Life, Love and the Pursuit of Design: Happy Anniversary to me!

Yup, today, January 6th 2012 is my 1 year anniversary of becoming a vegetarian/pescetarian! Last year I made a new years resolution to stop eating meat for 30 days. I was never really a big meat eater and had thought of trying vegetarianism in the past, so stopping "cold turkey" (haha) wasn't really that hard. After the first 30 days, I was pleasantly surprised with how great I was feeling on this new diet and how I now had a growing interest in learning more about where our food comes from. I picked up a few books on the subject and immediately I was hooked. I kept going after those 1st 30 days, and here I am a year later still interested and happy with my decision. Now that's what I call following through on a new years resolution!

For those of you who are not sure what a pescetarian is here is a short explanation and some interesting reads:

Pescetarian is a relatively new word, according to Merriam Webster. Coined in 1993, its source is likely the Italian pesce (Latin piscis, meaning fish) combined with the English arian in the word vegetarian. A pescetarian (or pescatarian) is someone who eats seafood as their only source of meat. They may or may not eat dairy products; however, they do not eat poultry, beef, or any other meat.

The nutritional benefits of eating seafood while avoiding red meat and poultry are many. Unlike most red meat, seafood is typically low in saturated fat, which is the primary cause of high cholesterol. Some fish are a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids and can contribute to raising HDL (the good form of) cholesterol and protect against heart disease.

Ethically speaking, a pescetarian diet is kinder to animals and the environment. An omnivorous diet uses more fossil fuels and water and contributes to rain forest depletion and water pollution. Additionally, you do not have to search far to find undercover videos revealing the heinous abuse of livestock.

So what are the downsides to becoming a pescetarian?

Toxicity. Since consuming a large amount of fish high in toxins, such as mercury and PCBs, can be unhealthy, a wise pescetarian makes sure to eat a variety of fish and become educated about which fish should be eaten in limited quantities.

Ethical concerns. While pescetarianism is easier on the environment and avoids the ethical concerns surrounding the care of livestock, some argue that aquatic creatures are sentient beings, meaning they suffer pain.

-via Heath Theory

"Many people ask me "How did you do that? I could never give up meat!" What a lot of people don't realize is that over time your body's unnatural craving for mammal and poultry meat disappears, and a healthy body will get sick from beef, pork or chicken if eaten again after a period of a pescetarian diet. This is because land-animal flesh is filled with toxins, uric acid and fecal bacteria.

So I put together a list of reasons why I believe you should go pescetarian. All I ask of you today is to try the 30 Day Challenge. All you do is take a pledge to cut out meat, excluding fish and seafood, from your diet for the next 30 days. With the increase of fresh fish and vegetables in your diet, I believe that you'll feel healthier, experience less headaches and sickness as well as increased energy levels. In the long-term, you may also improve your weight, the health of your brain and heart, hair and even your skin.

According to The New York Times, meat consumption in the United States has doubled in the last 50 years. And since then, haven't other problems increased? Cancer, heart disease, stroke, obesity: these have all increased drastically over the past 50 years. Any connection? These trends may go hand in hand.

1) Pescetarianism may drastically improve your health.

A pescetarian diet may not only reduce your risk for heart disease and other cardiovascular diseases, but stroke, osteoporosis, obesity, diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure and some types of cancer. According to the Yale College Vegetarian Society, experts say that up to 80 percent of cancer cases are preventable through healthy diets that contain low amounts of fats and oils, and high amounts of fiber -- the model pescetarian diet.

Meat is often covered in pesticides and chemicals that are harmful, and after extended consumption, can be very dangerous, to humans. Every bite of a beef/pork hotdog contains seven cancer-causing pesticides. And here's a shocking fact, brought to light by David Steinman's "Living Healthy in a Toxic World": The primary source of nuclear radiation contamination in humans is from beef and dairy products.

Additionally, all of the iron you need comes from fish, many fruits and vegetables and whole grains. And all the protein you need comes from consuming a healthy percentage of legumes, whole grains, tofu, and many plant sources. Vegetarian diets supply more than adequate amounts of protein.

So now we know that we can get enough protein without eating any meat at all, where does including fish in our diets come in?

Fish is very low in saturated fat and contains very large quantities of polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids, which have been connected to possible treatments for an array of conditions including heart disease, depression and ADD. Omega-3s have also been shown to have potential risk-reducing effects when it comes to cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Another huge benefit of including fish in a vegetarian diet is the healthy amount of iron in fish and seafood. Pescetarians have a lower risk of developing iron deficiency anemia -- a common condition among vegans and vegetarians. Eating fish also combats D-3 deficiency, which is a common condition among many Americans.

2) Becoming a pescetarian benefits our planet.

The Vegetarian Resource Group reports that one pound of beef requires 2,500 gallons of water, whereas one pound of soy requires only 250 gallons of water and a pound of wheat requires only 25 gallons. If you want to help save our water, cutting meat from your diet one way that you get active.

Additionally, the deforestation caused by the need to create space to house livestock is tremendous. A Smithsonian Institution study shows that the demand for more grazing land means that every day, a land area equivalent to seven football fields is destroyed in the Amazon basin.

According to Earth Talk, "The Environmental Beef With Meat," for every hamburger that came from an animal raised on rainforest land, approximately 55 square feet of forest was destroyed. And it's not just the rainforest being destroyed. In the United States, more than 260 million acres of forest have been clear-cut for animal agriculture as of 2005.

The livestock in the Unites States also creates an unimaginable amount of waste and toxic emission -- as do the fertilizers used. Livestock raised for slaughter produce 130 times the excrement of the entire human population.

But most shocking of all is that the grains and corn that are wastefully fed to the mass amounts of livestock in the United States, could be instead be fed to the 60 million human beings who die of starvation every year all over the world.

3) Animal cruelty

Most people know somewhat of what is going on in slaughterhouses and cow, pig, chicken and turkey farms. They know that animals are bred for murder in these places so they can be killed and eaten for the pleasure of humans. But what some people may not know are the disgusting conditions and inhumane treatment of these innocent animals behind their closed doors. Animals are subjected to some pretty terrible living conditions, full of feces and flies, packed into crates so crowded that they can hardly move. Their natural habits are taken from them.

Chickens for example are kept in big warehouses in tiny wire cages as big as file cabinets -- packed with about 10 or more chickens. The chickens peck at each other, so their beaks are removed to prevent them from doing this. This is called de-beaking. This is done to each chicken with no painkillers. Their breasts are so heavy from injected growth hormones that they sometimes can't even stand, and their legs are often already broken. Many cages house chickens that have already died from disease.

The treatment of hogs and cows are just as terrible, often still alive and struggling as they are hung upside down and taken down a belt to have their throats slit or beheaded by an automatic machine. Many times the animal is not dead immediately, because their throat had only been nicked as they get hacked into pieces or boiled alive.

"If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian."
- Paul McCartney

I believe that whatever type of lifestyle one leads to benefit the planet, save the animals, or better one's health, they deserve only praise. Little steps are ok -- some take a leap in the beginning, others take steps gradually towards their goal. I believe that as long as we are aware and acting on our intentions, that's what matters. Nutritionist Jean Mayer suggests that if we reduced our country's meat consumption by just 10 percent, we could feed another 60 million hungry individuals. Now think about all the other good we could do for the planet by just that one act alone.

-via AOL Healthy Living

One of the things I have loved the most about my new diet, is the opportunity it has given me to explore, challenge and advance my cooking skills (and my photography). Over the past year I have taught myself how to maintain a well balanced diet that is not only healthy to me, but for the planet as well. Below are some of the delicious meals I've made that I am proud of (and a few from my travels).