When it comes to meat, I am a carnivore. If my doctor told me, for health reasons, I couldn’t eat steak anymore, or any meat for that matter, I would feel a deep sense of loss. I’m not sure if I could go cold-turkey and live a vegetarian lifestyle after eating meat my entire life. On the opposite end of the spectrum, my friend, Tara Austen Weaver was raised vegetarian. After experiencing chronic fatigue which prohibited her from enjoying her favorite outdoor activities, doctors encouraged her to start eating meat. I don’t know about you, but I think it would be harder for a vegetarian to be forced to start eating meat verses a carnivore like me having to go vegetarian.
In her new book, The Butcher and the Vegetarian: One Woman’s Romp Through a World of Men, Meat, and Moral Crisis
Tara and I are fairly new friends. Both of us are food bloggers living in Seattle. We’ve shared dinners, respectively debated food blogging/publishing ethics, attended the same parties, food events, and workshops. Even then, I wasn’t aware of her life journey as it pertains to her health. After reading her book, I know far more about her than I expected to. It feels a little strange to read her life story across the pages of a book and have her know so little about me. I’m sure this will change over time but still… I feel a little guilty.
Since reading her book I’ve been dialoging with others about Tara’s experiences. Needless to say, there is a message to be heard and learned from Tara’s meat adventures. Not everyone may agree with what she has to say, but no one can deny everything she’s gone through. She shares her story in a non-judgmental tone but makes her position clear on why she feels so passionate about what she believes. I can respect her beliefs and more importantly, I admire her for sharing her life with me through her book. Besides, anyone who considers bacon to be the gate-way drug into the world of meat is alright by me. Although you won’t find any recipes in her book, you can find some of the dishes she mentions in it at Tea & Cookies, Tara’s beautiful food blog. If you love food, memoirs, and good writing, this book is for you.
PS: If you do read it, I would love to know what your thoughts were. Feel free to shoot me an email at alice@savorysweetlife.com. Like I said before, I’m still processing everything and think it would be fun to dialogue with others too!
Disclosure: Although I was given a copy of the book by Tea, my review of her book are my opinions and view point.
Karen,
Thanks for your thoughts.. it’s nice to read about others experiences.
Thanks for your comment Zoe.. I enjoyed your thoughts about this issue.
Karen, I understand your quandary. As a vegetarian, I’m not judging your choice to eat meat again since I am mainly a vegetarian because I have never liked the taste of meat (I know, right?!). Especially because of your sons illness, I completely sympathize. However, I want to amend your statement that you can only get large quantities of carnitine from pork and beef. While you don’t get as much from it as beef or pork, you can get plenty of carnitine from tempeh. In fact a person can get more carnitine from tempeh than they can from chicken, eggs, dairy products or fish. Ha ha, but if they are allergic to soy they are out of luck! Although they could always eat and insane amount of avocados. Ha ha, or ice cream! You just can’t win.
I was a vegetarian from age 14 until I turned 25, and then I was vegan until the birth of my third child (I had occasional cravings for fried eggs during my second pregnancy, which I indulged, but the rest of the time I was vegan).
When my third child was born, he was diagnosed with an “inborn error of metabolism”. They said his carnitine levels were extremely low, which was a sign of a genetic disorder. Then they tested my levels, which were also rock bottom–the doctor said she had never seen somebody with levels that low “still walking around.” Carnitine is a substance that our bodies can synthesize from lysine (found in chicken and eggs), or that we take in from foods, mainly beef and pork. I hadn’t eaten either beef or pork in over a decade. Without carnitine, your body can’t process fats for energy, and over time, this can lead to heart damage, possibly coma and even death.
So they told me to start eating meat again. It wasn’t easy. It is hard to accept that a lifestyle I believed was so healthy for me, led to my baby being so sick when he was born. It took him months to recover from that medical crisis.
I’m not without guilt. I’m inconsistent; I would never dream of eating mutton or lamb, or rabbit. I did eat horse, once, when I was in France as a child and didn’t know what it was before I ate it. (Perhaps that’s what pushed me down the vegetarian road?) But I know that this is the diet my body needs. I have learned since then that I also have celiac disease, and dairy intolerance. So wheat and dairy are out for me, but meat is in.
Thanks for the review, this book is going on my list. I can relate to your experience of a food book precipitating a moral crisis–after recently reading Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, I’m still processing my own moment of truth about meat.
Your review has me wanting to read this…. We are trying to reduce the amount of meat we consume in our house, and maybe this may help motivate us. Thanks
Thanks for the recommendation- I’ll definitely check it out!
ive been curious about this book, thanks for the write up.
This book sounds very interesting and eye opening. As a lover of bacon, the gateway comment sure made me chuckle. I think I’ll add this to my reading list. I appreciate other views given in a factual honest fashion.
P.S. I’m sorry I referenced your blog wrong in my last post. I put the sweet before the savory. Oops! You can tell where my taste buds lie. 🙂 Thanks for the visit and nice comment!
-Rachel from A Cupcake for Moose
(Twitter: @schalktalk) 🙂
I appreciate non judgmental. I appreciate that diet and nutrition have become complicated. What I can not appreciate, is that thought that eating meat might be the ‘cure all’ for someone and their health issues. I disagree with the other readers’ comment that,”…there is nothing very simple about nutrition”. There is nothing but ‘simple’.
Whole foods: living and organic, will provide you with all the nutrition you need, and more. I urge you and your followers to take a look at (and promote) some books that shed light on the detriments of a carnivore’s diet. Not only for our health, but for our environment as well. Not to mention for kindness and compassion’s sake.
After all, while we may differ in opinion on diet and nutrition, I believe we may all agree that eating a more ‘simple’, environmentally friendly, and non-violent diet is optimal.
And, if we can’t agree on that, I know for sure that we can agree on the following statement:
We all have children in our lives; we are someone’s child, have our own precious children, or know someone who has children. Open your hearts and minds to the fact that eating meat is murdering a mothers child. Do we really want to ignore the suffering that animals endure, simply for our taste buds? Do we really want our bodies, or our innocent child’s body to become a graveyard for those poor slaughtered animals who feel both pain and grief? Let’s begin thinking, really thinking about this. It may not be in our back yard, but it can be in your mind – if you allow it to be.
For the love of our children, our earth, and for a reverence for all life, please check out ‘Meet Your Meat’, ” Diet for a New America”, or even the vulgar but well researched,”Skinny Bitch” books.
Thank you for opening your minds to this comment. I know this is a lot to digest 😉
I’ve been thinking about getting her book. Honestly, the only reason I haven’t yet is because I have soooo much unfinished reading material on my bookshelves already. UGH… But I’m fascinated with the idea of the story; I’m sure it’s good.
Eating is truly complicated. There is nothing very “simple” about nourishment. I love to hear other people’s stories. Thanks for your review. I’ll let you know if I read the book!
Cheers,
Jackie