My thoughts on eating meat

Yes yes, I know, not your usual post, but I just wanted to take this time to update you on what has been on my mind lately. And that is…eating meat!! In case you haven’t noticed, I have not posted any meat recipes lately, but why? Well, to be honest, if you watch a documentary called ‘H.O.P.E what you eat matters’, I dare you to come back and tell me that you want to keep consuming meat. Be warned though, it is disturbing and sad to watch. And don’t worry, I won’t go into the details of what I saw in this post. However, I do recommend that you watch a documentary called ‘what the health’. This is a documentary that everyone has been raving about so I wanted to see why. And I have to say, it really inspired me. There are other documentaries that I haven’t seen yet such as Cowspiracy.

Now, please don’t get this twisted, I am not coming from a place of judgement. I will never be that guy who tries to make a hardcore meat eater feel guilty or look like a bad person. Not only because I don’t want to be that kind of person, but also because I have no right to judge anyone for doing something I have already done for years. And it isn’t just the ethical reasons that persuaded me to completely cut down on eating meat.

Let me just go through some of the other issues I want to bring up. You see, we are actually growing a lot of food, grain in particular. However, instead of using this food to feed us, and the starving human beings who really could use some of that food. We are feeding most of it to the animals so that we can fatten them up nice and quick to slaughter them. And it our greedy supply and demand this keeps this cycle going.

And I know there is such a thing as free range and grass fed etc. Although there is a problem with this. Let’s take one cow as an example. One cow needs at least 50 ACRES OF LAND!!! That is a lot of land for just one cow, so imagine trying to do that for every cow. I think many of us are starting to become aware of the fact that animal agriculture is becoming less and less sustainable. Not to mention that I personally don’t think it’s necessary anymore. Environmental problems are also an issue. Animal agriculture releases more greenhouse gases than cars, trucks, planes and ships combined!! And the concentration of their waste spreads very harmful gases into the atmosphere. I’ll leave a link below if you want to read about this in further detail.

Now when it comes to health, the doctors in what the health said that a plant-based diet lowers the risk of getting heart disease, type 2 diabetes, inflammation and cancer. And to be honest ladies and gents, I have just read and heard sooooo many stories of people talking about the improvement of their health, reversing the sicknesses and athletes stepping up their game whilst on a plant-based diet. It got to the point where it seemed unjustifiable not to at least consider and discuss this.

Now, what does this mean for Blogtastic Food? Well, to be honest, if I upload a recipe that has meat, it will probably be a very rare occasion and there probably won’t be very much of it in the dish. However, my goal isn’t to try and stop you from eating meat, truly. Please, do as you wish. And if this information isn’t to your liking I completely understand, like I said I am not here to judge, I am just here to share something with you.

Is there a certain goal that I have in mind? Am I suddenly trying to make the world vegan?…Meh, not really. My goal is the same as it’s always been, to create the best recipes I can to get people in the kitchen, so that they can learn to appreciate good food for what it is. I don’t want people who make my recipes thinking about how there is no meat in it. I want them to think “hey that looks good, I am going to make it” and it’s as simple as that. Whether it has meat in it or not is irrelevant, good food is good food, you feel me?

I was worried that this transition would limit me, but that is simply not the case. In fact, it had only made me realise that there are so many ingredients we don’t use. Plus it makes me think more creatively about the recipes I make which I think is awesome. Using flax seed or chia seeds as a binding agent, using avocados and tofu to make puddings and mousses, making mushroom stock instead of chicken stock for risotto etc. So I hope you are as excited about all of this as I am.

Anyway, I won’t hold you up for too long, that is all I wanted to say. If you are interested in any of this, I invite you to watch the documentary ‘what the health’ and feel free to tell me what you think of it. Have an amazing day and I will write to all of you again soon.

Resources:

http://www.onegreenplanet.org/environment/facts-about-animal-agriculture-and-air-pollution/

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-14/eating-a-plant-based-diet-doesnt-mean-being-a-vegetarian/8710254