Eating myself Ethical

A somewhat different feel to today's post - it's not about fashion or vintage, but about something that has been a big part of my life (and the focus of my over active mind) for some time now! 

About 6 months ago I stopped drinking cow's milk and eating dairy yoghurt. I also stopped eating meat. I am still eating fish, but I am considering giving that up too, as valuing other animals' lives other theirs seems a bit illogical to me. I primarily stopped drinking milk for health reasons: I suffered from some stomach problems, and wondered if cutting back on dairy might help. It seems to, but then it's very hard to gauge, as a number of factors could have been involved. This was not the only reason I stopped though - I also watched the now viral video 'Dairy is Fu*king Scary' by the excellent Erin Janus. 

Perhaps somewhat hypocritically, I still eat cheese and chocolate, but I feel I have dramatically cut back, (on the cheese at least, if not the chocolate!) I have considered veganism, and am certainty investigating more vegan products, but I think this will be a transitional thing, like vegetarianism, rather than leaping head first into it! By continuing to eat these products though, I am still supporting an industry that puts animals in distressing and abusive situations.

I have tried one vegan cheese, which I got from Waitrose and it was NOT good! It tasted very plastically - like cheap hotdog cheese! I am hoping that if I investigate vegan markets and festivals I may find tastier alternatives! It may also be a case of just readjusting my taste buds and psychology, as I have found it has been with dairy alternative milks, such as soya and almond, which I think I actually now prefer to cow's milk. At first I didn't really like the tastes of these but I am used to them now. I predominately have soya, although I want to investigate oat milk - a friend, who eats very 'cleanly' has researched these substitutes a lot and feels that soya might not actually be great for the stomach either.

This gradual shift in diet has been for health, and for ethical reasons too. In our house there had been a general reduction of the meat we bought for a long time anyway (we often opted for Quorn replacements, as it was leaner, and sometimes I just didn't want to eat meat. (My husband is still a carnivore, but again, his consumption has greatly reduced at home.)

I've been following some Youtubers and bloggers, such as The Fat Gay Vegan and London Afro Vegan Recipes, in order to get some inspiration and ideas about recipes and where to easily find vegan products. The Fat Gay Vegan recently did a video at a newly opened store in West London called Green Bay. I went to see what it was like yesterday - a little pricey, but I guess that's to be expected and I was thinking that if more and more people start buying vegan products that may be reflected in lower prices eventually. Because I live East, I didn't want to buy any frozen goods, or too many bulky items, so I just bought some chocolate, a mayonnaise alternative, which I had been wanting to try for a while, some sausages and some cream cheese. I was hoping I would see some other cheeses that seemed appealing, but alas, they didn't really do it for me! I am yet to sample these delights, but I'll let you know my verdict in another post! (I plan to have the cream cheese on a bagel for lunch in a bit.)

I also sometimes buy the Gosh range, which you can find in Tesco. Yesterday, it was 3 for £5 - I had never seen it on offer before, so that's a good sign!

Something that went hand in hand with this shift in my thinking was the desire to reduce the amount of chemicals I use in my home and on my body: I now try to opt for products like Dr. Organic, Jason and Ecover. Again, this is a slow and gradual shift, (a slightly more expensive one to pound shop or Superdrug products sure, but now that I am 35 I am making more conscious decisions about what my priorities are - plus the Pound Shop do stock the Astonish range, which I believe is a vegan product). It seems difficult , in the world we inhabit to take charge and control of what we consume and what chemicals we imbibe; everything seems to be covered in pesticides and so if I can actively seek products I feel are less harmful to me and the environment then I want to try to do that! 

Reading comment threads on Facebook and watching Youtube videos (and just hearing comments in the 'real' world!) it is evident that some people don't take very kindly to Veganism and believe the proponents of it to be condescending, militant and obnoxious! But, for me, this is my own personal journey. Sure I believe it is better for the planet and for our health and so I would want the ones I love to also fill their bodies with goodness, but I am in no way going to be preachy about it - I still drink alcohol (probably too much!) I still eat junk food and do stuff to my body which I know is not good for it, but I just believe that I needed to get some universe points back and one way in which I feel I can achieve that is by reducing the cruelty I put other living beings through. 

In my next post I'll review some of the food and cosmetic items I have been investigating as part of this journey!