Showing and beef (revised) - H
So, I'm 17.5 weeks pregnant, and I'm still wearing my regular clothes. No maternity for me. I still fit into my jeans and all my pants for that matter (although they are a little bit tighter), and I'm happy with that. I'll be glad to put off losing what figure I have as long as baby will let me, but I think other people are eager to see evidence of my pregnancy. It makes me wish I could somehow or other make myself show so that I could appease them. Gosh, pressure, pressure everywhere! =)
I'm thinking about going the route of the vegetarian. It's partially due to the fact that I've been turned off by meat due to morning sickness, and it's still not appetizing now. I've also been turned off to beef by this article E read about beef. So, most cows are currently cornfed b/c the government subsidizes corn, and it makes for incredibly cheap feed for the cows, roughly $60 to feed a cow on corn until it's ready for slaughter, a little more than a year after it's born. However, cows are not designed to digest corn, and it actually makes them sick, so sick in fact that they would die if it weren't for the antibiotics coursing through their veins. This is probably also why they are injected with so much growth hormone. Otherwise they would die before they were big enough to go to slaughter.
The other consequences of raising cows on corn is that they are fatter, which if you're a beef lover is actually a good thing for you. This extra fat yields that all-too-delicious (yet very unnatural) marbled cut of meat that we have grown to love. However, b/c cows cannot properly digest the corn, they also yield less nutritious beef. (That's right, beef can actually be nutritious.) The other thing that was really eye opening is that it's not just a matter of personal health, but it's an ecological issue which affects the relationship between cows and the grass, but also our water sources (contamination of - due to the chemicals in the feces of these cows) and our reliance on petroleum. The overall cost of producing a pound of beef is not just monetary, but much more far reaching, and not at all worth the cost to our health and our world. If you want to read the article, here's the link - http://www.michaelpollan.com/article.php?id=14. It's actually quite disturbing to know where our beef actually comes from, the impact that cattle raising has, and just how cows are raised. IT'S DISGUSTING!
So, in short, conventionally produced beef is unnatural, unhealthy (source of saturated fat and cholesterol), not nutritious, and laced with all kinds of chemicals (antibiotics and hormones), bad for our environment, and increases our reliance on petroleum. Perhaps the only redeeming quality about it is the pleasure it brings to die-hard beef fans. I personally don't think that's enough to continue eating beef. Some things in life are more important.
Here's some more food for thought. They say the estrogenic hormones could be linked to early puberty in young girls, but they may also be linked to decreased sperm count in men. (Bye-bye, little guys!)
However, there are alternatives out there for you beef eaters. I was introduced to buffalo whose meat is more nutritious. I guess they're still raised on grass and hay. The other bonus is that buffalo meat contains about 25% of the fat of beef. Of course, you probably won't find buffalo meat at your local grocery store. The other good alternative is probably to make sure the beef you do buy is cut from grass fed cows, and if they're organic in addition, well then, you've got your beef the way it was meant to be. These alternatives, of course, only benefit our health, and the impact to the environment is still great whether we eat organically grown, grass-fed beef or the other stuff. The most environmentally responsible, and health-conscious choice is to cut beef out of your diet altogether. I'm leaning that way, and E's trying it out too.
The more I learn about the mass production of produce and meats, the more turned off I am, and the more I'm convinced that the little extra it may cost to buy organic products (and from small, local farms) is really worth it. I wonder if anyone will ever come up with a reasonably-priced, all-organic restaurant with plenty of delicious vegetarian options.
I'm thinking about going the route of the vegetarian. It's partially due to the fact that I've been turned off by meat due to morning sickness, and it's still not appetizing now. I've also been turned off to beef by this article E read about beef. So, most cows are currently cornfed b/c the government subsidizes corn, and it makes for incredibly cheap feed for the cows, roughly $60 to feed a cow on corn until it's ready for slaughter, a little more than a year after it's born. However, cows are not designed to digest corn, and it actually makes them sick, so sick in fact that they would die if it weren't for the antibiotics coursing through their veins. This is probably also why they are injected with so much growth hormone. Otherwise they would die before they were big enough to go to slaughter.
The other consequences of raising cows on corn is that they are fatter, which if you're a beef lover is actually a good thing for you. This extra fat yields that all-too-delicious (yet very unnatural) marbled cut of meat that we have grown to love. However, b/c cows cannot properly digest the corn, they also yield less nutritious beef. (That's right, beef can actually be nutritious.) The other thing that was really eye opening is that it's not just a matter of personal health, but it's an ecological issue which affects the relationship between cows and the grass, but also our water sources (contamination of - due to the chemicals in the feces of these cows) and our reliance on petroleum. The overall cost of producing a pound of beef is not just monetary, but much more far reaching, and not at all worth the cost to our health and our world. If you want to read the article, here's the link - http://www.michaelpollan.com/article.php?id=14. It's actually quite disturbing to know where our beef actually comes from, the impact that cattle raising has, and just how cows are raised. IT'S DISGUSTING!
So, in short, conventionally produced beef is unnatural, unhealthy (source of saturated fat and cholesterol), not nutritious, and laced with all kinds of chemicals (antibiotics and hormones), bad for our environment, and increases our reliance on petroleum. Perhaps the only redeeming quality about it is the pleasure it brings to die-hard beef fans. I personally don't think that's enough to continue eating beef. Some things in life are more important.
Here's some more food for thought. They say the estrogenic hormones could be linked to early puberty in young girls, but they may also be linked to decreased sperm count in men. (Bye-bye, little guys!)
However, there are alternatives out there for you beef eaters. I was introduced to buffalo whose meat is more nutritious. I guess they're still raised on grass and hay. The other bonus is that buffalo meat contains about 25% of the fat of beef. Of course, you probably won't find buffalo meat at your local grocery store. The other good alternative is probably to make sure the beef you do buy is cut from grass fed cows, and if they're organic in addition, well then, you've got your beef the way it was meant to be. These alternatives, of course, only benefit our health, and the impact to the environment is still great whether we eat organically grown, grass-fed beef or the other stuff. The most environmentally responsible, and health-conscious choice is to cut beef out of your diet altogether. I'm leaning that way, and E's trying it out too.
The more I learn about the mass production of produce and meats, the more turned off I am, and the more I'm convinced that the little extra it may cost to buy organic products (and from small, local farms) is really worth it. I wonder if anyone will ever come up with a reasonably-priced, all-organic restaurant with plenty of delicious vegetarian options.
posted by haed at 4:32 PM
1 Comments:
Mmmm.... makes me hungry for a steak. I LOVE corn.
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