First, let’s chew on food.

Today started off with a very chewy breakfast. Quite crunchy too! This breakfast idea originated from the lovely Gena, of Choosing Raw. I made a few variations and loved this twist on the typical breakfast. It’s a good way to get your greens in at breakfast, and it tastes fabulous too!

I used 2 huuuge chard leaves to wrap up the delicious ingredients.

Roll 1:

banana
avocado
peanut butter

Roll 2:

apple
peanut butter
ground flax meal

Toppings:

walnuts
melted coconut butter
currants

Cut in half, here is my ridiculous volcano of a breakfast. This was a mess-fest for sure, but totally worth it.

It’s best to eat this alone, so you can lick your fingers in peace and find peanut butter on your ear, hours later.

And now some words to chew on…

A lot of you have been interested to hear my thoughts on the book, Eating Animals, so far. I’m a little over half way through and my brain is exploding with opinions, realizations, shock, disgust, hope, etc. It’s a bit overwhelming, in a good way, and every time I pick it up I’m completely sucked in. Instead of giving you my thoughts thus far, I though I would quote a few snippets of the book that have really stuck out in my mind.

I’ve never dog-eared so many pages, in any other book, in my life.

…

The last 2 sentences couldn’t be more true!!

“Silently the animal catches our glance. The animal looks at us and whether we look away (from the animal, our plate, our concern, ourselves) or not, we are exposed. Whether we change our lives or do nothing, we have responded. To do nothing is to do something.” p.38

Realization.

“The typical cage for egg-laying hens allows each sixty-seven square inches of floor space – somewhere between the size of this page and a sheet of printer paper.” … “Step your mind into a crowded elevator, an elevator so crowded you cannot turn around without bumping into (and aggravating) your neighbor. The elevator is so crowded you are often held aloft. This is kind of a blessing, as the slanted floor is made of wire, which cuts your feet. After some time, those in the elevator will lose their ability to work in the interest of the group. Some will become violent; others will go mad. A few, deprived of food and hope, will become cannibalistic.” p.47

Shock.

“From 1935 to 1995, the average weight of “broilers” increased by 65 percent, while their time-to-market dropped 60 percent and their feed requirements dropped 57 percent. To gain a sense of the radicalness of this change, imagine human children growing to be three hundred pounds in ten years, while eating only granola bars and Flintstones vitamins.” p.107

Shock. Again.

“Beyond deformities, eye damage, blindness, bacterial infections of bones, slipped vertabrae, paralysis, internal bleeding, anemia, slipped tendons, twisted lower legs and necks, respiratory diseases, and weakened immune systems are frequent and long-standing problems on factory farms. Scientific studies and government records suggest that virtually all (upwards of 95 percent of) chickens become infected with E. coli (an indicator of fecal contamination) and between 39 and 75 percent of chickens in retails stores are still contaminated.” … “Of course, consumers might notice that their chickens don’t taste quite right – how good could a drug-stuffed, disease ridden, shit-contaminated animal possibly taste? – but the birds will be injected (or otherwise pumped up) with “broths” and salty solutions to give them what we have come to think of as the chicken look, smell, and taste.” p.131

Disbelief.

“Next the birds are inspected by a USDA official, whose ostensible function is to keep the consumer safe. The inspector has approximately two seconds to examine each bird inside and out, both the carcass and the organs, for more than a dozen different diseases and suspect abnormalities. He or she looks at about 25,000 birds a day.” … “He conducted interviews with nearly a hundred USDA poultry inspectors from thirty-seven plants. “Every week,” he reports, “millions of chickens leaking yellow pus, stained by green feces, contaminated by harmful bacteria, or marred by lung and heart infections, cancerous tumors, or skin conditions are shipped for sale to consumers.”” p.134

Great analogy. Scary last sentence. I feel so manipulated by advertising!

“She (Marion Nestle) argues that food companies, like cigarette companies (her analogy), will say and do whatever works to sell products. They will “lobby Congress to eliminate regulations perceived as favorable; they press federal regulatory agencies to enforce such regulations; and when they don’t like regulation decisions, they file lawsuits. Like cigarette companies, food companies co-opt food and nutrition experts by supporting professional organizations and research, and they expand sales by marketing directly to children.” Regarding US government recommendations that tend to encourage dairy consumption in the name of preventing osteoporosis, Nestle notes that in parts of the world where milk is not a staple of the diet, people often have less osteoporosis and fewer bone fractures than Americans do. The highest rates of osteoporosis are seen in countries where people consume the most dairy foods.” p.146-147

Shocking + just plain sad.

“Today’s factory farm pig breeds, by contrast, have been so genetically altered that more often than not they must be raised in climate-controlled buildings, cut off from sun and seasons. We are breeding creatures incapable of surviving in any place other than the most artificial of settings. We have focused the awesome power of modern genetic knowledge to bring into being animals that suffer more.” p.159

Those were some of the excerpts that stood out in my mind the most, so far. I’m not trying to shock anyone into becoming a veg-head. You should know by now, I’m always boasting the “do what works for you” routine. You can choose whatever eating journey you like, but to me, the most important thing, is to make your decision an informed one.

Hope I didn’t get too heavy for a Friday!!! :)

Let’s end on a good note…

You REALLY need to make this, pronto!