Ethical Eating
October 21, 2008
Ethical Eating
The Unitarian Universalist Association Study/Action Issue (SAI) for 2008-2012
STUDY: So much choice! American supermarkets and restaurants are brimming with a bewildering array of food choices. So what should we have for dinner? Should we choose what we like? Should we select what is least expensive? Should we decide on a nutritionally sound diet (if we ever could agree on what that is)?
The U.U.A. suggests that we make ethical food choices, and for the next four years, we will spend some time considering what that means for each of us. Each month, I will give you a few facts to chew on, to mull over, to provide food for thought (oh, those food metaphors!).
Take fish. Perhaps you are frequently choosing fish for dinner, thinking fish is a healthier choice than red meat because it has less fat. Well, guess again!! We now know that it isn’t simply the amount of fat that determines whether a food is healthy, but the ratio of “bad fat” (those containing omega-6 fatty acids) and “good fats” (those with omega-3 fatty acids). Excessive omega-6 fatty acids may predispose to obesity, diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Remember it this way: nix on six, three for me.
Wild-caught fish, which eat a diet of algae and krill, do indeed have high levels of omega-3 and little omega-6. But farmed fish, especially farmed salmon, are fed corn, of all things, because corn, heavily subsidized by our government, is cheap, and fish-farming is a profit-driven business. Grains have a high 6:3 ratio and so do the animals that eat them. Do you see where I am going with this? Yes, it turns out that corn-fed salmon have just as much bad fat as feedlot cattle, which are also fed corn for the same reason. Welcome to the U.S. industrial food chain! Pasture-raised, grass-feed beef has a much lower 6:3 ratio, not as low as a diet consisting only of green plants, but definitely lower than that farmed fish.
Okay, you say, I’ll choose only wild-caught fish. That is certainly a healthier choice, but do it quick while they last. Cod, haddock, halibut and many other favorites have been dangerously overfished and are threatened species. Unsustainable fishing methods and destruction of habitat have drastically depleted the world’s fish stocks.
But before you decide to become a strict vegetarian, let me tell you that it is possible to eat fish without supporting environmentally damaging and unhealthy practices. Some fish farmers are raising organic fish in a sustainable way; farmed catfish, tilapia and trout are usually safe bets. And some species of wild fish, for example tuna and crab, are not endangered at this time. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has done all the research and its recommendations are available online.
So, it is NOT necessary to give up what you like in order to make ethical food choices. But it is necessary to be an informed consumer.
I wish to credit my two sources of information for this article; Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and Jane Goodall’s “Harvest for Hope:A Guide to Mindful Eating.”
ACTION: Our action for this fall is the “Eating Art” installation in Eddy Hall, headed up by Audrey Greene, Carol Wiseman, and Tina Holden-Shea. The opening is scheduled for Dec. 13. The art show will be a good way to whet our appetites (another food metaphor) for this Study/Action Issue. See Audrey and find out how you can get involved.
~Carol Crowley (ccrowley8@cox.net)
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