I’m doing a yearlong online program at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and one of the best things about them is how they overtly play “Switzerland” and expose you to dozens of dietary theories without prescribing any one nutritional approach. We learn about everything from the raw food diet to Atkins. The idea is “bio-individuality”— no one theory will suit everyone.
The unit we just completed was all about the realities of commercial livestock farming. I eat very little meat, but having just watched the 12-minute PETA video, Meet Your Meat, for the first time, I am sickened, saddened, and pissed at myself for not having explored the matter long ago. Have you seen it? It’s actually been around since 2002, and it has, of course, since been followed up by similar documentaries. I confess, I am no fan of PETA, and that is probably what kept me away. Their hostile, aggressive tactics strike me as overly politicized and intolerant, at times even abusive. I watched this video skeptically, fully aware that I was being subjected to master propaganda delivered by the silver tongue of my favorite actor, Alec Baldwin. That said, even if only half of it is true, as we say on Passover, dayeinu—that would be enough.
