1451:
Edited by CJ
Tointon
In my early twenties I noticed some unexpected deteriorations in my body. I
instinctively put this down to lifestyle abuses, particularly my crap diet,
specifically my use of animal products. Reason enough to try to avoid animal
stuff altogether. And simultaneously, I was finding out about the endemic
cruelty involved in farming animals. Forty years later, I know my
instincts were spot on.
At the time, I couldn’t admit that my eating habits were clouding my judgement.
Now I know they did! Luckily I stumbled across macrobiotics and that
eventually got me away from crap food and led me towards whole foods. Later,
as the concept of 'Animal Rights' began to sink in, I was drawn to a
plant-based food regime. I began to feel my taste for this
sort of food growing. I actually liked it more than I thought I
would. As I got over my cravings for 'nursery teas', rich dinners and
snack treats, I came to feel a sense of tremendous gratitude that I had
stumbled upon all this at a relatively early age. These
days much younger people are introduced to plant-based regimes and there are
even kids who’ve been vegan from birth. I regard these as the lucky ones.
But I appreciate my own early exploring and the fact that I didn’t leave it
too late to realise that something in my life was about to be irretrievably
spoiled. Vitality and sharpness, which I think I possess, did not
necessarily have to be adversely affected by the 'ageing process' (which is
what most older people put their various deteriorations down to). I now
realise that the great benefits of having both a clear conscience and a healthy
physical body can be put down to eating 'clean' food, by which I mean
plant-based foods.
Back-in-time, something else was jogging me in the right direction. I
was school-teaching and many of the kids came from overseas (this was London
1968). I saw kids who’d suffered serious malnutrition and who’d lost
confidence in themselves because of it. Their circumstances had now changed
- they'd come to an 'advanced' country to live. But what I saw was not
very advanced.
I saw them now being poisoned by crap Western food - and
eating too much of it. When their bodies bloated out it was another blow
to their self-esteem. Then, as they learnt about animals on prison farms,
I suppose it added to their sense of shame. In a short space of time I
saw honourable children go downhill - and all because they were mesmerised by
plentiful supplies of food and they wanted to enjoy eating 'junk' food - like
other kids.
Because of the human's attachment to animal food over many generations, the
harsh reality of what animals are put through is forgotten. We’ve
grown accustomed to it. Habits have formed and we've grown into 'hard
hearts', hardening with every mouthful of 'animal food' we eat. In the
flush of adult independence, we get used to our own ethical indifference and
become hooked by our various food addictions. And as we continue to
accept the foods we like eating, they gradually wreck both body function and
our empathy for the creatures we are eating.
For economically-challenged animal farmers, their farm 'produce' is good
news. For
the rest of us - it's bad news! We should realise that animal products
are the very worst of ingestive materials and yet they are eminently
give-up-able.
No comments:
Post a Comment