As I have mentioned in a previous blog, I am trying my damndest to ween myself from pork and beef products. It's been months since I have eaten any pork product and just a few weeks for beef.
Attempting to make such a move is a little more difficult when going out to eat at a restaurant these days but if I can't find something on the menu, I ask to see if I can have this or that instead. I am still eating Turkey and Chicken- bless the short lives of these birds who give their life so I can eat a turkey sandwich or a chicken burger. When eating out I can order fettuccine with chicken- or not, or a salad with chicken or a even toasted turkey sandwich.
Shopping is an entirely different process.
I am buying veggie this and that.
Buying meatless "ground beef".
Purchasing veggie bologna- yum by the way. With all the crap in bologna- all beef or not, this veggie bologna tastes just as good with pickles and mayonnaise and lettuce. I even discovered a "fake" sliced turkey- equally as good.
Anyhoo, I have been actively searching for Beyond Meat Burgers in local stores. Sold out in one and probably placed next to the cheap dog food in another- I couldn't find it! A staff member I asked waved her hand and said- "It's back there somewhere because I've seen it come through..."
"Come through" means at the checkout.
Did she call someone to ask for me?
Nope.
You see this Beyond Meat stuff is beyond their comprehension. Oh, they sorta get vegetarian but "meatless"?
Not really.
Today I picked up another brand of meatless burger just to try it. As I am going through the checkout, the lady busily scanning item after item with beep after beep stops dead when she sees the "LightLife" plant-based burger among my items.
She picks it up. Turns the package over with little sausage-like fingers and using a long, painted, french-tipped nail she points out to me the large number of items in this plant based burger.
She looks up after circling her nail around the ingredients and says to me-
"You know, in beef, there's only beef- that's all!"
I say- "Yes but I am not eating beef because of ingredients I am stopping the beef parade because of some of the slaughtering practices at abattoirs and the indecent conditions pigs and cattle are kept in during their relatively short lives both at farms and during their transport to slaughterhouses. Many of these animals are not seeing the light of day or green grass beneath their hooves in their lifetimes.
"Bleeding heart Liberal"- you say.
That's what her face said!
Not "bleeding heart" in this case...okay maybe just a bit.
It just that I find it hard to look a cow or pig in the eye. Don't even get me started on the thousands
of horses shipped to China and Korea for consumption.
I have read about the deplorable conditions these animals experience during their sea voyage.
Compare photos of horses crammed on ships to bucolic scenes of horses standing under shade trees in green pastures and you'll see what I mean.
Back to beef, not far from where we live I always see dairy cows confined to small, fenced-in areas outside their open-air barns- roof only. The "girls" are laying about in the muck of mud and the muck of urine and shit.
At least that black stuff they stand and recline in looks like shit to me.
Google "cow and pig slaughter" or search for Esther the Pig on Twitter and follow her. You might get a rude awakening. Some of that abuse has happened here in British Columbia and I am sure in all provinces.
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| Now those are 100% Beef Paddies!!" |
Hmmm. Don't think so. Farmers inject cows behind the ears with 6 different hormones that accelerate growth and allow cattle to eat less.
Why behind the ears?
Because when they cut off a cow's ears at slaughter or as one web account calls it- "Harvest Time", the cut off ear can be discarded so as not to contaminate the beef product.
So lady- it is not entirely correct when you tell me that beef is beef and only beef.
There's a lot of shit in beef too- relatively and figuratively speaking.
For gawds sakes- they stand in it. See above.
Health Canada sets maximum levels of hormones and antibiotics that can be left in food.
How nice.
Some studies say these hormones cause cancer and other cause puberty to onset early in children.
I am not an authority in that. All I'm saying is- there's more in beef than beef.
Imagine if checkout people pointed out ingredients on all products.
"Oh Honey, this breakfast cereal has too much salt. Oh! Look at the sugar content"
or
"the chocolate chips in these cookies are not really chocolate and the chemicals could fell an elephant!"
My point is don't tell me this because I am trying to eat so as not to cause an animal pain or discomfort.
It is my choice and it's NOT an easy choice.
It's hard.
It's a commitment.
It's a new way of eating.
I welcome you to try it but just leave me alone as I adjust and try- in my personal view, to do the tight thing.
Oh!
Not that I consider myself overweight or fat at all but I have found that I have slimmed down and lost weight since quitting beef and pork.
Whaaat's that you say???
