My introduction to the world of carnivores dates back more than two decades. Dad was a pork lover, while Mom was a champion of chicken recipes. Naturally, their offspring would share the same traits.
It was not until sickness struck that the meat caravan came to a halt.
With three of my relatives succumbing to cancer and a clinically proven ‘fact’ that my father’s side carries a cancer gene, things are starting to go green in our household.
I didn’t abide by it, of course. For one thing, I despise leafy green vegetables. For another, I just couldn’t find joy in eating plants.
There’s simply no match for my mom’s pork adobo! Today, I could hardly stand the sight of it.
What really drove me to the greener side is my fitness pursuits. A young adult’s world is littered with opportunities, financial gains, and lots of flirting.
An unfit twenty-something, single guy will hardly finish first in these races.
While I considered meat as the enemy, I know I will eventually fail should I go 100% vegan. I regularly exercise and run.
To fuel these activities, I need to have a national reserve of protein. I searched for answers, and God (or Google, rather) gave me Pescetarianism.
From Wikipedia:
Pescetarianism is the practice of a diet that includes seafood but not the flesh of other animals. A pescetarian diet shares many of its components with a vegetarian diet and includes vegetables, fruit, nuts, grains, beans, eggs, and dairy, but unlike a vegetarian diet also includes fish and shellfish.
Reading about it was like getting out of the tunnel. I still have a chance to live a longer guilt-free life!
Also, I love seafood (especially shrimps), so I feel I could do it.
The first two weeks of the pescetarian diet have been met with siomai cheats and a much-depressed-after Mang Inasal visit.
It was my used-to ways that are resisting the new fish and veggie regime, and I’m willing to compromise. So, I decided to have meat cheat days ‘once’ a month.
After the pact, meat cravings have been a rare sight. I’ve also added delicious fruit smoothies to help me calm the Tooth Fairy.
My day goes like this: Breakfast: fish + veggie + half a cup of rice / Lunch: fish (fresh or canned) + veggie + half a cup of rice / Dinner: fruit smoothie + water.
- Gradual and guilt-free weight loss
- No more oily face
- Calmer disposition in life
- Increased positivity
- More energy
A must share from Huffington Post, an entry by Chloe Spencer:
We aren’t natural carnivores.
Natural carnivores have claws, pointed front teeth to tear raw flesh and no pores on the skin so they perspire through the tongue.
Plant and fish eaters perspire through pores on the skin since they are searching for food during hot hours -- not hunting at sunrise, sunset or under cover of darkness as carnivores do.
Carnivores also have a shorter intestinal tract than plant and fish eaters do so rapidly decaying carcasses in the stomach can pass out of the body quickly.
Herbivores and omnivores have an intestinal tract that is several times their body length since a mostly plant-based diet doesn't include food that decays as quickly. The human intestinal tract is about 25 feet long.
Doesn’t that tell you something?
Fish on the other hand are digested much, much quicker than red meat. The omega-3 fatty acids that are in fish and seafood are necessary in the diet of a human being -- fish is the only true source of the omega-3 acids DHA and EPA.
There is no supplement that needs to be taken when the flesh of land animals is cut out of the diet; it only improves your health to not eat this kind of meat.
