The Veggie Experiment

Today begins an adventure in our household. We are going to try to be vegetarians for one month. Why? 

Well, there was D.'s post about this on his birthday almost a year ago. 

But there is also the truth that over the last few years, I have been learning a lot about being healthier. I have IBS. I figured this out about 8 years ago; I went to the doctor, and he prescribed medication for me. I soon realized that the medication had side effects: mainly dizziness and headaches. I learned that if I changed my diet the symptoms diminished without the weird side effects. This was really the beginning of my journey. 

A few summers ago, I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, and I started to think about some of the other impacts my food choices might have--on my community, on the environment, and on my health. Since then, I have had the joy of forcing approximately 120 college freshmen to read this book (or at least to pretend that they read it). 

I also watched Food, Inc. and I was challenged to think even more about the impact my choices have on the environment, but also on the people who produce this food. I'll confess to you that I never really felt bad about an animal being killed to fill my stomach, but when I saw the images of how many animals are crammed into very small spaces and the unhealthy working environment this creates for farmers and meat-packers, it had an impact on me. 

So we are not planning on becoming full-time, official vegetarians, but we want to be healthier, and to depend more on fruits and vegetables for our nutritional needs rather than meat. Hopefully, one month's worth of vegetarian dishes and experiments will help us on this journey. 

**Note: I'll be cooking vegetarian meals for D. and I, but we will not be super-strict on Isaiah's diet, and we will definitely be giving Ezra some meat. He is allergic to milk and eggs, and that eliminates a lot of sources of protein from his diet. I don't want to load him up too much on soy products, so we'll be buying a little bit of meat just for him.