Welcome to Day 19 of my Vegan Month!
According to Strava’s study of 800 million user-logged activities, most people give up their New Year’s resolutions within 19 days. While my Vegan Month is not a New Year’s resolution per se, I did begin this adventure on January 1, so making it through today felt significant.
To celebrate this significant milestone I baked two loaves of whole wheat sourdough bread and took a quiet moment away from my desk to eat a chocolate tart. I also cleared off my desk from all its clutter and allowed myself to dream of future dream travel destinations, near and far. (My newest obsession is my bullet journal. I’m a little late to the 2017 trend, but I’m loving the focus it has provided me.)
On my walk through my cozy neighborhood – on one of my many, many, many walks – I had a thought: If we can get all our necessary vitamins (with the exception of B12), minerals, and nutrients from a vegan diet, why do we eat animal products at all? Or at least why do we eat so much meat? I know people for whom going one single meal without meat would be unthinkable. Every meal! I’m assuming that would look like bacon for breakfast, a turkey sandwich for lunch, and roasted chicken breasts for dinner.
Why do we – as Americans – eat so much meat? Do we positively associate meat consumption with masculinity and negatively associate vegetable consumption with femininity and/or rabbits, as I’ve heard salad described as “rabbit food”? Do we inherit our food consumption patterns from our parents? If you ate Sunday roast every Sunday, a life without it may be unimaginable. Or do we make incorrect assumptions about how much protein the body needs and where that protein has to come from?
The answer may be a combination of all the above reasons. Do you have any thoughts as to why meat eating is so tied to the “American identity”?
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