Long time readers of my blog may wonder about the evolution my diet has taken over the past three years. When I began blogging I was a die hard, judgmental, vegan. I was hardcore. I would refuse to kiss anyone who had consumed dairy. I thought I was very "right". I had done all the research and what was more I wanted veganism to be true because it made me feel like I had control of ME and my peaceful spot in the world.
Then things slowly began to change. I began to doubt myself when I heard rumors about soy. I felt not quite right when I chose something laced with hydrogenated oils over cream. After Ronan was born in 2007 I had an exceptionally hard postpartum. My period came back after only 4 months, I bled very irregularly and experienced episodes of borderline psychosis.
In early fall of 2007 my inner voice was shouting "goat cheese!!" I ignored it. Then my period came and wouldn't go away. I bled for weeks. So off to my Naturopath I went. She made many suggestions but one that struck me was that I may be consuming too much soy (I was consuming a lot of it).
I quit soy then and there. My hormones settled down and my period evened out. One day after months of goat cheese craving I hurried into our local health food store and bought some goat cheese. I ate it secretly in the back of my car. I felt physically great, nourished, but mentally I felt awful.
I couldn't ignore how much vitality was in that cheese though. So I did research and found three local goat dairies who had animal practices I could live with and I began eating goat yogurt and cheese. I started thinking about veganism. I didn't know any vegan who didn't either cheat or use meat and/or dairy for their work/job. That made me question things as well.
It perplexed me. If veganism was so "natural" why did it feel so unnatural? Soon I gave up veganism and became a vegetarian only. I was sure to only eat dairy products from farmers I trusted. After more research I found out that the "line" I had bought from vegan sites such as PETA about dairy and health was totally bogus.
Raw, organic milk and dairy posed none of the problems that cooked and crushed dairy did. The vegan research was always based on commercial, treated dairy. Not grass fed, organic, raw dairy. The only research I could find on good dairy products was stellar. It was very healthy for people. I became a happy vegetarian but then in 2008 my vegetarianism was challenged.
For years we had battled my oldest son's tooth decay. His teeth started rotting out of his head at 1 1 /2 and we hadn't been able to slow it or stop it. Now, after nearly 30 years cavity free I found myself with my first cavity. If we were so healthy what the heck was going on?
We had tried everything with my son - everything except one thing, fish oil and bone broth. The research made sense to me just like the research vegans sited on dairy, the research done on animal products was never from grass fed, organic animals.
I talked things over with Seth. I was afraid for my children. Afraid for myself. I didn't want to risk my second son's teeth. We decided that Seth would stay vegetarian out of choice but the boys and I would begin eating bone broth and fish oil.
My oldest son was too far gone and needed dental surgery however I was able to reverse the damage to my teeth and my second son who is now 3 1/2 is still cavity free. Again my deeply held beliefs had been challenged. Animal products had brought us healing.
In 2009 I became pregnant with my third child. I was terribly sick this time around. I was vomiting all the time and had no energy. After months of illness I sank into depression. I felt like I had fallen into a black pit of despair from which there was no escape. I waited for what should have been simple morning sickness to pass but it only got worse.
After four months a dear friend of mine suggested the paleolithic diet. It was a heavy meat based diet. I didn't like the idea but after all my suffering I would try anything. I went to the store and bought local, sustainably raised chicken, turkey and fish.
Within 24 hours I was 98% better. I couldn't believe it! I felt great! My depression cleared up and my sickness went away! I was so happy and thankful! After a few months on this diet I cut back my meat consumption to only a few meals per week. Sometimes as little as one meal per week.
Then I tore a muscle grabbing my son from running into the road. I was in extreme pain. I could only stand/walk for a few hours per day then I was on my back with a heat pack for the rest of the day. My heart was crying out for red meat but again I ignored it. I was NOT going to eat beef.
After two months my muscle tear only seemed to get worse. I couldn't function. So I gave in, went and bought some local, grass fed hamburger. Again, within 24 hours I experienced near total healing. I could walk again and the muscle hasn't given me anymore trouble since.
Ok, I thought, I could eat meat as medicine but certainly not regularly. I was worried about the environment. Meat was hard on mother earth, wasn't it? And not to mention the killing. I wasn't comfortable taking a life for food.
Then I read Vegetarian Myth; Food, Justice and Sustainability by Lierre Keith. I was blown away! She made two really important points about the environment and the taking of life.
Environmentally, local, organic, grass fed meat causes LESS damage to the earth. A grass fed system of a grazing animal is natural unlike grain growing. You can grass feed many types of animals, produce large amounts of food and keep the whole ecosystem intact, unlike clear cutting to grow grains and beans. Animals eating their natural diet of grass produces less methane as well.
Her other point, and I want to really drive this point home. IN ORDER FOR YOU TO EAT, SOMETHING MUST DIE and there is whole lot more death in a loaf of bread or a bowl of rice than a steak. One grass fed cow can feed a human for months, a year even and it takes one life.
For you to live off the same amount of food in beans or grain requires clear cutting trees (home to many forms of life), pest control (more death), and diverting water for crops (killing more river life). In every bowl of rice there is the death of mice, squirrels, birds, fish, bugs, etc. You really aren't saving lives. You're actually taking more.
What's more is that the lives lost through grain and bean production suffer horribly from starvation or habitat destruction first. It's not a quick bullet to the brain your local grass fed cow took. It was slow and one of the most painful ways for any living creature to die.
Don't get me wrong,let me stress that factory farming is HORRID! Much, much worse than anything else. Again, the arguments of cruelty and grain consumption by animals that vegetarians will put forth are all based on the unnatural practice of factory farming and are correct in that system but not for local, grass grazed, organic animals.
Humans have evolved with animals as companions and food. We have made an ancient deal with animals. We will use some of you for food in exchange for growing your population and taking you all over the world. Something the animals could never have done on their own.
The environmental cycle includes us in the food chain. Removing ourselves is unnatural and unbalanced. It's not sustainable. Clear cut fields of wheat are not going to solve the world's hunger or pollution problems or stop animals from suffering or dieing - in fact it makes it worse.
Local grown, sustainable, permaculture food production, using animals for food and labor, is the only healthy way to heal our earth and our bodies. That's my opinion for what it's worth. Good luck on your own personal food experiences! Peace :)
Information and Resources
Weston Price Foundation
Soy Alert
Eat Wild
Mercola on grass fed
