Welcome! This is a way for me to share about my experiences as they relate to myself, family, health, compassionate cooking, baking and yoga. Enjoy!

Monday, October 14, 2013

Cigarette Anyone?


What kind of title is that you may be wondering, I will get to that momentarily.  My passion for food is well known.  Not only do I love eating it and cooking it, but I also enjoy sharing with people of all ages why we eat the way we do.  I still get the "what do you eat?" or "you need meat and dairy to be healthy."  Weeellll, let's just say I most definitely disagree.  It all began when my yoga mentor, Shelli Carpenter, opened my eyes and taught me so much during my yoga teacher training.  Things that once seemed normal I now had reason to question.  Like the fact that humans are the only ones who consume another species milk.  I never thought twice about it because it was the "norm" or so I thought.  Seriously, think about how ridiculous it is.  That milk is designed to grow a 70-100 lb. baby calf into a 500-600 pound young cow in a matter of months.  Gee, I wonder why we suffer from chronic disease that is, without a doubt, connected to what we eat and drink.  As for trying to convince myself that buying organic was any better, using my brain, it didn't take long for me to realize just as humans have hormones, so do other beings.  No matter how organic you think you're getting, you cannot avoid the animals natural hormones.  So if I were only taking the health route, this should have been enough to convince me to rethink mine and my kiddos diet.  In the meantime, I have also achieved my certification in vegan nutrition and am currently completing certification in Nutritional Counseling so I can be available to educate others on the health benefits of following a plant based diet.

Okay, so what does all this have to do with cigarettes?  It is basically to prove a point.  In educating myself on the reasons for eating plant based, I felt is was necessary for my children to also understand why we were making these lifestyle changes.  I obviously would not recommend allowing a child to watch Earthlings, but I do recommend it for adults who want to know the far reaching impact of consuming animals.  However, teaching my children the compassionate and health based reasons for a plant based diet, in an age appropriate manner, was extremely important to me.  If you feel you need to lie or shield your children from the truth regarding their food, drinks, toiletries or clothing, shouldn't that make you think there is something wrong with the whole picture of what society considers normal?  Many people feel that my children miss out on things.  I couldn't agree more, that is my intent.  I want my children to miss out on diabetes, heart disease, cancer, stroke, high blood pressure, etc, etc.  When I decided years ago to make the diet changes I've made, if I would have continued to allow my children to eat the SAD way (standard American diet, I did not make that up), then what message am I sending to them.  Mommy is making changes to be healthier, but I don't want to force you to do it too because you may throw a fit or society may question my parenting.  Parents in general have rules.  Why do we allow our kids certain things but not others?  The answer... to keep them safe and healthy.  We all know, now, how harmful cigarettes are so we don't buy them for our kids and when they get older, we don't encourage them to buy them for themselves.  Why?  Because it is harmful to their health and well being.

The viewpoint of comparing animal products to cigarettes may seem extreme or even ludicrous, but so is the view on what we as a society have deemed normal or even important in our daily lives.  I guarantee most people have heard about the studies, from reputable sources and universities, regarding the negative effects of consuming animal protein.  Yet billions still insist on giving their families animal protein not only once a day, but multiple times a day.  Most people, whether they admit it or not, know that along with any vitamins or minerals animal products may contain, there are even more damaging things that come with them.  So my connection between giving your children cigarettes and animal products is quite justified.  As my oldest so eloquently put it "just as smoking one cigarette won't kill you right away, having them over the course of years will and that is exactly what consuming animals does".  Yes, my children are brilliant!