Oh, how appropriate today's Pagan blog prompt is! Despite that, it was still difficult to answer:
Prompt: Ethical Eating
How does your faith guide you in how you buy and eat food?
Are you vegan (or vegetarian) because of the ethics your faith imposes? Or have you chosen to be that way for other reasons?
Do your beliefs even have anything to do with how you eat?
Maybe I should start at the very beginning.
See, I started going vegetarian around 13. I still ate some meat products as I ate what my family cooked, but if I had the choice, I settled for a salads pastas, veggie sides for my meals. Pepperoni was picked off pizza, beef was avoided in stroganoff, and I was overall doing my best not to eat anything distinctly meat.
The motivation at that point wasn't at all ethical or environmental or even entirely cerebral. Long story short, I simply didn't like the taste of meat, so I stopped eating it. The only difficult thing was giving up shellfish, as I simply loved the stuff, but eventually, that went the way of other meats.
As the years have gone on, my reasoning started to shift. 13 was quite a year for me: I started my spiritual journey, which eventually led to Wicca, and my vegetarian journey, which led to the vegan experiment I'm doing today. As each progressed, I felt more rooted in my faith and more convicted in my dietary choices, and the mindset started to shift to combine the two.
My faith has, over time, become the reason why I eat as I do. The more it becomes apparent that animals are sentient beings of the God and Goddess, parts of the world with feelings and emotions, the less inclined I am to bring them any harm.
While I don't refer to myself as Wiccan at the moment (it's something I'm still researching and internally questioning!), I do still follow its creed to "harm none". Personally, that means not only other people, but other creatures as well. It means slamming my brakes for the squirrel that darts across the street, stopping traffic to guide the turtle trying to cross the road, catching the spider to release it outside our home.
And putting down the fork to meat.
So while my reasons for being vegetarian certainly didn't start with keeping animals' well-beings and the ethics inherent in my faith in mind, it certainly has transformed that way. And I can thank my faith and spirituality for that. ;)
I'm with you, I don't like meat nor the taste much at all. ;D
ReplyDeleteIt seems that chicken is my shellfish x3 I admit, after I start vegetarianism, I'm going to indulge myself with popcorn chicken once every few months, not because I'm a cheater, but because if you don't do something like that once in a while, your diet is supposed to be more likely to fail. D:
What I'm wonder is whether Fish oil is vegan/vegetarian-friendly or not. I'm ordered by a doctor to take it four times a week. :(
Good luck with the vegan-ism >: D
Fish oil definitely is not vegan- nor vegetarian-friendly. :) Why does your doctor tell you to take it? There are some veg*n alternatives out there, but would need to know why before I can recommend some!
ReplyDeleteOoh, and if chicken is your weak point, allow me to introduce you to Morningstar Farms chik'n nuggets!! I loooove these things, as does my husband. They also make buffalo "wings" that we love as well (with a healthy dose of Ranch or some other dressing for me, as I can't take too much spice, haha). If I'm ever looking for something meaty, I'll often go to Morningstar products, actually, and they take care of it. They're great for new vegetarians.
Thank you! :) It's been a fun adventure so far!
It's my dentist who told me to take it, apparently my body is being self-destructive because it doesn't know how to manage stress. To release stress, I have nightmares regularly (in which I die before I wake up O_o) and grind my teeth really badly in my sleep. My teeth are cracked and chipped (but still look fine) and hurt all the time, and we're trying to fix my body's inability to deal with stress by nutrition.
ReplyDeleteI'm supposed to take:
B complex (50, not 100 because I'm petite) in early morning three times per week, alternating days
Magnesium 500 mg three times per week and take with B complex. I don't even know what this stuff is, so I doubt I'm taking it XD
Alpha lipoic acid early morning three times a week (same as above)
Vitamin C 500 mg 4 times a week
Fish oil, twice a day, one teaspoon, 4 days a week. No caplets. It's not as icky as it sounds, the vitamin B is worse. :|
*writes down the name Morningstar Farms* I'm going to have to beg for this stuff and hope we have it :D Thanks for telling me about it! ^___^
Thanks for sharing your whole vegetarian journey with us! :)
ReplyDeleteMine was discovering it came from animals (my brother pointed out a dead pig in a butcher's shop, and it lead to me learning that meat was animals) and because of how young I was I'm not sure if I just never enjoyed meat that much when I felt I had to have it (a lot of it ended up in the dog, because I couldn't finish it) or if it was about the animals and that knowledge stopped me enjoying it. The only meat products I ever missed were hot dogs, but I've discovered that veggie dogs taste just as good, without the guilty feeling of eating animals. The hardest thing for me to give up really was some of the foods that should be vegetarian but aren't. Like marshmallows. I've found a place that does vegan products though, and they have some vegan marshmallows which I plan to try at some point in the not too distant future. Beyond that, I don't miss anything.
