Nourishing Traditions

[Javamama]

Other people's wanderings help me the most
I feel the same way about my protein. I just NEED to eat meat some days. I crave beef especially. Actually, I'm craving it right now. Pardon the TMI, but I could never do vegetarian. Too many veggies turns me into a (as DH says) salad shooter
It gives me great peace of mind to know that other herbalists believe differently. I stopped taking the classes from that school because I just can't promote that belief system.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

I am so glad I am not the only one!
I too, cannot eat just veggies. I get cranky, lethargic, and I STARVE. Balance is my key. When I eat real food, a good mix with meat, eggs & milk, lots of veggies and little amounts of grain & sweets, I am healthy, active, happy-go-lucky and tend to burn off my slight spare tire.

Reinbeau, I have noticed the same thing. My self-adopted brother was getting married recently. DH & I were talking about nutrition & crap in diets. Vegetarians came up, naturally and he said "I bet M's wife is a vegetarian." We get to the wedding and in the prelude to the ceremony we found out she is a strict vegan.

The info in Nourishing Traditions just makes sense - our diets veered off path in the 60's, guided by the USDA, big-ag and the farm lobby, now it's being brought back to the path by knowledge, and I think that's a good thing. It's an uphill battle, though, until we 'vote with out wallets' for good quality food the garbage will continue to be promoted by those who are making lots of money on it.

Bingo! Very well stated.

 

[freemotion]

Me, too!!! I never tried the vegan thing, but did some "vegetarian days" each week, and never had enough energy on those days, so I gave it up. Now, armed with better knowledge, I can do ovo-lacto vegetarian days, which I do without even thinking about it, with all the raw milk and cheese and fresh-from-the-hen's-butts eggs we have available to us now, I am very satisfied. I do eat chicken and beef, and hope to have a steady supply of home-raised turkey eventually, especially since the first one we did tasted more to me like tender beef than store-bought turkey does.

Javamama, I just had a conversation on vegan vs omnivore with a Christian friend who also struggled with it....how were we designed to eat? She came to the same conclusion I did...based on reading the Bible start to finish. Adam and Eve were told to be vegans. They were perfect, and so was the food they were eating, planted by the Creator for them, and taught to care for the earth by Him. They lost perfection, and as mankind got further and further from perfection.....

After the flood, Noah and his wife and children and DIL's were told to use animals as food. Then the Israelites were given written laws, starting with the famous ten commandments, and followed by over 660 laws and statutes, many of them about food and cleanliness. They were given many laws on what creatures they could and could not eat, and how they were to be processed.

Then Peter (a Jew, following the Jewish dietary laws, then a Christian) was given a vision of animals that were not allowed to Jews and was told to slaughter and eat them. Three times he refused, saying they were unclean. Three times he was told to stop callin unclean what God had made clean. Although this was to tell him to preach the good news to Gentiles as well as Jews, it also gave Christians permission to eat pigs and such.

So this is why I personally feel that morally, I can eat meat. But morally, I feel I am also responsible to remove cruelty from the equation, since God sees even a sparrow that falls.

Hope I wasn't too preachy-sounding, this was my own journey, thought it might help.

 

[Wifezilla]

Adam and Eve were told to be vegans.

"The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. 3Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything."
Genesis 9 : 2-3

 

[freemotion]

Oh, thanks, I forgot that! That was after they lost perfection. I remembered that Abel sacrificed sheep, and that was approved. I forgot that they ate them, too.

 

[Dace]

Like Henrietta I struggle with my friends. My friends and I have always shared sale tips etc. but I am in a weird place right now.

On one hand I have always been a frugal shopper, stocking up on what is on sale, coupons etc...on the other hand, I am not interested in stocking up on .99 roasts and .49 chicken at the grocery anymore. Yet my family needs for me to shop smart as money is tight.

I am walking a fine line of making due and cooking several meatless meals per week.
Sometimes I am tempted to just buy what is cheap....and I still will here and there but I guess my consolation is that we are not eating that cheap meat every night.

When our money situation evens out, I will not be buying cheap meat, but for now finances will somewhat force me to.

 

[Javamama]

So this is why I personally feel that morally, I can eat meat. But morally, I feel I am also responsible to remove cruelty from the equation, since God sees even a sparrow that falls.

You summed up my feelings perfectly!

 

[freemotion]

Like Henrietta I struggle with my friends. My friends and I have always shared sale tips etc. but I am in a weird place right now.

On one hand I have always been a frugal shopper, stocking up on what is on sale, coupons etc...on the other hand, I am not interested in stocking up on .99 roasts and .49 chicken at the grocery anymore. Yet my family needs for me to shop smart as money is tight.

I am walking a fine line of making due and cooking several meatless meals per week.
Sometimes I am tempted to just buy what is cheap....and I still will here and there but I guess my consolation is that we are not eating that cheap meat every night.

When our money situation evens out, I will not be buying cheap meat, but for now finances will somewhat force me to.

Dace, it is ok, you have to feed your family first, that is your number one priority. Do what you can, when you can. It is a major struggle when you first learn all this stuff. But when certain things are a habit, it gets easier, and cheaper. When fermenting became easy for me, and we really developed a taste for it, our food bill started going down. Most of the foods I ferment are VERY cheap! So that is a good place to start.

Getting rid of processed grain products helps, too. They are VERY expensive. Getting used to eating less grains reduced our food bill again, in a huge way. We rarely buy that stuff now, just sandwich bread and flour tortillas, which last a looooong time here. The MEN artisan bread method is amazingly simple and very inexpensive even with purchased flour.....decent ww flour from Whole Foods is still around $1 per lb, the average pre-made products are $5-6 per lb in the grocery store.

I still buy commercial chickens, especially for catfood-making. When my dad and mom move to the area, I hope to do much more home-raised meat with my dad's help. Meanwhile, we are going to buy our first batch of bulk grass-fed ground meat and can it soon, and hopefully some stew beef to can for soups and stews and such. Saving up for even a small bulk purchase can save a lot.

I found a butcher who buys beef from New Zealand, it is grass-fed, and he sells it ground for $2.29 per lb. It is so lean, they have to add beef fat to it. I will ask for a box (60#) to be ground for me without the added fat, which I prefer for canning. I will make meatloaf, spaghetti sauce, and chili, and some soup.

 

[freemotion]

So this is why I personally feel that morally, I can eat meat. But morally, I feel I am also responsible to remove cruelty from the equation, since God sees even a sparrow that falls.

You summed up my feelings perfectly!

Yay! Religion can be such a touchy subject, I avoid it here. Whew!

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Like one of my long-distance friends said "I'm not a vegetarian, I just don't like eating misery. And thats all you can find in the grocery stores lately."