In my early teenage years, however, I decided to be the bigger person. I wasn't going to let peanut butter beat me and I'm usually pretty open minded about trying new foods so I went for it. I convinced myself to take a bite of my sister's peanut butter bagel and while I wasn't a huge fan, I managed to swallow it. About fifteen minutes later, I had an allergic reactions. Not deathly serious, I didn't go to the hospital or anything (nearly had to but then I got better), but my vision went wonky, my fingers and tongue started tingling and I eventually threw up. Not fun times.
Since then, I've gone back to my stand-off with PB. I recognize that people enjoy it and I'm happy for all of you but I'm afraid PB and I probably won't be friends.
The weird part is that I can eat peanuts and peanut butter in other things (cookies, chocolate, etc.), so I'm not sure if that reaction was a one time thing or what. I don't really know what to think but I'm not to eager to shove more raw PB in my mouth after the first incident. Maybe I'll give it another try someday, see if organic peanut butter makes a different or what. But as I said, my history is not conducive to experimenting.
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