Thread: can you cook?
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Old 05-16-2014, 02:15 AM   #178
vixnix
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After seven years switching between vegetarianism and veganism, I began craving animal flesh - and when I became pregnant for the first time it got even worse so in the end I just stopped fighting it.

I would always eat shellfish and fish, maybe a couple of times a year - I would get these huge urges and would give in and eat a lot of mussels or some sashimi or something. The reward signals in my brain were crazy, it was like crack.

The same when I finally gave in and began eating chicken - I was living in a house with vegan flatmates at the time, so I would buy cooked chicken drumsticks from the deli on the way home from uni, and eat them hunched over on a park bench in the botanic gardens, then smoke a cigarette and chew some gum to disguise the smell of decaying animal flesh on me. But I remember feeling a surge of good feelings, sitting on that park bench. Eating those chicken drumsticks made me feel like I was walking on air.

I was all systems go as a 16 year old vegan - and 23 when I finally gave up. My health improved pretty dramatically. You gotta look at the sort of breeding you have before you go vegan...this:
http://www.iisd.ca/uncsd/prepp/image...hoto_11-tn.jpg
and veganism don't necessarily jive, that much.

When you remove large quantities of saturated fat and animal protein from the Samoan diet, and replace it with plant fats and carbohydrates...you commonly see this:

http://travelcrawler.co.uk/wp-conten...31_306x464.jpg

Samoans are big eaters and need plenty of plant fibre, animal protein, and animal fat in their diets to stop themselves from becoming overweight. Without the appropriate food and appropriate amount of rest triggering the right chemical reactions from the brain, the hormones that control their appetite and satiety become out of kilter and we will just keep eating until we throw up - watching what we eat is miserable and leads to obsession because unless we mimic the conditions we are adapted for, we feel the need to eat something else.

Trots he was never vegan - he was vegetarian. But the poor thing couldn't make it work - when we were eating meat he would "just try it" and then couldn't stop himself from eating it once he started...I could see he was starting to feel ashamed of himself. So I told him it sad that we kill the animals for meat, but they are given a good life. Which is true - we buy free range chicken/eggs/pork, and grass feed lamb/beef. Still not sold on beef. It's expensive environmentally to rear it, and no better in terms of nutrition, than sheep or pork. And cows and pigs are significantly smarter than sheep. You can't send a dog to round them up, for instance.

 
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