Becoming granola

So. . . As a few of you are aware, a great portion of my childhood adolescent was spent as a complete vegetarian. It all began when my uncle rung a gooses neck because it had broken its leg and was suffering. Now when you're 11 year old, its traumatizing and you don't really understand the reason why this was the most appropriate action. Now, it didn't necessarily need to take place in front of me but it did, and it began my little stint of vegetarianism. It began with me eating no meat, and slowly transformed to fish, chicken, and then the full monty. It took up about 3 years of my life. I look back on that and kind of giggle. Not only was a stubborn at 11 years old, but I also developed a little animal rights activism. I never would've imagined that 24 years later I am in a similar boat.

So through some intense research, talk with friends and family and an eye opening viewing of the documentary Food, Inc., I have decided to completely transform my diet. Here's a link to one of the few websites that opened my eyes .

This whole food 'thing' was initially brought to my attention because "organic" has become such a trendy thing to do. You see celebrities talk about their decisions to only eat organic, and only shop organic. I started thinking: what does that really mean? Well as far as the meat industry, organic basically means that there are no antibiotics, and no hormones added to the animals. In the fruit and veggie industry it basically means that the fruit isn't shipped from hundreds of miles away unripe, and ripened with methane gas or calcium carbide when it arrives ever so perfectly at our grocery store. Doing a little investigating and conversing, I learned that this happens to almost all of our fruits and vegetables along with genetically modifying the structure of our so-called fruits to yield a meatier and more filling product. Next time you're in the grocery store, take a look at the size of organic produce and remind yourself, this is how nature intended it to be.

Now, I'm not going to be "granola," as we all refer to those people as, but I have made a decision to eat only free-range, grass fed meat with no hormones and no antibiotics. Now, I like meat. I would like to do organic veggies, but we all know organic is spendy! I like all meat, beef, pork, chicken- you name it, I'll eat it. I don't, however like meat that comes from animals that have suffered their entire lives, has been genetically modified, added to a meat filler that contains ammonia to prevent E-coli, and produced by 1 of the 13 slaughterhouses that exists in our nation. Now I love food as much as the other, but I think its important that we all know what we are eating. I mean, think about how much of our life revolves around food. Morning, noon, night, snacks, we eat for energy, we eat for strength, we eat to exist. Why not exist as healthy as we can!