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This Omnivore’s Dilemma: Logic, risk and bacon
“Forks Over Knives” — and the level-headed commenters on a blog post I wrote last month about the new movie featuring former Austin firefighter Rip Esselstyn — make a compelling, logical case against eating meat, dairy and oils.
They’ve got the science and the anecdotal evidence to back it up, but I couldn’t put my finger on why I wasn’t completely convinced.
I did some thinking and reworked the blog post into a story that ran in today’s paper to emphasize that moderation is likely the best strategy to get the majority of American eaters to increase their veggie intake and reduce their meat consumption.
And then Jack LaLanne died.
The pioneer of the modern fitness movement — I first remember him in an infomercial for his juice maker — reportedly hadn’t had dessert since 1929, and Food News Journal asked a good question: Was it worth it?
How much are you willing to give up to prolong your life? What foods would you opt out of to improve the quality of your life?
When I pester my husband about smoking cigarettes, he likes to remind me that he could die tomorrow in a car accident instead. Jack LaLanne lived to be 96, which isn’t bad for someone who dedicated his life to fitness and health, but how did the 114-year-old woman from East Texas who died this week live so long?
We take all kinds of risks that might or might not impact how long we’ll live and the quality of our health in the years until we die. We jump out of planes. We bike to work. We repel off cliffs. We puff on a cigar while we sip brandy. We eat cheesecake. We pump melted butter on already buttered popcorn at the movie theater.
We eat bacon.
It was apropos that I came across this New Yorker cartoon while eating a very animal-product heavy breakfast one morning.
Do we choose eternal life, which doesn’t exist anyway, or do we choose bacon?
What we choose to put into our bodies is a complicated decision. We have to balance the risk of the consequences to our longterm health with immediate pleasure, and our choices change as our experience changes.
For me, I don’t want to live to be 96 if it means I can’t eat chocolate-covered raisins at a movie theater and a really nice steak on Valentine’s Day.
Moderation in all things — even moderation — is my philosophy, but it doesn’t have to be yours.
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June 22, 2011 10:52 PM | Link to this
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