Now, if I was to become vegan I'd miss more... So many of the things I enjoy involve dairy items and eggs...
I suppose my chosen path - I'm not sure if you know for sure, but I'm an Eclectic Wiccan - may have influenced it a bit, but I don't feel I can claim it has any definate influence on my choice to be a vegetarian. However, I do feel better for knowing I'm doing my part not to contribute to the killing of any of Mother Earth's creatures.
I know being an Eclectic Wiccan doesn't influence Kelly's dietry choices; he still eats animals (except he tends not to eat lamb, because the thought of eating fluffy little lambs is an issue for him... I guess that's a start!)
You're very welcome! And thank you for sharing yours, too! :)
ReplyDeleteIsn't that funny, the one thing that we tend to miss? Mine was bologna, oddly enough. Then I came across Smart Ones bologna. IDK if you have them in Wales, but if so, you MUST try them! If not, I should really ship some over! ;) Marshmallows was really hard, too, but I keep that at bay by remembering just what's in them. Ugh. You'll have to let me know how the vegan ones are!
I'm with you on the spirituality = veg*nism thing, too. It wasn't the driving force, but they're inextricably weaved now, which is definitely interesting. Matt's religion (Judaism) obviously doesn't drive his diet, either, but he DOES avoid certain foods now that he knows what's in them! Hot dogs and honey are two I can think of right off the bat. ;)
Oh, and tell Kelly that pigs and chickens and cows are fluffy, too! When a blow-dryer is applied, but still... LOL!
You're welcome. :)
ReplyDeleteI don't think we do... A lot of the vegetarian and vegan items available over there aren't available here. I mean, they've only just started stocking tofu in most places (seriously)!
I'll try telling him that. You never know, it might have a positive effect. Don't hold your breath though... I've only just managed to persuade him to try some vegetarian recipes, so I think he's a little way away from becoming one!
I pointed out animal fluffyness to Kelly... He doesn't care.
ReplyDeleteWell, it's his choice at the end of the day. I'd like it if we could be an entirely vegetarian household, but it's not my place to tell him what he can and can't eat really, is it?
Still, it was worth a try! :)
ALSO, I have finally found a way to follow your blog >:3 Only it's on my blogger account, so that might be a bit confusing, but the name is still the same. :3
ReplyDeleteStarlit:
ReplyDeleteThat's how I follow this blog... Through my Blogger account. Works just fine that way. :)
I think our reasons are ethical but more politically than spiritually so. We almost choose a vegetarian path at one point based on what we knew then. But based on what we know now a grain free diet seems more in synch with the lives we're trying to live.
ReplyDeleteThat definitely makes sense. :) Granted, part of my choice is political as well, but that's just one piece to the huge puzzle, as I'm sure it is with you and P. By contrast, I'd think that a grain-free diet would be difficult! I do see the political benefits of it, though, especially considering the government subsidies and other insanity that surrounds it.
ReplyDeleteYou and P, do you guys eat local, non-grain-fed meat, too? I've actually always wanted to ask!
I wish I could say 100% of the meat we eat is local, grass fed meat. We try to eat at least hormone free and grass fed as much as possible (and free range when it comes to eggs and chicken) if not local. On our salaries it does unfortunately add up to price. :( I think if we had a bigger place and a deep freezer buying locally in bulk would offset the cost. So sometime in the future that's what we'd like to do.
ReplyDeleteI know, the cost can be prohibitive. But IMO, if you do your best at it, it's worth a lot more than not doing it at all! That sounds like a great idea for the future, though, with the deep freezer; my parents have one they keep in the garage for such things like bulk meat. :)
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to pop in and say thanks again for sharing with us at PBP!
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