food and edible landscapes

Let me say this – there is no single diet that is perfect for everyone, so lets take the pressure off… we can all get along! Personally I’m not fond of those labels anyway, because they can tend to separate people.  People may need different things based on their own bodies, constitutions, genetics, health issues, climate etc.   Not only that, different circumstances and times come into play. We may need something at one period in our life, and a different thing at another time. It can be subject to many things.

There are cultures that have thrived on whale and seal blubber, and others on fresh fruits. So, you can’t really say that one way of eating is the only way. Having personally experienced tremendous transformation and continuing health through sustaining a plant-based diet,  I can surely understand the temptation to think (and preach) that eating animal products is unhealthy or wrong. But that only alienates and isn’t really completely accurate- at least not in absolutes. For some, and in appropriate amounts, it can still be a healthful part of one’s diet.  I will qualify this and say that I do have opinions on what kind of meats and how much of them will serve or detract from a person’s life, as well as impact all life here on earth. 

Remember this – real food is that which is closest to the earth and in its natural form.  You may or may not know that most animal products (including beef, fish, chicken and dairy…) available in the general marketplace do not make for healthy eating.  (For details on this in regard to all healthy foods, see my guide Food Actually). But good sources can be found, and the more that people demand them, the more they will be made available- hopefully crowding out those which are surely unhealthy for all life on Earth.

I completely support the vegan lifestyle and recognize and can attest to the well-documented studies that prove it’s a healthy diet when done well. However, as with an omnivorous diet, we need to be careful to look at the broader picture, and even some things we may not have thought of just yet. Some overzealous identified vegans spout about the ravages of meat on the environment- and yes, it’s true that massive amounts of industrialized meat production is highly damaging to the environment.  This is a very well documented fact.   The industrial meat system is also a place that regards animals as mere economic units, and heinous acts are perpetrated on animals every single day as a matter of business practice.   But there is a growing movement and a rebirth of animal husbandry that allows meat animals a good life. I believe that if an animal will be sacrificed for food, then it should be afforded a humane life, at the very least.  Whether you think animals deserve this or not, you would do well to remember that when  you ingest an animal, you ingest all that it has been subject to, good or bad.

Perhaps a more accurate way of describing our diets, at least from a health point of view, would be to describe what we actually do eat, rather than what we do not.

Think about this, without judgment ~some vegetarians and vegans don’t eat meat, but do consistently eat processed foods, sodas, GMOs, refined flours and sugars, with very little vegetables or fruits at all. So that means he or she doesn’t eat animals, but will that diet foster and support their health? Might it be more accurate to call themselves a processivore? Or junkitarian?
And, what about the health of the planet? Not everybody knows that most soy and corn is GMO- genetically modified, and that vast acres of forest and habitat are lost to their production, while leaving the land and soils poisoned and dead…  Yikes!

Some omnivores eat similarly, plus meat, all the time~ is that a healthful way to care for the body? Then there are omnivores that eat moderate amounts of clean, humane animal products, and make vegetables and fruits the larger part of their diet…  Which do you think might offer the most energy and vitality to a person?

Do you see what I’m getting at? It’s big picture balance- in nature, in diet, and humanity. Unity, rather than division. Real food rather than industrial/ processed.  I’d rather help those who eat animal products steer toward consuming really high quality clean, humane products, (and in smaller amounts) while also educating and inspiring them about the tremendous powers of fresh fruits and vegetables, than to bash them for being  ”murderers” and waging eco-assault. To the omnivores~ don’t think a vegan is weak, unhealthy, and radical just because you don’t understand (yet).

We can all give each other space,  look at our own diet, stretch into a little more broad-mindedness… while staying true to our ideals, and still allowing new perspectives to come in if they should serve us. We all have the wonderful privilege of growing, learning, changing, at any time. 

Maybe what we are actually putting in our bodies, minds and hearts… is even more important than what we are not.