Anyone thinking of eating a plant-based diet

[kally]

http://www.vegsource.com/news/2013/1...-md-video.html

well I was sort of close. Intestine, not liver. I watched this a while back and found it very interesting.

[Ultralight]

sometimes it takes a second try with new information.

My ultimate plan -- in all seriousness -- is to eat a plant-based diet supplemented by animals I harvest myself, or some I know harvested. This basically means I'll eat speckled bass, bluegills, trout, and catfish (and mostly just during spring and summer). Throw in the occasional piece of venison from a friend and the occasional salmon my dad catches.

I am not big on dairy products or eggs. Though I do like goat cheese and pecarino romano, which I keep on hand. I will go through maybe a dozen eggs in a month.

Mostly I eat grain, lentils, beans, nuts/seeds, and fruit. I choke down a fair amount of celery and carrots too!

[Ultralight]

http://www.vegsource.com/news/2013/1...-md-video.html

well I was sort of close.

I can't watch this vid at work. Feel free to summarize.

What I really miss about being vegan are:
1. The sense of superiority over everyone else.
2. Being able to immediately make friends with any vegan in about 30 seconds. haha

[Dhiana]

Getting a CSA bag with tons of leafy greens, I have found quite a few tasty ways to eat them all:

My favorite is to make spinach curry, usually is 50% mixed greens with 50% spinach. It's a good place to add some of those anti-inflammatories (turmeric, etc.) mentioned in another thread

Then the green curry can be eaten with rice, potatoes, or in tortilla shells.

Other things can be added later such as lentils, pumpkin, cheese depending upon what is available.

I've added it to red sauces and made spaghetti, lasagna, pizza, etc.

Also made green curry pizza.

It freezes and thaws well.

Don't add dandelion greens...there is little to do to save a batch if you add in dandelion greens!

[bae]

For ages, my wife and I ate a mostly-vegetarian diet, supplemented with meat we harvested ourselves. We were at the time concerned with the ethics of factory farming, and not engaged in some hair shirt environmentalist jihad to eat low on the food chain to "save the planet".

Since we moved to our current community 15+ years ago, we eat a lot more meat. It is easier to harvest/forage ourselves, and we have great sources of locally-raised cows, pigs, chickens, goats, lamb, ... Raised by people we know and trust, where we can verify the conditions. Raised appropriately and sustainably, on land that doesn't reasonably produce other crops.

I took delivery of two slaughtered goats just last week, from a farmer who lives on the next island over from us. She raised the goats for us, and we provided her funding along the entire process, and contributed some labor. My daughter raised her 4H animals on that farm for years, and built the goat barn over on the farm with some of her friends for the farmer, and got the farmer hooked on meat goat production.

Every year I commission a 4H kid to raise me a cow, and several kids to raise me lambs.

[Ultralight]

For ages, my wife and I ate a mostly-vegetarian diet, supplemented with meat we harvested ourselves. We were at the time concerned with the ethics of factory farming, and not engaged in some hair shirt environmentalist jihad to eat low on the food chain to "save the planet".

What do you mean by this? The comment sounds rather elitist.

I took delivery of two slaughtered goats just last week, from a farmer who lives on the next island over from us. She raised the goats for us, and we provided her funding along the entire process, and contributed some labor. My daughter raised her 4H animals on that farm for years, and built the goat barn over on the farm with some of her friends for the farmer, and got the farmer hooked on meat goat production.

Goat is definitely my drug of choice when it comes to meat. I have a weakness for it, I really do.

On Xmas day I went to a Pakistani restaurant with my gf. She got chicken Karhai. But I got the goat chops curry. It was pure foodgasm!

[JaneV2.0]

We were at the time concerned with the ethics of factory farming, and not engaged in some hair shirt environmentalist jihad to eat low on the food chain to "save the planet".

My sentiments exactly. Those hair shirt jihads are generally misguided at best, and guaranteed to make me want to do just the opposite of whatever the sacrifice du jour is.

[Ultralight]

We were at the time concerned with the ethics of factory farming, and not engaged in some hair shirt environmentalist jihad to eat low on the food chain to "save the planet".

My sentiments exactly. Those hair shirt jihads are generally misguided at best, and guaranteed to make me want to do just the opposite of whatever the sacrifice du jour is.

Explain, if you would.

[bae]

What do you mean by this? The comment sounds rather elitist.

You say "elitist" like it is a bad thing.

I can math. I can science. I can engage in critical thinking. I prefer to spend my energy on things that produce real outcomes, and that produce positive gains for the energy expended.

So yes, I'm an elitist.

I run our local village's water system. I have hair shirt environmental types constantly pressuring me to adjust our rate structure to punish heavy users of water, because "water is precious, a scarce resource, and, umm, people in South America are having their water stolen by Nestle!" Well, on this island, in our area of service, we have plenty of water, it's practically free to process/treat/deliver (except for the cost of the plumbing), and "saving" water doesn't save it - every drop that falls here either runs over the rocky island into the sea, or it gets captured briefly, used by a household, sent to the treatment facility, then...wait for it....returned to the sea. It is not worth time or money to "conserve" water (within a certain range of use), because it's only a feel-good effort, and it is a waste of precious time and capital that could be used for other things that really *do* improve the environment.

[JaneV2.0]

Yeah, that water thing is mystifying to me, too. It's a cycle. If your country, location, community cuts down all its trees and encourages massive runoff, water will just be produced elsewhere.

Another example is "Zero Population Growth," which was the rallying cry thirty years ago or more. Because the planet is hugely overpopulated, no food to go around, etc etc. (That was fine with me; I had no desire to produce offspring.) In China, they institutionalized it with massive programs involving coercion, penalties, force... It's no surprise that now they have a generation of men who will never find brides, an aging population, a looming shortage of workers, and all the predictable sequelae that follow well-meaning but ultimately flawed reasoning.

So now, in all but the most backward countries, populations are falling. It remains to be seen what the ultimate outcome will be.