When I was young, my parents were vegan, so I was too. Around 12, I started eating meat and continued until I was 16, when I became vegetarian. My motivation was found primarily in the book Diet for a New America by John Robbins—factory farming and the unethical treatment of animals—but I also believed a vegan diet to be the healthiest. At the time, I was heavily influenced by the work of John McDougall and later, Joel Fuhrman.
I still think I was right at the beginning, a vegan diet was the most ethical and healthiest, when organic/free-range/grass-fed/etc. meat wasn't available to me. But it is now, so about a year and a half ago, I started to rethink my vegetarian convictions. When my brother and parents officially became meat-eaters, I had to really take the idea seriously. It took me a while, but eventually, Sheldon—he'd been vegetarian for over a decade also—and I decided that we were going to add high quality meat into our diet. After twelve years without a bite of meat, on the fourth of July, 2011, I had three strips of bacon. I was not vegetarian anymore.
Today, I believe in eating real food, light on the sugar, wheat and dairy, heavy on the plants. During my pregnancy and early baby days, I lost my way a bit. Life is getting easier now and we are finding our new rhythm around here, so I am recommitting. There will always be more to learn, but I am doing my best to feed my family well with the information I have now.
How about you—has your path to the right food choices been as winding as mine?
~~~
I've put together a Miranda Makes Book List of some of the books about food that I am currently influenced by. If you do buy from my Amazon aStore, I receive a small fee, but I doubt it will be a huge money-maker. ;) I plan to add more books as I write posts about them. A reader (Hi Jill!) emailed me recently asking for some book recommendations after noticing the books in my sidebar had changed. Unfortunately, I don't have a master list of what has appeared there, so I think starting this little book shop could be a nice way to keep books I recommend all in one place.
Thursday, May 17, 2012 
