that’s right–I said flexitarian
07.02.08 - 09:59am
Wikipedia defines flexitarianism as:
a term used in the North America to describe the practice of eating mainly vegetarian food, but making occasional exceptions for social, pragmatic, cultural, or nutritional reasons.
Yes, wikipedia is nothing official and most of us have probably never heard of flexitarianism. However, much of how we eat today defines classification anyway and this term seems rather appropriate for the changes I’ve made in diet over the last couple of months.
These changes began when I finally took the challenge of doing the master cleanse. It was also during that time that I began to actually exercise again. Through that process I began to wonder how my diet should change and not just what diet I should go on. This led me to even more questions about the North American diet, why we eat what we eat and an even crazier question: what the heck are we eating?
I began talking with others who shared the same concern and ultimately it ended up landing a couple of books in my lap (surprise). The first book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, provided the answers I was looking for. What I expected to be just a collection of facts turned out to be a brilliant piece of journalistic literature that was surprisingly moving. I’ve never wanted to meet and sit down with an author so much. In this book, Pollan explains what our dilemma is and how we got here and figuring out why doesn’t trail far behind. The book is a collection of personal stories and experiences in tracing back the source of four meals that he eats. It touches on the following food chains: industrial, industrial organic, grass-fed, and hunter/gatherer. Don’t read it, if you’re happy gobbling on your chicken nuggets.
The follow up piece by Pollan, In Defense of Food, lays out a very simple plan for eating: Eat food-Not too much-Mostly plants. Sounds simple right!? Pollan says, “That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy.” The book goes on to explore what is meant by “food” since most of what we consume in North America isn’t really food at all. Extremely practical and sometimes witty, Pollan presents us with some logical solutions to the omnivore’s dilemma that aren’t anything new or yet to be approved by the FDA infomercial products, but get us back to what God may have intended to end up in our guts. Imagine that.
So at this point, Sherry and I are exploring what must change (and how to change it) in our family’s diet in order to do just that: eat food, not too much, mostly plants. Some things will be immediate and others gradual, but we’ve got a plan and we know why. Has, or is, anyone else dealing with these same issues? Where did you turn to find out any truth about the matter and what have the results been for you?
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