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To Meat or Not to Meat

I have always loved Hamlet's soliloquy, "To be or not to be." Today I was reminded again of a growing suspicion. . . perhaps meat is not for me. Alas, I am torn for I love Cafe Rio sweet pork burritos, and I love chicken, and I worry how I will ever obtain enough protein if I give it up?

The awareness dawned when walking my usual route. The polygamist colony recently acquired cows and I noticed them one morning. They are beautiful creatures. I felt so sad for their plight. I comforted my conscience by reminding myself that I rarely eat red meat--like not even once a year. However, I could not assuage my guilt as I considered chickens. I eat them and pigs. Are they not as cute?

I quickly removed the thought and decided I would not worry about the awakening now and would allow the awareness to grow till I could no longer ignore it.

Well today I had a conversation with a world renowned nutritionist who was giving me some tips about supplements and health conditions. She is a vegetarian and highly recommends the vegetarian diet. She abhors meat and insists if I insist on eating it, that I only eat organic meats and never red meat or shellfish. I never eat the latter and rarely the former. And I never purchase organic meats as I figure they are just a scam. Supposedly non-organic meats are laden with hormones that are harmful to our bodies and actually encourage cancer cell growth.

As this guru was teaching me, I was reminded of my earlier premonition that perhaps I should stop eating meat, but this time it was not out of love and concern for the animals, but motivated strictly by health. I feel the former was a nobler reason. I feel the latter to be less motivating for me.

Regardless, I'm not ready to make a definitive decision either way. I'm going to continue to eat meats sparingly and I'm going to experiment with plant based proteins. I am definitely cutting out deli meats--which I will miss as I do love deli ham and turkey. The nutritionist also thinks I should also give up dairy and this isn't the first time I've heard this, but truth be told, I love my greek yogurt and cottage cheese. Not sure I agree that they are bad for me.

I do want to live a long, healthy life, but truth be told, I feel pretty dang healthy already. I have no health complaints and I'm in the best shape of my life so why would I want to change one single thing?


So to meat or not to meat, that is the question!
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