Sometimes you hear someone say something and it makes so little sense that you almost do a double-take. Think "Dan Quayle". In this case, something I read had that effect on me:
[T]he treatment of animals that land on our grocery store shelves each day is deplorable. [...] While I am not vegetarian, I do make vegetarian choices on a regular basis in an effort to lessen my meat consumption.What on earth does it mean to make "vegetarian choices"? Eating an apple? Having a bowl of cereal with soy milk? Having a bowl of cereal with dairy milk? Eating an apple somewhere between having pepperoni pizza for lunch and a T-bone steak with egg salad for dinner? This is where concern about treatment seems to fall short, with the "every little bit counts" mentality shows itself to be ineffective, as does this half-hearted lip-service to animals called 'vegetarianism'.
I'm just sayin'.
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Speaking of paying lip-service to animals: In an article on "flirting" with Alicia Silverstone's Kind Diet, an aspiring foodie was no doubt chuckling to herself at her own cleverness when she wrote:
I decided to be kind to myself and try this diet in moderation. After all, who can go cold turkey from donuts, ice cream and fried onion rings? Plus, Easter is coming and I can’t miss pigging out on the Easter ham.It seems to have become the latest thing to review vegan cookbooks and intersperse parts of the actual review with references to delectable animal flesh--where eating animals (or animal products) is presented as the equivalent of eating a decadently fattening slice of cake. Such is the new interest in so-called ethical eating.
5 comments:
Huh? What was that woman on about re Alicia Silverstone book. Some onion rings and doughnuts ARE vegan, and as for ice cream, I have two family members who are really enthusiastic about Swedish Glace vegan "ice cream" despite being enthusiastic about dairy cheese.
Overheard on a bus: "I'm half vegan. I eat cheese. If I didn't eat cheese, I would die. That's all I eat."
"After all, who can go cold turkey from donuts, ice cream and fried onion rings?"
Anyone else think this is doubly ridiculous because those things can actually be made vegan? It's like people think that vegan food is only tofu and lettuce (maybe we should thank people like Oprah for making vegan food all look like detox diet stuff). My first vegan "meal" was vegan ice cream, at which point I was like, "O.k., yeah, I can definitely do this! No deprivation here!"
I know availability differs in certain locations, but if someone is willing to do a little of their own cooking then they will not go without plenty of sweet and/or greasy treats.
But since some people don't have the time/skills/energy/motivation, this is why I'm very much more plenty of processed vegan treats. It's not the healthiest stuff, but it definitely makes vegan eating a lot easier for most of us.
Meg, I am with you on the need for processed vegan treats!
It's frustrating that products such as vegan ice cream, vegan chocolate etc. are always more expensive than non-vegan versions. (Just as soft drinks are dearer than alcohol in pubs.) Maybe the vegan foods are better quality? Or, more likely, it's down to supply-and-demand. The prices will hopefully fall as more of us become vegan!
Many of the recipes in Alicia Silverstone's book are macrobiotic, so I'm assuming that's what the book reviewer was getting at, though many non-vegan and vegetarian writers make similar comments on how boring life would be without some animal product.
I reviewed The Kind Diet recently and I had a few issues with it: http://wftb.blogspot.com/2010/02/book-review-kind-diet.html
It is *surprisingly* easy to forgo donuts, ice cream and friend onions rings....ugh
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