I have just returned from two weeks back east to visit family and friends, so please excuse my recent absence. Being at my parents' home this time around meant eating a little differently. But the interesting thing for me is that it was more like I eat, at least the salads and veggies, when I am on my own than when I am usually visiting my folks.
My father has some health problems and so his cardiologist recommended the South Beach Diet so he could meet his weight loss goals needed for an upcoming surgery. So, as my mother puts it "we eat rabbit food." I read Dr. Agatston's book prior to heading east to see what I was in for. Many of you might be familiar with his book that is less of a diet and more of a sensible way to eat. It isn't based on excluding any single food type, but is based on the glycemic index--an index that tells you about how food is metabolized and how your body uses the energy in food. All in all, it seems to make good sense to me given what I know about the ethics of food as it relates to health.
But, does that mean that it is any more ethical given other considerations? Well, it really seems to come down to all the same food choice issues I have been dealing with. Eating salad is great, but it does matter where that lettuce was grown, etc. It does seem, however, that given some of the restrictions, albeit flexible ones, that eating on the South Beach diet could be ethical fairly easily--at least in the summer when there should be local salad veggies and the like in almost all locations.
So, how did I fare when I was home for eating ethically? Not as well as I usually do, I am afraid. I ate what my parents had in -- nothing yet ready from their vegetable garden. Don't get me wrong, my parents don't eat poorly and they don't eat recklessly unethically, but they make choices differently than I would. And I ate out more frequently than I would have otherwise (and I also attended a wedding, but more on that later, different food implications there!). And I will admit to a few more cheeseburgers and some local delicacies that I look forward to when I am back east and don't worry about their ethical heritage.
But, there is an interesting ethical side note. For my father's birthday my mother bought him a soda siphon. That's what he wanted. I had an image in my head of a very retro self-carbonating bottle. But, in actuality it is more like George Jetson meets Ward Cleaver. It's old-fashioned in the sense that it is a soda siphon, but Dad's is totally space-aged. Why is this an ethical side note? The environmental impact of buying a soda siphon and the CO2 cartridges needed to make soda water, even the concentrate to make flavored soda is minute in comparison to the plastic bottles soda comes in. It is also economical. My Dad suspects it will pay for itself in about a year (of course that depends on how much soda one drinks and how fancy a siphon one buys). I enjoyed the siphon's simplicity (no electricity) and have to admit considering getting one, but I don't think I drink enough soda to make it anything more than a temptation that can't be balanced out.
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