Later On

A blog written for those whose interests more or less match mine.

Guess I will stop eating pork

with 10 comments

Pigs are too smart and too self-aware.

Written by LeisureGuy

21 November 2009 at 4:31 pm

Posted in Daily life, Food

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10 Responses

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  1. So instead of being vegetarians we can become smartaterians….only eating really dumb species that don’t know they are food. I guess we’ll have to start administering I.Q. tests to the various species before we eat them. 🙂

    Steve

    21 November 2009 at 5:41 pm

  2. Well, some things are obvious: domesticated turkeys. And I think lamb and chicken are okay. I’m already off beef. But I’m definitely moving in the direction of eating only vegetables, and dumb ones at that.

    LeisureGuy

    21 November 2009 at 6:05 pm

  3. So no more octopus for you?

    TYD

    22 November 2009 at 7:00 am

  4. I was a vegetarian for 14 months. I gained 30 lbs. Always ravenous. Since I wasn’t eating any flesh, it was like a license to eat…massive plates of pasta, huge bowls of beans, olive oil galore. Problem is, if you have Metabolic Syndrome (most heart-disease patients and diabetics) the consumption of carbs makes a mess of blood-sugar and hunger. Even low-GI “complex” carbs, although of course they are absorbed more slowly and wreak less havoc.

    I finally went back to eating flesh…but since I can’t be a vegetarian and want to stay true to my principles….now, I only eat vegetarians!

    Steve

    22 November 2009 at 7:04 am

  5. I thought this might be relevant: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/opinion/22steiner.html

    TYD

    22 November 2009 at 7:17 am

  6. Octopus: good point—and relatively easy to give up, I admit.

    Steve: Certainly not a vegetarian, yet. But no reason to eat animals that have some self-recognition (i.e., can recognize themselves in the mirror). E.g., I would not eat bush-meat (monkey). And having seen in King Corn (fascinating documentary) how cattle are treated, it was easy to restrict myself to grassfed beef—though in effect I don’t eat beef now.

    Lambs are pretty dumb, though, as are turkeys. I’m debating chickens. Eggs are fine, of course.

    Dale recommended Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer, and I have a hold on it at the library.

    TYD, do you know Gary Steiner?

    LeisureGuy

    22 November 2009 at 9:25 am

  7. Yes, I do. A student once gave him much grief over honey — and, I believe, he took it to heart (though I pointed out this student still wore leather garments).

    TYD

    22 November 2009 at 9:43 am

  8. I must admit, I read the whole op-ed without ever once glancing at the by-line, so until you asked, I hadn’t made the connection.

    TYD

    22 November 2009 at 9:45 am

  9. I’ve noticed that, starting around the time I was teaching at St. John’s, I have paid more and more attention to names—who wrote the article, who’s being thanked in acknowledgements. Quite often I recognize a name—not necessarily a person I personally know, but a name I’ve become familiar with and see in other contexts.

    LeisureGuy

    22 November 2009 at 9:54 am

  10. I am almost a vegetarian. Also I have a problem with eggs from beaked chickens. Now most meat seems too rich – gives indigestion often upon swallowing. Never lost urge to eat sausage products. Pork is the hardest to give up. They say human meat tastes like pork. Maybe that’s why.

    Bob Slaughter

    22 November 2009 at 11:22 am


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