I became a vegetarian 30 years ago after the Mad Cow debacle. I'm now 70 & in good health.
There had been several food scares related to meat in the 80s & 90s & I'd had enough. On top of that I was developing an aversion to the taste of meat. I don't know where this came from. I was brought up in a farming community & had seen my mother wring hens necks in readiness for the oven. It didn't put me off. I saw it as all part of the cycle of life.
I think my growing aversion to meat was either something spiritual or my body telling me that this stuff was doing me no good. I have learnt over the years that our bodies have their own intelligence & it is wise to tune in to it.
I have tried going vegan but I like some dairy products & eggs too much - principally cheese & the occasional ice cream. I don't consume dairy milk & rarely dairy butter or cream. My cheese is produced by artisans - not the plastic supermarket cheese churned out in factories. I have found good plant based substitutes for milk & cream, but sadly not for cheese.
I remain a vegetarian because I also have strong moral objections to factory farming, this includes dairy farming. I believe the modern treatment of animals is eating away at the human soul & accumulating huge karmic debt. This to my mind is one of the reasons why humanity is treated like herd animals by the modern state.
How many meat eaters would there be if schools were required to take their pupils on tours of abattoirs as part of their education?
I do not buy into the current theory that meat eating is threatening 'the planet'. All irresponsible agriculture & food production damages the environment whether it's meat or plant.
Yes I was vegetarian for about 20 years. When I had children then I began to get back into meat because excluding meat may have held them back. I like dairy, and rashers. It sounds ridiculous. I just don't eat red meat myself but steaks is what young men like and eggs. So I have to have a few steaks in the fridge all the time. I occasionally have pangs for eating pigs/pork; but it is what it is.
You know, I often wondered if God wanted us to kill and eat animals. I'm quite sure he didn't intend us to intensely do it as today. But then people will say what about the miracle of the loafs and fishes etc. I think there was no killing in the Garden of Eden and that eating of meat was after the fall
You're brave to take on this topic JP and at the outset to each their own. Everyone has to find their own way in life and health
I see a clear division between being vegan and being on a plant based diet for health. From when I began working in the Library, I loved the health section and was always taking out those books on healthy eating and eat different ways. Bit by bit I found myself eating less meat until I might only eat chicken once per week and mostly eat fish with lots of vegs. In 2016, I decided I would give up dairy as a test (my blood tests were showing up that I had a high cholesterol). The cholesterol went down to normal. Then I decided to drop the chicken and fish. In the end by September I was eating a wholefoods plant based diet. Unlike you though I eat bread, love it. Then I went all-out vegan giving up leather,silk, honey etc. I gave most of my leather belts, bags jackets away. I became an outcast in the family, the subject of ridicule at family dinners etc and in work. Then I began to isolate myself from those events and even in the canteen. I gave up alchol shortly after
When de covid struck, I was used to being the odd man out. I believe this is what helped me see the scam quickly. I've softened up since those days and in fact see myself as being somewhat stupid. I still do feel sorry for animals. I forced myself to watch slaughterhouse videos and intensive farming methods and it's all pretty horrible. When I came down to live in Spain last September I began eating eggs and butter again. It doesn't make me feel better or worse health-wise. I also use the local honey and take some every morning. I'm hoping they're humane to the poor bees
Like you say, everyone has to decide for themselves. One thing I know for sure, I will never eat ze bugs. I will starve first or live on nettles. I hope you'll return to this topic because I have a lot to say. One of the doctors I followed at the time died last year Dr John McDougall of the book The Starch Solution
Thanks Fionnuala. I'll definitely be continuing with the topic of diet and health. This is only the start!
One thing I can say for sure even now is that videos, magazine articles, that warn people off certain foods or encourage them towards others are to be avoided. I say that having watched or read lots of them myself. Pure trash most of them, probably with no other purpose than to terrify us.
I agree with that. I came to the conclusion that most diets were fads, gimmicks, unless they can be sustained. A complete life change is the only real diet, incorporating exercise, mental health, food, sleep and socialising (maybe). Probably no amount of alcohol is safe and probably vitamins aren't safe. The other thing is even if we're doing the very best we can, we're getting older every day, so it's always an uphill struggle
I have a friend who I would say is the top expert on honey and bee keeping and his local honey is fantastic. Bee's need a lot of minding in winter and even need a bee sauna this time of year to kill mites, He make's tonics from bee pollen which I'm on for a circulation issue in my foot " from a muscle injury I think" and it has almost fixed it after a few months. Also he makes a tincture from bee moth excretion , they eat beeswax and there poo is used in the tincture for TB in Russia and Ukraine for ever. I am using this to clean my blood vessels and this is also working. He also does bee stinging on lumps and growths etc . But the honey has to be from the bee keeper because the shop honey is mostly synthetic. For instance Manuka honey , the total harvest is aprox ten thousand tonne a year but the sale's are around one hundred and twenty thousand tonne .
