First Post

So, here's where I am at this moment in time, which will be the first blog I've ever written. As my knowledge grows about how our bodies are affected by what we eat, and about the detrimental effects of the industrial model of agriculture on our health and environment, I feel emboldened to risk sharing my opinion with the hope that other people are as intrigued as I am, and maybe as enraged as I am, about the atrocious lies that we've been told about what is healthy.  I am referring to the industries of grains, soy, sugars and oils - that which goes into every packaged product in the grocery store (even in the natural & organic section).

I know I haven't read enough or gathered enough data - there is a multitude out there beyond the scope of my brain or this blog - but the logic behind what I have read is profound, and it's changing my life.  I'm just now finishing an astounding book called "The Vegetarian Myth" by Lierre Keith, which chronicles the author's twenty-odd year journey of becoming a vegan and gradually, through self-revelations, reversing that decision to eat meat again.  ANYONE who is a vegan/vegetarian or thinking of becoming one should read this book.

I have never been a strict vegetarian.  I grew up in the Midwest eating meat and potatoes, and since college I have taken the admonition to eat my veggies seriously.  I love an all-vegetable meal, but in truth, I never feel as satisfied or as nourished as I do with a drumstick.  Why is that?  My body responds to eating meat with a feeling of pleasure which I don't feel when I haven't had meat for more than a couple of days.  I used to attribute it to my singular experience in life, to an unalterable disposition that I must have to need meat.  I told myself that because of my upbringing my body was used to eating meat.  If I didn't eat meat I felt weak, tired, and always hungry, so it must just be my body type.  I still found myself, however, listening to the voices of the mega-food-corporations about what I should be eating, namely whole grains, low-fat, low-cholesterol, etcetera.  I was confused because what my body was telling me contradicted what the food industry was telling me.

After reading The Vegetarian Myth, I no longer see myself as an exception to the rule of eating a vegetarian diet.  Keith explains in a section of her book on the brain that soy (and all its processed forms) contains a serotonin inhibitor, which drastically decreases the sensations of pleasure normally accompanied by eating.  I won't go into the details of the chemical interactions between soy and the human body here, but I hope to expound and elucidate upon this and all of the mentioned subjects in this blog, and I hope that many of you will join in the discussion. 

Please understand that this is a discussion, not a lecture, and thus we need to extend grace to each other if anything is found to be erroneous.  Every person has a unique perspective.  Counter-arguments are highly encouraged, yet respect, empathy and compassion are mandatory.  Let the debate begin!