Hello, my name is Jessica and I’m a former vegetarian.
It all started when the mullet-wielding teenager in the Virginia McDonalds crafted the most luscious piece of culinary contraband I had ever seen. The illicit meal — a cheeseburger — stood poised to end an 8-year era of meat-less living. Its alluring aroma, wafting from the industrial grill, waged war on my reformist vegetarian sensibilities and I surrendered to my carnivorous urges.
And since that fateful Spring Break day, my mind has been a battleground for conflicting cravings for the taste of Big Mac and an acceptable cholesterol level.
The dilemma: having a mouth full of bovine bliss or a clear conscience?
I can’t decide.
In rationalizing my decision to end a near-decade streak of foregoing prime cuts for “I can’t believe it’s not bologna,” I often point to my medical history of iron deficiency and the widely accepted notion that meat is the best source of iron.
Turns out that was crap, according to Dr. Cromwell Esselstyn, a renowned expert on plant-based diets. There’s actually more iron in broccoli and beans than beef. In fact, he said eating beef is like “pouring gasoline on a coronary forest fire.” In other words, I’m gonna die. If Mad Cow doesn’t kill me, heart disease will.
Egregious mistreatment of livestock in slaughterhouses was always my rationale for going “veg.” But it seems that now I have more reason than ever to tell Ronald McDonald to take a hike.
Coronary studies and recent outbreaks of mad cow in Europe are making the case for vegetarianism more and more. Because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn’t have Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) as a reportable disease, possible outbreaks in the United States are not being tracked.
So goodbye delectable salami sandwich; farewell, #2 combo meal … super-sized for only 43 cents. I barely knew thee.
Whoever said ignorance is bliss obviously never sampled the savory, succulent wonder that is beef, or, according to Dr. Esselstyn, heart attack in a bun.
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