I make a very good sandwich bread Finn if you ever want the recipe.
Hi JP I am a bad example of healthy living , I smoke , drink and eat meat etc. The only positive side I guess is I buy my meat from a butcher who kill's and butchers his own and it is an award winning butchers . I also grow my own veg which helps a bit. I don't go to the deli in petrol station or the fast food junk . I used to be very fit but I can feel age slowing me down over the last two years and my lungs are not in the best condition I guess, but been a welder fabricator doesn't help either. We live the best we can and try keep the mind healthy .
Thanks Richard. I have known people who lived into their late-eighties (and even way beyond that) without thinking too much about their diets.
But when you are retired and have the time, it seems a good pursuit to see what works and what doesn't. I think your last sentence says it all, "We live the best we can and try to keep the mind healthy".
I have come to doubt that smoking is the harmful activity it has long been claimed to be. I have smoked a pipe for 50 years without any adverse health impacts.
Too much of anything is not good. All things in moderation.
I smoke roll up's and it is a similar action to preparing your pipe. I agree I find it relaxing when I am thinking . Like the pipe they also go out if your not pulling on them .
Well I would be inclined to not eat living creatures, animals. But to follow that path would be impossible as I buy meat for adult children. I wouldn't eat that meat myself. Except for rashers. Makes no sense.
I became a vegetarian 30 years ago after the Mad Cow debacle. I'm now 70 & in good health.
There had been several food scares related to meat in the 80s & 90s & I'd had enough. On top of that I was developing an aversion to the taste of meat. I don't know where this came from. I was brought up in a farming community & had seen my mother wring hens necks in readiness for the oven. It didn't put me off. I saw it as all part of the cycle of life.
I think my growing aversion to meat was either something spiritual or my body telling me that this stuff was doing me no good. I have learnt over the years that our bodies have their own intelligence & it is wise to tune in to it.
I have tried going vegan but I like some dairy products & eggs too much - principally cheese & the occasional ice cream. I don't consume dairy milk & rarely dairy butter or cream. My cheese is produced by artisans - not the plastic supermarket cheese churned out in factories. I have found good plant based substitutes for milk & cream, but sadly not for cheese.
I remain a vegetarian because I also have strong moral objections to factory farming, this includes dairy farming. I believe the modern treatment of animals is eating away at the human soul & accumulating huge karmic debt. This to my mind is one of the reasons why humanity is treated like herd animals by the modern state.
How many meat eaters would there be if schools were required to take their pupils on tours of abattoirs as part of their education?
I do not buy into the current theory that meat eating is threatening 'the planet'. All irresponsible agriculture & food production damages the environment whether it's meat or plant.
Yes I was vegetarian for about 20 years. When I had children then I began to get back into meat because excluding meat may have held them back. I like dairy, and rashers. It sounds ridiculous. I just don't eat red meat myself but steaks is what young men like and eggs. So I have to have a few steaks in the fridge all the time. I occasionally have pangs for eating pigs/pork; but it is what it is.
Thanks Finola. Does it matter what we eat? Matter to whom? These are the questions I am wrestling with.
I hope you will keep reading and sharing your own thoughts from time to time. Much appreciated.
Thanks Willie for this and your other comment which I understand to mean, "Each to his own".
The longer I live the less I realise I know about anything, including diet. That said, I agree with pretty much everything you write.
