[229] in Vegetarian_Support_Group
a thought-provoking piece
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (elsiedee@MIT.EDU)
Tue Nov 1 16:30:21 1994
From: elsiedee@MIT.EDU
To: vsg@MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 01 Nov 94 16:27:55 EST
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Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 08:01:43 -0500
Reply-To: "Linda G. Means" <means@PREDATOR.CS.GMR.COM>
Sender: Vegan Discussion Group <VEGAN-L%TEMPLEVM.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
From: "Linda G. Means" <means@PREDATOR.CS.GMR.COM>
Subject: Re: what *can* you eat?
X-To: VEGAN-L@VM.TEMPLE.EDU, ksp1@CORNELL.EDU
To: Multiple recipients of list VEGAN-L <VEGAN-L%TEMPLEVM.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
Kimberly Phillips said <ksp1@CORNELL.EDU>
>Does anyone else out there continually get questions like "*Can* you
>eat..." or "What *can* you eat?" and does anyone else find this odd.
>I feel strongly that my veganism is a choice and as such it is not a matter
>of what I *can* eat but rather what I *choose* to eat. No one is dictating
>any rules to me, I do this of my own volition.
>Has anyone come up with a good response to querries such as these? And for
>that matter does anyone else find them as strange and difficult to address
>as I do?
yes, this question bothers me too - I respond, I can eat whatever I like,
but I choose not to eat animal products.
I think the reason so many people think in terms of prescriptive diets is
because they allow their own diets to be prescribed to them, with little
independent thought/research of their own driving their choices. Their
diets are prescribed by the USDA, doctors, diet books, Weight Watchers,
McDonalds, habit, convenience. So they assume that if anyone varies from
mainstream eating, they must be on a prescribed diet. Sometimes I respond
to "what can you eat?" with a discourse on how interesting it is to develop
an individual awareness of the products we consume: their origins, the
implications of those choices, and how our bodies react to them ... why not
educate yourself and experiment with your diet in order to customize it?
The title of Gabriel Cousens' book, Conscious Eating, says it all -- learn
how to make your own conscious choices in terms of food.
What I wonder about is that humans have had organized systems of thought
and scientific inquiry for many thousands of years, but our society is
still so far off track in terms of diet is. Given that diet plays such a
large role in our physical, mental, and emotional health, and that health
is really the most important factor in our well-being, how can it be that
diet is not the most important area of scientific research, with billions
of dollars spent on it every year?
Linda
means@gmr.com
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