Days 18 / 19

So now the diet has gotten a little bit interesting as I've been trying to cut out animal products as well. I was having a conversation with my friend Brian about the diet and he said "me and my wife already spend $X per week on food for us and our daughter, I don't know if we could even afford to do an organic diet." I started to ponder this and realized that the 5% animal products diet (which is what I'm sort of following as of now) is actually not that expensive at all. Can you guess what the most expensive products we buy at the grocery store are? ANIMAL PRODUCTS! Chicken, beef, eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt. All of these things are very expensive. Vegetables and fruits are priced per POUND and already are fairly cheap. Pastas and breads can be a little pricey, but they keep for a while and feed a lot!

I don't think I could ever be a 100% vegetarian, because I sure love beef, chicken, and fish. However, I am starting to realize how expensive they are and how many experts say that Americans naturally eat WAY too many animal products in comparison to vegetables, fruits, and grains. The research from Dr. Campbell and Dr. Esselston from the Forks Over Knives documentary is astounding.

In the documentary there was an interesting story containing historical proof that meat and animal products cause all sorts of heart, blood, and liver problems. In WWII the Germans occupied Norway. One of the first things they did was confiscate all livestock in order to provide lasting food sources for their troops, forcing the Norwegians to eat primarily a plant based diet. Now if we look at the deaths caused by Circulatory based diseases during this period, the numbers increase gradually from 1927 until 1940 (23 years) by 150%. 1940 is when the Germans invaded and took the animals. From 1940 to 1944, the rates decrease by 150%. That means when the Norwegians stopped eating meat, they got back to where death rates were in 1927 in a matter of only 4 years. In 1945, the animals were returned to the Norwegians as the war was calming down. By 1949, the Norwegians were back to their same death rate before the Nazi Germans came in. It took just four and a half years to return to their same fatality rate. How could this NOT be proof?

The truth is, I love steaks and meat just as much as the next guy, but there's no problem with questioning how OFTEN I eat these things. We learn behaviors from our families, friends, neighboring communitarian, churches, relatives, schools, jobs, in everything we do. We are absorbing information constantly and doing so much of it instinctively and or subconsciously.

There is no doubt in my mind that living in the southern part of America has caused me to grow up with this mental status quo of how much meat and dairy I should eat. It has caused me to think "yeah I need lots of meat for protein and dairy for calcium and Vitamin D." For some reason, our brains aren't brought up to think "Hmm, vegetables and fruit have protein, too."

In fact, they have plenty of protein. We may have to eat more of them in terms of the physical "size" of the food, but research shows that fruit and vegetables fill us up faster than meat does in terms of calorie comparison. 500 calories of fruits and vegetables satisfies the average male stomach almost completely, whereas 500 calories of animal products only satisfies the stomach about halfway, telling our brains we are not full yet.

The facts are all there. My diet will continue and I continue to feel better every day.