So it made me think that the only thing that has really changed on a tangible level is my food habits. I know that there is the empathy for animals and life but quite frankly it is not a novelty and I note that I was not a meat eater because I wanted or accepted animal suffering, it was simply because I was oblivious to it or perhaps took it to be normal because of my acquired lifelong habits of eating meat. So I cannot assume more than the food habits as a major and remarked change. So the famous saying “We are what we Eat” came to my mind and I started thinking in more detail about its intended meaning. I did not want to go and Google it for answers as I prefer usually making use of my own faculties and then researching. This helps me have an unpolluted point of view on the issue and therefore perhaps some useful insight(s).
So on the physiological level obviously we do assimilate the nutrients and other material elements in food and they definitely must influence our physiological state of being. I will go further to say that they can provide gastric well or un-well being and further they can make us sick or not. So yes we can definitely apply ‘We are what we Eat’ on a physiological level.
Now I will try to apply this on a psychological level. It is much more delicate but I will try to find some anchors from my personal past observations. I recall finding it very amusing when I walk in the open air markets of Paris, there are bi-weekly open air markets in Paris that are a collection of booths which serve mostly fresh food items and other products and are called ‘ un Marché ‘, to note the very obvious differences between vendors. The reason I rely on the experience in the Marché is because the booth owners are people of the trade, meaning the meat booth is run by a butcher by trade and since it is his personal business activity it is something that person has been doing all of his life. I observed, and that was long before ever becoming vegan, that a cheese booth manager is very different in his attitude and even complexion than the fish booth and the butcher etc. And what re-enforced this more was the fact that they are often family run and so there is often the wife and perhaps a child as well and the same applied to the others.
So if we tend to assimilate from the food we manipulate and consume enough elements for them to have an impact on us in something subjective such as an attitude, again it is not a question of good or bad at all, then ‘We are what we Eat’ seems to also apply on the psychological level.
As for the philosophical level it is obviously clear that there is a direct impact on the way we perceive life and this impacts our understanding of things so I would assume there is definitely the case.
Now the question I am asking myself is if eating produce that comes from an environment that is full of pain and suffering would transfer to us in a direct or indirect way some elements of that suffering? It might be far-fetched but we do know that physiologically, pain and suffering does make organisms secrete certain hormones that obviously will be consumed by us. Would there be enough of an argument to say that we are actually negatively impacting our bodies and minds by consuming that type of food?
This is very important as it has enormous implications. As such I would ask all who can contribute to kindly do so and my Life Loving thanks in advance,
