Saturday, September 8, 2007

Something Smells Fishy

This morning I did something I have not done in over 10 years- I cooked and ate fish. I have been a lacto-ovo vegetarian for 10+ years for a variety of health and political reasons. The movie A Diet for a New America that was shown to us in one of my undergraduate courses really made an impact on me and opened up my eyes to the animal cruelty that happens around us every day. Whether it is buying eggs from poultry farms that house their chickens in inhumane conditions because we are unwilling to pay the extra buck to buy free range eggs, or ignoring the dog sitting in a sweltering car because we think that their owner must be coming right back, its wrong. Growing up in a rural farming community you can see instances of mistreatment of animals quite frequently yet no one out here seems to take a stand and call the Humane Society about it. I have always maintained that there is a special place in hell for those that abuse children and animals. The cases of abuse happen far more often than I can ever prevent but I have to believe that those that mistreat any form of life will eventually be held accountable for it.

Anyway, back to the fish... So now that I have spoken my part about animal cruelty, I have to explain the fish. Since having Bright 6 months ago tomorrow, I have been pretty much wiped out, as any new mom would be. But after doing lots of research and trying different things, I have decided to try to add some fish protein back into my diet and see if that does not give the extra energy that I have been missing. Apparently there are vitamins (B12) that you cannot get from plant forms and other things like DHA that are critical for neurological health and development of infants. I decided that while I have previously made the choice to not put those things into my body, I cannot make the choice for Bright and I must give him all of the best nutritionally until he is able to make decisions on his own. This does not mean that you would see anything that previously had hooves or a beak on our table and Andy still won't even eat the fish, but this I believe is the appropriate thing to do. Now if I can just get the fish smell out of the kitchen...