You know, I often wondered if God wanted us to kill and eat animals. I'm quite sure he didn't intend us to intensely do it as today. But then people will say what about the miracle of the loafs and fishes etc. I think there was no killing in the Garden of Eden and that eating of meat was after the fall
You're brave to take on this topic JP and at the outset to each their own. Everyone has to find their own way in life and health
I see a clear division between being vegan and being on a plant based diet for health. From when I began working in the Library, I loved the health section and was always taking out those books on healthy eating and eat different ways. Bit by bit I found myself eating less meat until I might only eat chicken once per week and mostly eat fish with lots of vegs. In 2016, I decided I would give up dairy as a test (my blood tests were showing up that I had a high cholesterol). The cholesterol went down to normal. Then I decided to drop the chicken and fish. In the end by September I was eating a wholefoods plant based diet. Unlike you though I eat bread, love it. Then I went all-out vegan giving up leather,silk, honey etc. I gave most of my leather belts, bags jackets away. I became an outcast in the family, the subject of ridicule at family dinners etc and in work. Then I began to isolate myself from those events and even in the canteen. I gave up alchol shortly after
When de covid struck, I was used to being the odd man out. I believe this is what helped me see the scam quickly. I've softened up since those days and in fact see myself as being somewhat stupid. I still do feel sorry for animals. I forced myself to watch slaughterhouse videos and intensive farming methods and it's all pretty horrible. When I came down to live in Spain last September I began eating eggs and butter again. It doesn't make me feel better or worse health-wise. I also use the local honey and take some every morning. I'm hoping they're humane to the poor bees
Like you say, everyone has to decide for themselves. One thing I know for sure, I will never eat ze bugs. I will starve first or live on nettles. I hope you'll return to this topic because I have a lot to say. One of the doctors I followed at the time died last year Dr John McDougall of the book The Starch Solution
Thanks Fionnuala. I'll definitely be continuing with the topic of diet and health. This is only the start!
One thing I can say for sure even now is that videos, magazine articles, that warn people off certain foods or encourage them towards others are to be avoided. I say that having watched or read lots of them myself. Pure trash most of them, probably with no other purpose than to terrify us.
I agree with that. I came to the conclusion that most diets were fads, gimmicks, unless they can be sustained. A complete life change is the only real diet, incorporating exercise, mental health, food, sleep and socialising (maybe). Probably no amount of alcohol is safe and probably vitamins aren't safe. The other thing is even if we're doing the very best we can, we're getting older every day, so it's always an uphill struggle
I have a friend who I would say is the top expert on honey and bee keeping and his local honey is fantastic. Bee's need a lot of minding in winter and even need a bee sauna this time of year to kill mites, He make's tonics from bee pollen which I'm on for a circulation issue in my foot " from a muscle injury I think" and it has almost fixed it after a few months. Also he makes a tincture from bee moth excretion , they eat beeswax and there poo is used in the tincture for TB in Russia and Ukraine for ever. I am using this to clean my blood vessels and this is also working. He also does bee stinging on lumps and growths etc . But the honey has to be from the bee keeper because the shop honey is mostly synthetic. For instance Manuka honey , the total harvest is aprox ten thousand tonne a year but the sale's are around one hundred and twenty thousand tonne .
I make a very good sandwich bread Finn if you ever want the recipe.
Hi JP I am a bad example of healthy living , I smoke , drink and eat meat etc. The only positive side I guess is I buy my meat from a butcher who kill's and butchers his own and it is an award winning butchers . I also grow my own veg which helps a bit. I don't go to the deli in petrol station or the fast food junk . I used to be very fit but I can feel age slowing me down over the last two years and my lungs are not in the best condition I guess, but been a welder fabricator doesn't help either. We live the best we can and try keep the mind healthy .
Thanks Richard. I have known people who lived into their late-eighties (and even way beyond that) without thinking too much about their diets.
But when you are retired and have the time, it seems a good pursuit to see what works and what doesn't. I think your last sentence says it all, "We live the best we can and try to keep the mind healthy".
I agree with what you are doing to keep healthy JP , I will have to take note and start thinking the same way when I can give it the time it needs.
I think they're going to force us all to give up or at least cut down on meat. I only fear they'll stick ze bugs into the flour for bread, ughh
Well meat is getting very expensive thats for sure Finn. But I'll breed rabbit for meat if it goes to that.
I have come to doubt that smoking is the harmful activity it has long been claimed to be. I have smoked a pipe for 50 years without any adverse health impacts.
Too much of anything is not good. All things in moderation.
I smoked tobacco briefly as a teenager but not since then. I just didn't like it so I stopped.
I'd say the habitual element is important in maintaining the practice. Is it? Also what benefits do you think smoking brings to you personally?
(These are not meant to be smart questions. I am genuinely curious.)
I too tried cigarettes but never took to them.
I took up pipe smoking for something to do while stranded on a Greek island in the 70s in the winter.
I find pipe smoking relaxing. It forces you to slow down. Helps with thinking.
I smoke roll up's and it is a similar action to preparing your pipe. I agree I find it relaxing when I am thinking . Like the pipe they also go out if your not pulling on them .
chacun à son goût 🙂
Oui, Oui
Well I would be inclined to not eat living creatures, animals. But to follow that path would be impossible as I buy meat for adult children. I wouldn't eat that meat myself. Except for rashers. Makes no sense.