As I stated in this blog last month, I was on a
cruise ship during November for the week of Thanksgiving. If you look at my
weight information in the right sidebar, the weight on the 17th was
the morning we left for the cruise. The weight on the 26th is the
Monday morning after we returned.
Considering that it seems we spend half our time eating while on board a
ship I don’t think a 3 pound gain is that bad. Furthermore, the 164 pound
weight when we returned home is within my goal range.
On previous cruises, Deb has gotten a lot of special
attention due to her gluten free diet. I thought OK; now that we have seen what
they can do with a gluten free diet, let’s find out how well they handle a vegan
diet. When Deb made her trip to the maître
d on day one to inform him of her dietary needs, I tagged along and after he
assured her that they could handle her needs, I added that I was a vegan. They
are used to preparing vegetarian meals; however, he knew a vegan consumes no
animal products which is a bit tougher. He informed us to see him each day at
our evening meal and he would provide the menus for the next day. We would then
order our meals for the next day prepared in accordance with our needs.
I looked at the vegetarian offerings and then tried to
figure out how to modify them to remove any animal products. I have to say they
did an excellent job. There were a couple times when there was just no way to
modify an appetizer or entree. I usually ended up with a fruit plate for the
appetizer. For the entree, the first time
I was faced with this dilemma, I said to the maître d, could the chef maybe
stir fry some veggies and throw in a little tofu? The result was fantastic and
this became my default entree in the evening if no other options were available.
While cruising I was able to read a book that has been on my
“too read” list for a while now. The book was written by John Robbins whose
family is the Robbins part of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream business. The title
is Diet …. For a New America. The
title is a little misleading. This is not the type of diet book that offers a
food plan to help the reader lose weight.
This book consists of 3 parts. Prior to part #1 is a quote attributed
to Abraham Lincoln. It is “I care not
much for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it” A
later quote by Gandhi is “The greatness
of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated”. Part #1 of
this book discusses in extensive detail the supply of food in the United States
necessary to satisfy the standard American diet. As you might imagine, part #1 of this book is
difficult to read. There is information presented that I am sure the meat and
dairy industries would prefer the typical American not be aware of.
Part #2 of the book is preceded by a quote attributed to
Thomas Moffett in Helth’s Improvement, 1600 AD. Mr. Moffett reportedly wrote “Men dig their graves with their own teeth
and die more by those fated instruments than the weapons of their enemies”.
This section of the book is also very
detailed and discusses the effect on humans of the standard American diet. Part
#2 also has a lot of information about how special interest groups influence food
policy in the United States and conspire to control the information that
reaches the public.
The 3rd part of the book is about the effect on
our planet that results from supplying food for the standard American diet. In
this section of the book a Pennsylvania Dutch saying is quoted “We don’t inherit the land from our
ancestors, we borrow it from our children”. I have to say that the information
presented in this section of the book is so grave that I noticed a depressive
mood fall over me.
Would I recommend this book? Yes, those that have an
interest in learning more about the food supply in this country and how it
affects our bodies and the planet would likely find this a fascinating read. The
copy of this book from my library that I read was published in 1987. I see on
Amazon.com that a new edition is to be released this month.
