Simple Suggestion #34... Reduce your intake of animal products

Do you know what this is?

Yup, the Canada food guide poster from about 1977. I might still have one somewhere, because I contracted type 1 diabetes a few years later when this poster was still in vogue. It's gone through various incarnations, but according to the food guide, no matter when you studied it, Canadian kids were supposed to eat plenty of dairy and meat products (they're at the top, see?), mainly because Health Canada was heavily lobbied by the meat and dairy boards of the time. There was a lot of emphasis on getting enough protein in our diets.

It's only since I've gotten hooked on Voluntary Simplicity that I've seriously questioned the whole animal products thing. No, maybe a little before that, as store-bought meat products began to disagree with me. These days I can hardly touch processed meats, and non-organically grown animal products keep me up at night. I suspect large scale feedlots and the chemical/medicinal substances used to maintain the health of livestock may have something to do with it. Then again, maybe it's those genetically modified organisms being fed to animals that are getting through and messing with my insides. It could be that I'm developing gall bladder issues as I age? I don't really know, and rather than go through tests, I've simply cut down on animal proteins.

What I do know is that, as a result of living more simply, I've been going out of my way to try a few more vegetarian recipes for the sake of our planet. I'm not exactly an animal rights person, though I feel more and more disgusted when I hear stories about the inhumane conditions in which some animals spend their entire lives. For me, it's more that raising animals requires a higher energy input than raising vegetables. Steers, pigs, chickens and a lot of other living things we eat need to be bred, born, innoculated, housed, fed, maintained, shipped, slaughtered, packaged, shipped again, and purchased before they get to my dinner table (and I've probably missed a few steps there), all of which takes incredible amounts of fossil fuels or electricity in a world that's creating far too many carbon emissions. It doesn't make the animals' lives pleasant, either. But all that my garden veggies require is sun and rain and a little elbow grease in the form of weeding, staking and harvesting, and I've gotten to the point where I prefer my garden vegetable soup to steak any day because of the aforementioned concerns about chemicals in my food chain, and unfair living conditions for other living beings. And there are plenty of plant protein sources. I could quite happily live on nuts and quinoa and beans and lentils and...

My best friend announced on Facebook one day that she was going to be a vegetarian, and she's stuck with it ever since. When I grow up, I want to be like her. I'm still a ways from vegetarianism, but I feel myself getting closer every day, as I find more delicious vegetarian recipes that my family and I enjoy. I'm guessing that in the past five years, we've cut our consumption of animal products 20% or more through deciding to eat meatless more often, and it hasn't been a hardship at all, even for my meat-and-potatoes-raised husband. We're growing more of our own veggies and preserving them for longer periods, and when we do cook meats, we stretch them further by cooking smaller portions with more vegetables. I know it's better for the planet, and I have no doubt that it's better for us, too.

So what's cooking at your house tonight?

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Try here.