All good stories begin with an introduction

For twenty-one years I was considered an omnivore. Then I decided to give up meat. March 13, my grandfather's, and my sister's cat's birthday, was the first day of my new animal-flesh-free lifestyle. Or so I thought. Like so many people who came down this path before me, I thought, "as long as I'm not eating anything that is meat I'll be fine. Bread, no problem. Bread never had skin or a nervous system. Cookies never screamed in agony as they were slaughtered. However, after I started reading labels on the back of food packaging, and after I researched what all those big words (such as monoglycerides) were, I realized that I was being duped by food companies nation- and probably even world-wide. Come to find out, the tortilla shells I was making my veggie wraps at work with had animal fat (a.k.a. monoglycerides) in them, as did the buns and rolls.

The words monoglycerides, mono-and diglycerides, glycerin, or any other imaginable variation will haunt me for the rest of my life. Now when I go into my local grocery store I have to go right by all the tables with the yummy looking pastries. The Italian bread that was once so tasty smeared with nice creamy butter, and the cupcakes with the pastel- and neon-colored frostings...the list goes on. Those foods are no longer open as options for my consumption. Why? Because food companies decided it would be a cruel joke to put in unnecessary animal parts as leavening agents. There are perfectly good vegetarian options that would serve the same purpose.

In addition to these, the phrase "natural flavors" sends my heart sinking to my feet with utter disappointment. It's a phrase that sounds so good. It's natural, as in not synthetic. That means it must be good, right? If only the companies who process and package these foods would list what that natural source is. All it takes is a simple parenthetical after the phrase to inform as to whether it's animal, dairy, vegetable, etc. Some of them do. Sometimes I look at a carton of vegetarian friendly soup and it says "(Soy)" after the words "natural flavors." Or maybe it will say "(from a vegetable source)." It is that easy. The food conglomerates do not need to reveal their secrets to us totally. It would not make a difference whether they listed which animal it came from or simply stated that it did come from an animal; I still would not eat it. But at least I would know for sure. If I knew that the Doritos that I used to eat had natural flavors from a vegetable source then I would most definitely keep eating those chips. Because it is unspecified, I do not risk the chance that I could be contributing to the slaughter of cows or pigs for their fatty flavoring.

Of course, I must clarify that my primary reason for turning away from pork, chicken, fish, and beef is not the welfare of the animals. This is certainly a contributing factor. However, what really turned me away from practicing carnivorism is for my own, selfish, well-being. Between talking to people who are vegetarians, reading about vegetarianism, etc. I determined that there was no logical reason why I should eat flesh. My liver produces all the cholesterol I could possibly need; and the nutrients that are supposedly gained by eating meat, I can get from some plant source. What drove me over the edge? The fact that more often than not, whenever I did eat meat, what I was biting into struck me as a disgusting inferior product that I should not waste my time or (more importantly) my money with. If I went to a fast food establishment, the beef patties rarely looked delectable or edible, and the processed chicken would, often, be full of fat and gristle. I once bit into a piece of chicken that was rubbery and tough. It had not been cooked properly, and I could not even bite into it. If I went to a sub shop, more often than not the sandwich meat (turkey was my preference) would be slimy, or otherwise not pleasant to come in contact with with my mouth. These various experiences caused me to retract my interest from the omnivorous lifestyle. The animal cruelty, and all of the other negative aspects associated with the meat industry, convinced me that the decision was the right one to make.
In recent months, especially when I am in the grocery store, I think of all of the things that I find terribly wrong with the limited information that consumers are given in order to make their decisions, and how they are misled through various marketing schemas. I find myself ranting to whomever happens to be shopping with me, and inevitably I say, "I should blog about this." Finally, I am taking the time to start doing so.

I have discovered that for my first twenty-one years of life, I ate foods that were not good for me, full of additives that could kill me, and used personal care products that were poisoning me from the outside in. My mother was blinded by the same kind of ignorance for almost forty years. From what I have determined, in this case, ignorance is not bliss. It is lethal.