the anti-vegetarian

Skinny Bitch just made a fatal mistake. It has just suggested that in order to be healthy, I have to become a vegetarian.

First, it bashed eating meat by arguing that animals are injected with all sorts of hormones, chemicals which, when ingested by humans, cause all sorts of diseases. Then, it turned its eye on dairy products, arguing that in the same way that a pregnant woman should watch what she eats and does (i.e. don't smoke, drink, or do drugs because it can harm the fetus), all the aforementioned hormones and chemicals that a chicken is exposed to definitely affects its eggs. Okay, fine, both are valid arguments. But it's not like plants are all that safe from our polluted environment either. It's not like plants don't have their fair share of harmful chemicals that come from pesticides and all that. So with that argument, I was okay with moving forward into the book.

The next chapter opened with this line: "If the first two chapters didn't convince you to stop eating animals and their products, maybe this one will." And then it proceeded to talk about what happens in a slaughterhouse. In. Full. Detail. With testimonies from people who have actually worked there.

Dude. Just because I love the burger doesn't mean I want to meet the cow and shake its hand to say, "Thank you for giving up your life just so I could enjoy your juicy meat in this burger." So I skipped the entire chapter.

Because the reality is, I'm not giving up my meat. I mean, as it is, I don't eat a lot of pork and beef. I'm not a person that loves sinigang, bulalo, kare-kare, caldereta, and all that. With certain cuts of meat, I just really need one piece because I shred it into little pieces. I'm really more of a chicken and seafood person. But this book is trying to take even that away from me. Even after I've made more of an effort to eat veggies (hello, Spiral Salad of KFC! a shoutout to Goolai's TexMex Salad, I miss yooooou!), and the fact that I like fruits and should really find a way to eat that more often.

Besides, I don't think becoming a vegetarian is just about a choice of diet or a stand against animal cruelty. It's a lifestyle, and not an easy one to maintain. It's not like today's malls are all that friendly to vegetarianism. Take a look at our wonderful, only-earns-money-at-lunchtime mall. I can't think of a place that has a meal with vegetables and nothing but. The meat is just everywhere. But okay, if you really wanted to turn vegetarian, there are probably other ways like bringing your own food or heading to the grocery to make your own meal. I just don't think it's fair to generalize that the way to become healthy is to turn completely vegetarian. 

So now I'm torn between sitting through the rest of the book (which has just finished bashing some U.S. government agency that supposedly protects the interest of the pro-meat delegation because almost everyone employed in that agency comes from that very industry), or just chucking it aside and moving on to the next one.

I wish it would tell me about carbohydrates and fats and what they do for your body instead. I wish it could've been more motivational. But what do you expect from a book that's entitled Skinny Bitch? It's being very bitchy indeed, imposing this meat-is-evil-and-plants-are-good philosophy as if it's all written down in black and white. Boo.