Food Matters

This is a very exciting question for me on a subject that I am very passionate about so I will try my best to be short.

On January 1st, 2009, I made the decision to become a vegetarian. I had tried it as a new year’s resolution the previous year but had only made it a few months. This year, armed with much more information about the cause, I decided to try again. 9 months later, I have still not eaten a single piece of meat or fish. Becoming a vegetarian was one of the best decisions I have ever made; I don’t regret a single second of it. The reason I became a vegetarian was mainly for environmental concerns. I learned about the amount of energy that goes into the production of meat. Facts like “eating one pound of meat is equal to driving an SUV 40 miles” held a message that was impossible for me to ignore: our food choices make a huge difference. So now when I go eat something, I consider a number of factors before making my decision. Meat and fish are obviously crossed out immediately. I try my best to drink soymilk instead of regular milk, acknowledging the still substantial impact the diary industry has on the environment. But now I’ve begun to take it a step further, asking myself, “is this product made from local goods or has it been shipped from another country?” I try my best to shop at farmer’s markets and select the local option whenever I can. Another big thing I have been trying to cut out of my diet is high fructose corn syrup, which is found in almost all soft drinks. High fructose corn syrup has little nutritional value and also fuels the massive overproduction of corn, a plant which requires high amounts of fertilizer and therefore also has a high price tag for the environment. Lastly, I try to eat organic whenever possible. Although I’m not as well researched in the matter as I’d like to be, something tells me consuming foods with chemicals and preservatives may have a bigger impact on our health than we can comprehend now. Being a vegetarian has introduced me to issues about my health I have never considered before, which is why I advocate vegetarianism so adamantly. It has literally sparked a revolution in the way I think about food, forcing me to realize that choosing some foods is simply irresponsible in our current economic and environmental system.

That being said, I think the poorest food choice I have made in the last few days was either eggs or Coca-Cola. The production and shipment of the eggs I ate probably carried a high environmental impact. Coca-Cola is high in sugar and full of high fructose corn syrup, obviously not a good choice for me. But I have done my best to refrain from drinking Coke and other carbonated sodas (according to some reading I’ve done, Coca-Cola is also responsible for human rights violations in Latin America) and I am also attempting to phase out eggs with the hopes of being a vegan at some point.