eatkamloops.org

The Vegetarian Myth

August 24, 2009 on 4:21 pm | In Chronic Disease, Personal Stories, Urban Homestead, Weston A. Price Foundation |

I have just read a very interesting book called The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice and Sustainability by Lierre Keith. Lierre was a vegan for nearly twenty years. She tells her story of how veganism destroyed her health. She came to understand that vegetarianism was not the answer to: glowing health, feeding the world’s hungry, stopping animal cruelty, or saving the planet. This was a painful realization which she articulates with compassion.

I was a vegetarian for six years. When I was nineteen, I read Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe. It changed my life. I thought I could do one simple action, stop eating meat, and I would change the world. Unfortunately, vegetarianism didn’t work very well for me. I think The Vegetarian Myth is a good book to read. I wish at nineteen the book had been available to take the fire out of my own zealous beliefs. It could have saved me much suffering.

The Weston A Price Foundation has a Website Tour for Vegetarians. There are a number of excellent essays on the topic. These articles will give helpful suggestions that will protect the vegetarian’s health from common pitfalls.

If you would like to have more information about The Vegetarian Myth, I have a link to an interview with Lierre Keith. This is a link to Lierre Keith’s website.

Update December 8, 2009: I have just found a essay called Eating Meat: The Moral Question. The essay is by Harvey Ussery of The Modern Homestead.

This is an update about Lierre Keith’s last MRI of her Degenerative Disc Disease. Lierre believes that her back looks like a “sky-diving accident” because of a twenty year long low-fat, mostly vegan diet.

Updated January 9, 2010: The Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen was a very influential book for me in the 1980s. It was my favorite vegetarian cookbook and I used to recommend it to everyone. This is a link to Vegetarians Who Eat Meat. Apparently Mollie Katsen, a 30 year vegetarian, is now eating grassfed meats.