Meat-free anniversary

We all have anniversaries to celebrate. The standards such as birthdays, first dates or weddings; significant events such as deaths; or life changes such as coming out (my 12-year “Gay Day” anniversary is this fall).\nI invite you to help me commemorate my five-year anniversary as a vegetarian during this Vegetarian Awareness Month.\nFive years ago, I bit into a chicken breast sandwich and had a vivid, horrifying flash of the muscle tissue I was tearing apart with my teeth. A bloodied chicken flashed in my mind. I might as well have chomped down right between the wings of a squawking chicken. I set the sandwich down, and I decided I would try two weeks without meat.\nI never thought I’d make it. A Texas boy who grew up on beef and barbeque going meat-free? But two weeks passed, and I wasn’t foaming at the mouth for a lamb chop or side of bacon. Instead, I was surprised how easy it had been.\nThanksgiving was approaching, and I was certain I would cave in the presence of a browned turkey carcass. But when Thanksgiving hit, the pumpkin pies, sweet potatoes, beans and bread were the only foods that appealed to me. Animal flesh no longer made my list of things to be thankful for on the fourth Thursday of November. Particularly when that animal has been defeathered, beheaded, gutted and then had its tastiest organs shoved back into its empty chest cavity for resale. Yum.\nIn the five years since then, I can safely say I have felt healthier and more energetic. I’ve had far fewer illnesses and allergies since cutting out meat. For any of you who question whether you can truly get adequate nutrition as a vegetarian, my response is that I doubt I could have run 12 marathons on a vegetarian diet and stayed healthy through it all without adequate nutrition.\nBut, perhaps more significant than the health benefits are the ethical reasons for keeping flesh off my plate. Muscle tissue loses its appeal when it comes from suffering animals. Most of the animals you eat come from large industrial complexes, not lush green pastures with happy cows and pigs. They exist in confined quarters with little to no room to move and no fresh air, pumped full of growth hormones and antibiotics. They are often mutilated through debeaking, tail clipping and the like.\nLinda McCartney said, “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian.” \nSo check out www.factoryfarm.org or watch footage from www.slaughterhousecam.com. Does that chicken strip taste as good when it came from a debeaked bird? Does the image of slitting a cow’s throat make your next steak taste as “juicy”?\nIn the end, it’s a personal choice. If blissful ignorance with a side of pork works for you, then grab your fork and spear that meat. But if animal cruelty and killing leaves a bad taste in your mouth, then do some research and try a two-week trial run.\nYou might find a new anniversary to commemorate.