Be More Thoughtful
Mother Nature gave us a Spring Preview this week, and it was nice. The snow drops on the hill by that dilapidated old house near the golf course popped wide open by Thursday. An early reminder that the plants in my flower beds and yard will soon spring forth, pulling me out of the house to tame them.
A couple of weeks ago, two different friends sent me a note suggesting that I watch a Netflix series titled You Are What You Eat. So, I watched all four episodes.
The premise of the program was built around a research study conducted by a scientist at Stanford University. In it, the researchers took 22 pairs of identical twins, feeding each twin either a vegan diet (no animal products whatsoever) or an omnivore diet (which included animal protein, and dairy items like butter, cheese, etc.). In terms of things like calories and macronutrients, each diet was virtually identical.
The series is worth watching regardless of the non-surprising spoiler I’m about to share with you: The people who consumed the vegan diet lost more weight and had healthier blood markers for things like blood sugar, insulin, etc. - despite the similarity of macros in each diet.
So eating a vegan diet may result in healthier people. I can buy that. The series also served as a reminder that the large-scale systems that produce most of the meat, poultry and fish for society are pretty darned nasty.
The close confinement of the animals leads to a steady dosing of antibiotics, which leads to more drug-resistant bacteria in the world. And the math behind large-scale animal production’s environmental impacts, including waste run-off, deforestation and carbon footprint do not pencil out in terms of feeding an ever-growing human population. We simply can’t keep doing things the way we are currently doing them.
The scale and seriousness of the challenge requires us to approach it from two sides. Consumers need to modify their consumption choices, and producers need to modify their production methods. I generally feel that consumer choice drives producer action. So near-term change largely hinges on our individual purchase decisions.
The Netflix series does point out some hope for new technology that either mimics meat, or literally replicates it in a sterile, high-scale laboratory setting. Across a sufficiently long time-scale, I expect humans will be eating lab-produced proteins that are indistinguishable from today’s status quo, avoiding the high-density confinement feedlots, animal cruelty, and greenhouse gasses produced today.
I end up landing in a spot where I often land when I take the time to think about this stuff: Less is more. Eat less meat, but make sure the meat you do consume is of the highest quality. Maybe someday I will become vegan - or take a tech-enabled offramp that allows me to eat lab-grown proteins that make sense.
It’s just a matter of time. As we bridge the gap between now and then, this documentary series is a good reminder that we can and should be more thoughtful about how we select our foods. Occasionally we should give some of these newfangled options a try, to support those efforts at innovation.
In general, more thoughtfulness can benefit us in so many ways. Let's consider shaking up our auto-pilot patterns and thoughtfully re-imagine our choices from time to time, shall we?
Sunday Supper
Well, the Super Bowl is being played tonight…you don’t have to be a fan of football to be a fan of football food, though. Why not indulge in some Frito Pie, Baked Buffalo Chicken Wings, or Baby Back Ribs with Sweet & Sour Glaze? Next week we can roast a nice hunk of meat and make some mashed potatoes…
Sunday Music
This Sunday I share with you this wonderful performance at NPR’s Tiny Desk featuring Joshua Redmond and a new-to-me vocalist, Gabrielle Cavassa. Enjoy!
Have a great week ahead! Offer support to others. Make good use of this day. And let me know how I can help.
Peace & Love,