Vegging Out

Hello there! This is your co-host Patrick again here for another informational snapshot. Today’s topic is food. If you have ever talked to any of my friends or family, their general consensus would be that I’m not a foodie. I was a very picky eater growing up. Mac and cheese was lost on me, cooked fruit was inedible, and salad was just a game about finding the bacon bits within the lettuce. I’ve gotten better about trying new foods throughout the years, and I

have been very conscious about trying new foods while traveling, starting with the study abroad trip Allie and I took to Europe, followed by the two months I spent in Romania, and now our world trip.

Peru and Chile were no problem on this trip as I had food that I was used to even when we were on the cheap. Argentina, however, has been a different ballgame. For the past six weeks, I have been a cold turkey vegetarian. No preparation whatsoever, just straight veggies. I feared it would be difficult because I love meat. Beef, poultry, fish, pork, venison -- it’s all good. For the last few years that I was in college, my friends and I would go to a renaissance festival and always get a big turkey leg. Going to the Dixie Classic Fair? Turkey leg. A tradition at this point. Needless to say, I have been having major turkey leg cravings this month. It doesn’t help that there are two peafowl (peacock and peahen) on the farm… not that I want to eat them, just that in Spanish they are called “pavos royales” meaning “royal turkeys”. I have thought about eating the llamas though. O-o-only because one of them died of a heart attack a few weeks before we arrived and our hosts served the previous WWOOFers and tourists the meat! I was a bit jealous honestly.

Salivating aside, being vegetarian hasn’t been as hard as I thought it would be. Part of that is not having meat available, which is funny because Argentina has a huge meat scene, but when your host family cooks all your meals there’s no real reason to leave. Going cold turkey is the best way to do it in my opinion, though I would suggest never eating out during the transition, otherwise you will probably cave and get a burger or something.

“But Patrick” you might protest, “veggies are what my food eats, why would I ever take away their food source?” I am glad you asked! I’m not a hardcore veggie by any means, but I have noticed changes/advantages to the switch. Firstly, and most importantly to me, you get to eat more and not feel bad about it! All that meat takes up so much room and makes you full much faster. At school, I never understood why Allie was always snacking. “I’m just a grazer” she said, “comes with being vegetarian”. I didn’t get this until I was in the broccoli thicket myself and realized just how hungry I was all the time. I have always got seconds or thirds, but now I find myself considering fourths. You might just think this hunger is from the extra physical activity, but there have been relaxing days where I am still thinking about my next meal. And when you aren’t consuming a lot of fatty food, you feel better about the extra plate or two.

Secondly...how to put this delicately...your digestion cycle becomes regular. Not sure if I should expand on this one, but with all that fiber there’s less of a chance for...clogging…

ANOTHER benefit of eating vegetarian is helping the earth! Now this doesn’t affect you directly, but the livestock industry causes more carbon emissions than every transportation industry combined, along with using tons and tons of water. Of course it would be better to be vegan since you would also cut out the dairy and eggs, but it is still a good start!

Getting back to the health benefits, you are eating plants as your main food source, so naturally you are getting more vitamins, minerals and nutrients in general. The classic rebuttal from meaties is that you don’t get enough protein. A common misconception is that plants don’t have protein. Plants just have fewer complex proteins than meat, so the only difference is that you need to mix different plants together to get your daily protein. You do this anyway with vegetarian meals so it’s not a big deal.

Being vegetarian isn’t as hard as I’ve always thought and when you have a good cook like our host mom, the meals can be truly wonderful. I really love lentils and rice, polenta is starting to grow on me, and potato soup over rice is great. Basically just add rice to everything and you’re golden. And if you trade the bacon bits for some farm-to-table beets, carrots, and radishes, salad can actually be pretty good, too. We do consume a lot of butter here though, so stay tuned for a possible update in Australia when we go vegan!