A four-letter word

It’s just after the holidays, traditionally the time for diets to begin. Between over-eating during the holiday rush of feasting and the usual desire to start something new in the new year, ’tis the season to diet. Or at least try to.

I was reading about this move to get Filipinos to go vegetarian, led by Baywatch babe Pamela Lee Anderson, who appears in this "Turn over a new leaf. Try Vegetarian"poster wearing three strategically placed lettuce leaves, a tumble of blond hair and not much else. I asked our office machos if that was enough of a come-on for them to turn vegetarian; I got some pretty x-rated answers, but not one willing to give up burgers and lechon.

On the same day I also received a brief–from The Tomlinson Collection in connection with their recent exhibit on Tibetan painted doors (see page 14)–on Tibetan culture that included a chapter on "Compassion to animals and our diet". While Tibetan Buddhists are known for their extraordinary compassion for animals, many of them still eat meat. What gives?

"Meat-eating was promoted as part of the Tantric lifestyle–which means not getting hung up on conventional morals or concepts of purity. In other words, to embrace life fully was to consume it literally," was one explanation. Another is that the weather in Tibet does not allow year-round farming, hence the need to eat during the winter months makes it a necessity to eat sheep or yak; one yak, it is said, is enough to feed a family for a whole season.

The piece concludes: "Today’s consumerist culture has made it convenient for us to eat meat daily in most, if not all of our meals. Even if health benefits are thought to be obtained by eating meat, this should be considered carefully because there are lots of satisfying alternatives. The truth is if not eaten solely as a necessity to sustain life, meat eating is only a culinary vanity.

"Our abundant, modern, sedentary lifestyles have formed a ‘toxic environment’ that indulges our genetic fat-storage ten-dencies to a pathological degree. The result is an ‘epidemic’ of obesity, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and low self-esteem."

I ran that by my fellow omnivore (meaning we eat everything) in the office; her answer? "I know" to the first point and "I don’t have that" to the second, and there’s no mistaking the lack of interest or intention in turning vegetarian. Good thing too, because if she turned vegetarian I’d have no one to eat with during those long, hungry afternoons in the office. Besides, don’t forget that "diet" is a four-letter word.