When I was in college working on my Creative Writing, an instructor decided to make writing partners of sorts out of us by first quizzing us on our diets and twinning us with others who ate like we did. A notoriously vegetarian school, "Woke" a good twenty years before the state of California as is, thick with suffocating political correctness as a form of religion, a place where an on site eaterie actually served meat but you could get stared down for openly eating a tuna sandwich, I got stuck with the other meat eater.
I tried to be cooperative but the person I was stuck with was a jealous and competitive woman (i.e. she played real dirty beginning with threatening me that she was a witch) who wanted to be at the top of the hill and decided she'd say whatever she could to push me down it. When I think back on reasons why I hated the school (there were some reasons I loved it too) this woman and the whole bullshit situation with her including instructors coddling her and accepting her bribes (i.e. her delivery of home made casseroles on their doorsteps) is at the top of the list.
In short, the fact that we both ate meat did not mean we had anything in common, even if we both had meat eaters eye teeth or traditionally human intestinal tracks designed by Our Maker to digest meat. In actuality we were never close to writing "partners". She was only able to make smart ass remarks towards me and my work. And, by the way, I began to see that I was quite possibly unsuitable ethnically to be applauded by my instructors. After years of being passed by in many situations in life due to my ethnicity, such as being the butt of Polish jokes in another classroom, now I was too "White" and considered advantaged to be there, even though I was not one of the many Trust Fund Babies I was surrounded with and going broke. The bitch couldn't stop her whole "I am Mexican and a Single Mother and therefore I Deserve So Much More Than You," mantra, seeking every advantage such as living in the funky, sought after "married student" housing (Where was the husband?) and submitting work written years earlier as new in workshops which was unfair to everyone else there. I was older than her so I tried to be more mature and not respond.
I never bought into the school cafeteria plans preferring to cook for myself and budget. There were so many grocers in the area who carried "health food," begun in the 1960's when hippies settled, that it was easy to purchase vegetarian or vegan alternatives and afford to. So for about 6 weeks, maybe 8, I ate nothing but vegetarian food - lots of Tofu with sauces. This was not the time to do a lot of cooking and these packaged vegetarian meals were easy. I was so busy, possibly I never thought much about food or felt hungry.
One day a friend of mine, younger, a gentleman from Mexico*, who never played that card, and who drank a wicked twelve cups of coffee a day habit, looked at me and said something like, "Your hair! Your nails! You're not getting enough proteins." It was uncharacteristically open of him to say such a thing. I immediately confessed that I had been eating vegetarian. I immediately went back to eating some meat.
If I could do it over, I'd probably also be ingesting a suitcase full of the finest vitamins and herbs, and maybe make more of an effort eating in a food combining way. (One vegetarian from Germany there was only eating white pasta with tomato spaghetti sauce and tapioca pudding and no one thought this PHD candidate had an eating disorder.) I would also use the school pool. I was overall fit. A good weight. Lots of walking. But...
Lately, I'm beginning to think that the whole VEGAN MOVEMENT is actually a government conspiracy because there IS NOT ENOUGH FOOD FOR THE PLANET, including the United States, especially if you want to eat a traditional balanced meal. I know about the dubious food pyramids that have us eating way more grains than we should. I also know that millions of American have less than $2000 in assets because that's a requirement if you want to get Government Food Aid (ie.EBT, CalFresh, etc.) Of course the line ups for free food - miles long - preceded the line ups for free vaccines and there were just as many SUV's.
The other day I went into a Vons market and was shocked at the price of meat which, as an example, featured as a deal a pound of ground turkey for $6.99. The last time I bought a pound of ground turkey I paid about $2.99. I'm aware that food that travels well, such as garlic cloves, are being imported and sold at dollar stores such as 99 Cents Only, meaning that we are importing garlic when heck, Gilroy, California is the Garlic Capital. I'm not sure where else these stores are getting vegetables and salad greens but I'm sure that Mexico is one of those places.
Water shortages are another aspect of the Food issue. If your water bill doesn't do it, your awareness that there is a water shortage will make you consider Depression Era Sink Baths instead of daily showers. It's said that the reason meat is now so expensive is that feeding animals is more expensive because growing food is more expensive because water is so expensive due to water shortages.
WHAT IF YOU ARE BEING MANIPULATED INTO GOING AGAINST YOUR HUMAN BODY with this PLANT BASED DIET trend? Over the last couple weeks I've tried two newish products catering to the plant based diet folks, fake meat. Maybe fresh out of the package it was eatable but I wasn't fooled that it was meat and it soon started to slime. It was also expensive and processed to turn some form of plant-based sludge into what looked like wieners or slabs of lunch meat, thick and reddish between slabs of brown bread. I went shopping, with memories of one of my long gone friends saying "Try this, it's the best," and putting a Hebrew National hot dog on a white plate with a side of Kraut. I bought both. When I think back on food during my college days, I think humus piled on a bagel.
C 2021 Christine Trzyna
