Intro, & why vegetarian?

[Guest guest]

I live in Oregon well outside Portland with my Canadian-import spouse

and her three cats. We've been eating vegetarian (of the ovo-lacto +

fish variety) since July. She's been an on-again off-again vegetarian

her whole adult life, and with all the tasy Asian cooking she does,

well... it made sense.

 

I kinda came to vegetarianism as a " Why not? " . We hadn't been eating a

lot of meat, and tending toward chicken anyway for some time. As

summer got underway, I was delighted at the barrage of wholesome and

tasty vegetables and fruits, and wanted to eat lots of them.

 

Soy-based alternatives to meat have come a long way -- there are now

alternatives not only for hamburger, but chicken and sausage -- the

taste and texture of chicken and sausage are slightly different, but

as good as the real thing. Mushroom-, legume-, and nut-based

alternatives are even more tasty -- I've been having what they call

field roast on sandwiches. I've always enjoyed curried lentils and

beans and my body processes them much better when eaten regularly

(occasional use makes me hard to be around). I am liking the taste and

uses of tofu. I've replaced most of my use of milk with soy milk. I

still eat some milk products (esp. yogurt and cheese) and eggs, and

once or twice a month fish or seafood -- but I've cut out the rest of

the mammals and bird products.

 

One of my friends says that he's primarily vegetarian because he

wouldn't eat anything he wouldn't be okay raising and harvesting

himself (kill, process, eat). Others have said they don't want to eat

anything with a face. While I partially resonate with these

perspectives, I think I'm coming at it from more of a whole world

perspective... now that I'm driving longer distances in my

gas-swilling, oil-burning car, and I'm maintaining a woodland estate,

I wanted to reduce somewhere -- in this case, the amount of productive

farmland it takes to feed me. I pay more attention to what I am

eating, and this should also have long-term health benefits -- already

I've found weight management a bit easier.

 

I don't miss the meat tastes much. I've left myself an out, too: since

I count myself as an elective (not militant) vegetarian, I can always

allow myself to have something meaty once in a while if it really is

something special, and I won't freak out if I have something that is

flavored with chicken broth or the like. Interestingly, I've found

myself uninterested in 'going back' to meat. Vegetarianism, for me, is

more about what I choose to eat right now, which is yummy, tasty

vegetable matter.

 

OpalMirror = James