Sometimes I think the fact that being a vegetarian or a vegan is considered a much healthier option is because of all the additives and chemicals present in processed foods. I’m frightened of McDonald’s meat patties because you honestly don’t know what’s in there. As for chicken nuggets (a childhood favourite), I learned that it’s essentially a collection of mutated chicken parts meshed with a machine. If you watched Supersize Me! or Food Inc., you’ll know that the mass consumption and food consumerism basically turned North America into a slaughterhouse and labour/slavery.
I’m not against eating meat, but I am vehemently against the unnecessary production of food stuffs that involve mass murder. Most of us don’t want to think about that I guess. After I tried to become vegetarian, I was more conscious of the things I eat. I stopped drinking pop because honestly, it’s all sugar, sugar, sugar. I try to avoid processed foods as much as I can because it’s unnatural, and I’m not a genius in food science or biology but I know human bodies aren’t meant to digest those artificial flavours. Everything that’s edible and fast-selling out there is meant to be addictive to increase sales. Sugar, salt, oil. Those are like socially acceptable cocaine or something. Everyone know it’s bad for your health if you eat too much but it’s okay if you eat a lot, even if you’re slowly killing yourself.
I came across this question while watching a documentary about obesity and food. What’s the difference between seeing a smoker and an overeater? It’s considered socially unacceptable and even rude to caution the person, hey, you’re damaging your body by eating like this, which is the same thing as saying, hey, you’re damaging your body by smoking like this.
If you think about it, there is absolutely nothing good that comes out of smoking and alcohol–but they have become part of our lives–social etiquette–even. Drinking wine gives you class. I remember there are some health benefits to alcohol or wine if you drink sparingly, but at the end of the day both drinking and smoking is bad. You can compare it to volunteer self-induced slow suicide, or at the least, body corruption. Nobody thinks that way, I guess. I think there’s this underlying belief that drinking and smoking makes you cool–I don’t have much knowledge about the history of alcohol and cigarettes but I do know that when companies want to make better sales, they try to make their products look cool and desirable. I know for a fact that would they hire celebrities to smoke or drink in movies to reach the public and promote the product.
Ugh. Everything always comes back to money, does it not? Our entire society is a fake produced by consumerism, greed and overemphasis on the material. How did this happen? That seems the wrong question to ask…because we know how it happened, don’t we. In many ways we are all responsible for the society today because we participate in it. If all of us just stopped buying McDonalds or Pepsi or alcohol for a single day (which is perfectly possible, though highly improbable)–and just continue to boycott poisonous foods, then the mass-consumption cannot continue.
How did I get here, anyhoo? In my mind, I was going to end up talking more about vegetarianism, but oh well.
(I need more research on this topic…more informed posts about this matter will come up in the future, probably)
