(https://www.airforcemedicine.af.mil/News/Article/808862/elder-fitness-program-gets-results/)
It wasn't always that way. Sometimes, you don't know the true value of something until you lose it. And I am very very fortunate to have regained my health.
In one of my posts, I mentioned:
"Eating meat again was one of the hardest decisions I had to make. It wasn’t until my health deteriorated to the point where I couldn’t function as a normal person (I was 93 lbs and I had bad stomach aches every day) that leaving my vegetarian ideals behind seemed like a possible option."
(wording changed from original for clarity purposes)
I would like to share my health story. Today's post will focus on the background. Next posts will detail the physical ramifications and the treatments I've tried. Future posts will touch upon the emotional "trauma" that forever shaped my life.
When I was a kid, I had an "iron stomach". I rarely got stomach aches, and it seemed like I could eat anything and everything with no ill effects. Little did I know how I would badly abuse my digestive system. My iron stomach would become a "paper stomach" that could not even tolerate regular food.
How did I drive myself to destruction?
I was a highly idealistic animal and nature lover (well, I still am, but slightly more moderate in my beliefs now). When I was 13, I stumbled across animal rights websites, and their propaganda struck deep into my naive psyche. Eating meat became evil to me, and I decided to be a vegetarian.
I spent a total of five years as a vegetarian. My idea of a vegetarian diet was unlimited desserts. Due to my iron stomach, I never cared much for health and nutrition. I thought I was invincible. In short, I had a severe excess of sugar and a critical deficiency in protein. A sample day might be Lucky Charms for breakfast, perogies for lunch, cookies for snack, and rice and salad for dinner with maybe a strip or two of tofu. Throughout the day, I guzzled juice instead of water, and overdosed with candy and chocolate.
The worst part was that I thought I was really healthy. No pop, no deep fried foods, no meat. And of course, the propaganda helped to enforce the healthiness of my choice:
I had no desire to change. My zealotry only increased as the years went by. I was self-righteous and thought I was changing the world, one faux chicken nugget at a time. I wanted to spread my message. In fact, I wanted to intensify my message. I began thinking of the transition to vegan.
Then, in my fifth year of vegetarianism, I was hit by an intense bout of "stomach flu". It started with regular food poisoning symptoms: nausea, diarrhea, stomach cramps. The only thing that was different was that it didn't go away. It morphed into severe bloating and stomach aches that would plague me for the next four years.
I couldn't really digest any food. Anything I ate would result in a stomach ache, where I would spend hours lying in bed wishing it would go away. As a result, I lost a lot of weight, strength, and energy.
I would spend hours in the fetal position (https://pxhere.com/en/photo/692806)
The stomach aches were daily occurrences, and it greatly limited by ability to work and learn. I had to scale back my schooling. I had to scale back my dreams.
But I refused to accept it was vegetarianism that was causing my woes. I stuck to my guns, stubbornly rooted in my ideals.
That year, I was also in my second year of university, completing an undergraduate degree in Animal Health, with ambitions to become a veterinarian (saving more animals!). My major was Production Animals, ironically. (It was rumored this major had a larger chance of getting into vet school). I took courses on animal production and had the opportunity to visit many farms and talk to farmers.
The reality of livestock production was a stark contrast to the imagery portrayed by the activist sites. The videos of abuse were very rare in reality, especially in Canada. Incidences of abuse were deeply condemned by farmers because the vast majority strive to provide their animals with the best care. Apologies if anyone finds this analogy offensive, but it reminds me of ISIS and Muslims. A few bad apples can paint the whole industry or religion in blood.
In addition, I learned that many of the "abusive" practices had no effect, or even a beneficial effect for animal welfare.
For example, beak trimming. Typically, beak trimming only removes the very tip of the beak. It is quickly seared off to prevent hurting other birds. The picture of correct beak trimming (below) is much different from the pictures portrayed by activist groups where half the beak is gone. It is true that these type of accidents occur with a small proportion of birds, but it is uncommon due to the use of guide plates and appropriate staff training. The welfare improvement from this minor procedure is less aggression. Chickens are like sharks, once they taste blood, they can cannibalize other chickens. By removing the sharp tip of the beak, fatal fights are significantly reduced.
(https://www.hyline.com/aspx/redbook/redbook.aspx?s=2&p=42)
Another example is the slaughterhouse videos of animals convulsing. Animal rights videos, and documentaries like Earthlings, love this footage. It is so emotionally compelling and shocking. After taking a course in Carcass and Meat Science, I learned that Canada has very strict standards for how animals are killed. They must be killed humanely where they must quickly and fully lose consciousness before they are cut into. What the videos show are post-mortem contractions. These convulsions can occur in any animal with muscles, due to the flood of calcium common with sudden death. The animal is already dead and unconscious at that point. They are not struggling in pain, or struggling to get away, as I had first thought when I watched those videos.
Learning the truth, and being disillusioned with the propaganda was the largest step in my transition to eating meat. Even then, eating meat was the hardest decision of my life. It felt like I was turning my back on my ideals, my integrity, my pride. I had lost. I had failed. It felt like I was destroying a fundamental part of my identity.
(In hindsight, that part of me was cancerous and letting it go was a key part of my own personal growth and development. But damn did it ever hurt.)
I started eating meat again with strict rules. I would only have a few bites of humane and sustainably raised meat. I had a strong preference for organ meat, since those were typically byproducts unwanted by other people, and I didn't want any part of the animal to go to waste.
As time went on, I learned to love meat again while my appreciation for the death of animals to sustain my body has only increased.
This post may sound bitter. It may sound like I swung to the other side of the pendulum where I'm against vegetarianism.
I'm not.
I'm against propaganda.
I'm against animal cruelty.
I'm against a dessert focused diet.
I'm for the truth.
I'm for animal welfare.
I'm for a balanced and plant focused diet.
I believe it is entirely possible to be a healthy vegetarian. But a tonne of care and attention has to be invested into curating a diet that encompasses vital nutrients that are scarce in plants (e.g., vitamin B12, omega 3, bioavailable vitamin A+D...I will go into this in a future post).
(Though I will have to add: After all my health research, I believe a vegan diet is not healthy long term)
Thanks for reading!
Stay tuned for next week's post where I talk about the different health and diet treatments I tried :)
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