Eating less meat

Thanks to Netflix for bringing out The Game Changer, Cowspiracy and Seaspiracy, my husband and I are now trying to eat less meat. I've only bought raw meat (including fish) maybe 3-5 times since November 2020, and one of those was because I had to make around 90 siomay for someone's PhD celebratory meal box. However, we have had meaty takeaway a few times. One of them was a poulet rôti which was a whole roast chicken, and honestly it felt weird eating chicken off the bone after not doing so for a few months. Other times we bought kebab and it didn't feel as weird, maybe because it was already processed.

We still eat animal products like eggs, milk, cheese and cream though. Although for daily consumption of milk, we've changed to soy milk as we tried one particular product from Auchan which we really liked, it tastes great with cereal or oats. I decided to change up the milk mainly because I wanted to see if there is any effect on my acnes, and sure enough my acnes cleared up or at least there isn't as much, even during period times. So there is a chance that my acnes or small spots and bumps are related to the cow's milk that I have everyday with my oats. 

The Game Changer highlights how we don't need meat to have a healthy, strong body. I think it is targeted at American sports people who tends to eat so much meat especially before competition. The documentary shows how our body functions better by not eating meat. As quoted from their website: "... a diet centered around plants can yield significant performance advantages, providing optimal fuel, increasing blood flow, making muscles more efficient, and speeding recovery by lowering inflammation." 

Meanwhile, Cowspiracy highlights the importance of plant based diet from a different angle. It shows how big the impacts of animal agriculture is, especially on climate change. According to the documentary, animal agriculture contributes so much greenhouse gases, even more than the exhaust from transportation. Many rainforests are destroyed for the land to be used for livestock feed, and so much water is needed for animal agriculture. More (rather shocking) facts can be found on their website. 

The main takeaway I got from Seaspiracy was the amount of bycatch during fishing. It is so sad to see so many fish, and fish varieties, had to be caught accidentally and die whilst people are fishing for a particular type of fish. Massive fishing nets also destroy such a large area of sea bed, and they are also one of the most found plastic rubbish in the sea. How about farmed fish? Well, according to the documentary, the weight of food need to be fed to the fish is more than the weight of fish being produced, not forgetting the many fish that get diseases and die in the farm. I could go on but there are too many facts, which you can also find on their website. 

After watching these documentaries, I felt that I can't just ignore them and continue eating meat as usual. Sure enough the plant agriculture has their down side too, some examples are shown in the Netflix documentary Rotten. But one thing that never crossed my mind before even though it was pretty obvious, these cows and chicken are eating plants. Why do we need a middle man when we can just eat the source? Many would say, "oh but we need the protein from the animal". Well, there are plant based protein source too! So really, for me personally, I feel that the reason I eat animal is just for appetite. But now that I've watched these documentaries, I don't really feel the want or need to eat meat daily. Sure I want to have it every now and again for a treat, like I said I still buy meaty takeaway maybe twice a month. I still can't get away from eggs and cheese though, so that's just where I am at the moment. I am grateful that I can buy soy based products that resemble meat and taste even better than meat, so that I can still cook the meals I used to cook with meat. I hope that I can continue to be (I think the term is) flexitarian, and even better if I can reduce the animal meat and products as time goes, but, a step at a time (hopefully in the right direction!).