Healthy Living in Korea: Fighting!

In my quest to get healthy I have turned my attention to the last frontier of rebellion and craziness in my life: food. And drinks. And stuff disguised as food. In the states I was a vegetarian. Not because I don’t enjoy eating animals. Because I do. But because it is bad for the earth and terrible for my digestion. I’m also lactose intolerant. I LOVE cheese, milk and pretty much everything bad for me, but I feel like shit if I eat them. Anyway, when I traveled though Europe and arrived in Korea I kinda gave up my vegetarian lifestyle in exchange for more freedom and, well, being able to eat at restaurants. I believe in being flexible, especially with food. But now summer is coming and I’m less than three months from heading back to the states and I want to look and feel good again! Quitting drinking was definitely a step in the right direction, and now I’m going to try limiting meat to just once a week. I’m also going to try to go pretty much vegan during my workdays.

The big catalyst for my new found enthusiasm is the latest book picked by the book club I belong to. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life is about a family that decided to move to the Appalachian mountains and start a farm. Their main goal is to only live on what they can grow or buy from their neighbors. The rule is pretty much everything should be sustainable and if they don’t personally know who raised/ grew it, they can’t eat it. It is written by a wonderful novelist (the mother of the family), Barbra Kingsolver with help from her family and contributors.

In my opinion, we have gotten WAY too far away from where our food really comes from. Most people don’t have a clue about what fruits and vegetables are in season when, or even what continent they are grown on. One thing I will say I desperately miss about the USA is the space to grow a garden and the awareness of global food issues that has really started in the last ten years. I can’t wait to go to a farmers market and know none of the foods were grown with pesticides. I really hope the world comes around to these “liberal” ideas about growing food before it’s too late and the topsoil has been completely raped of all nutrients. Please check out this book if you are interested in these issues!