When I think about what it’s like to be a vegetarian in Indiana, I couldn’t describe it better than this picture. This section is labeled Vegetarian. In case you can’t tell, it’s filled with shrimp, fish and other seafood. Seafood isn’t meat. Right?
I would have been impressed had it been labeled Pescetarian.
Paul McCartney became a vegetarian after a fishing trip.
“Many years ago, I was fishing, and as I was reeling in the poor fish, I realized, ‘I am killing him — all for the passing pleasure it brings me.’ And something inside me clicked. I realized as I watched him fight for breath, that his life was as important to him as mine is to me.”
Those words have stuck with me from the moment I first read them. I have a catch-and-release policy for bugs that make it into my apartment. And every time I catch and release a bug, these words echo inside me.
Today, I was entering the code into my parents’ garage door opener keypad. There was a spider on the side of the house. At my presence, it began to scurry as quickly as it could, sensing some sort of danger in my proximity. This act reminded me of Paul McCartney’s epiphany.
I said out loud to the spider: “Don’t worry. I’m not going to hurt you.”
He stopped scurrying. I’d like to think he looked at me, but with a spider you can never tell. I sent him my love, entered the code and went into the house.
We are all one. And each living thing – no matter how big or small – values its life as much as I value mine.
It’s no secret I am easily excitable. My hands give that away. They serve as a catalyst to visually convey to the world that I am radiating excitement. And one thing that gets me super excited is meeting fellow vegetarians. Sadly, in Indiana, there isn’t an abundance of fellow non-meat eaters. It is important to know people who value, relate and understand your beliefs and belief systems. So to increase your circle of vegetarian friends, Don’t Forget to Water the Plants will name a vegetarian of the week each week!
President Bill Clinton is Don’t Forget to Water the Plant’s first vegetarian of the week! (Al Gore, are you reading this?)
President Clinton has adopted a mostly plant-based diet. He eats “very little fish, once in a while.” In 2004, he had quadruple heart bypass surgery. And in February 2010, he was rushed to the hospital with chest discomfort. He left 24 hours later with two stents in his heart. Because of this, Clinton decided he wanted to do what he could to reduce his chances of having other heart-related issues.
He did his research and noted to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that since 1986, 82 percent of people with similar heart conditions had begun to heal themselves with plant-based diets and exercise. Inspried by two doctors, Caldwell Esselstyn and Dean Ornish, Clinton gave up meat, dairy and processed oils. And he has lost 24 pounds.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United State, and a plant-based diet can prevent and reverse heart disease.
In related news: Chelsea is vegan, and Hillary was seen eating a falafel sandwich. Be still my beating heart. Just when I thought I couldn’t love her more… Hillary, a vegetarian? I’ll keep my fingers crossed!
Confession: I have a perfectionist personality paired with an obsessive compulsive need to have order, organization and structure in my life. Read: control freak.
There are times when I forget about my little neuroses. But then there are times when I am blatantly aware of them. Like last night. I had washed my duvet cover and needed to put it back over my duvet. Forty-five minutes later, and my corners were perfectly tied and the top of the duvet was attached to the duvet cover with three evenly spaced safety pins. Once that was done, I got out my Pledge Fabric Sweeper for Pet Hair (For those of you who do not know, it is the greatest invention ever created. I buy one every time I go to the store just in case S.C. Johnson decides to discontinue it. Wait a minute – did I really say something about forgetting my little neuroses?) because my duvet cover is black. And as we all know, it is hard to keep black fabric looking brand new, but by god, that Pledge Fabric Sweeper for Pet Hair does it.
It was a pain in the ass to put that duvet back in the cover so that it wouldn’t slip or get wadded up. But when I looked at my perfectly made bed with a lint-free black duvet cover that looks brand new, a sense of worth-it-ness washed over me. Would it have been easier to stuff the duvet in the cover and then throw it on my bed? Yes. Would it have looked as nice? No. Would I have had to redo it? Yes. (Thank you, idiosyncrasies.)
Despite finding comfort and pleasure in perfectionism, I have realized it is impossible for me to be a perfect vegetarian. And I have come to terms with that. Products derived from animal flesh are everywhere. A lot of them have inconspicuous names. Furthermore, manufactures are constantly changing ingredients based on availability and cost. So something that might be plant derived one batch is animal derived the next. I want to enjoy life. And I can’t enjoy life if I’m calling manufacturing plants every day to check the origin of all their ingredients.
So, as a vegetarian, here’s my mission statement: I will not eat animal flesh. I will limit my intake of dairy and always use a dairy substitute if one is available. I will try to avoid products derived of animal-flesh; however, I know despite my best efforts, from time to time, some animal-flesh-derived products will be in the food I eat.
It’s not perfect. But I’m perfectly at peace with my mission statement.
This past weekend I was researching foods that surprisingly had animal-derived ingredients. Moral: ANIMAL-DERIVED INGREDIENTS ARE EVERYWHERE. For example, McDonald’s fries are sprinkled with a “beef product.” There is a silver lining though, which is that I came across some surprisingly vegetarian and vegan foods that I’ll write about in a later post once I’ve done all my research. But I wanted to share the most shocking recent discovery.
Despite a terrible name that uses the “~” symbol, Betty Crocker’s Bac~Os have won me over. They come in bits or chips and make “every bite better.” But here’s where it gets exciting: They contain no preservatives, animal fat or meat. PETA calls it vegan*.
I have never purchased Bac~Os, not even when I ate meat. But I have added it to my grocery list. I’m thinking of a shake-and-bake coating infused with crushed Bac~Os for Quorn’s Naked Chik’n Cutlets. (Recipe to follow, of course.)
*It must be noted PETA endorses some products as vegan that “may contain trace amounts of animal-derived ingredients.”
