Things Of Which We Do Not Speak.

 I am struggling to get my weight - and more importantly my diet under control and yes, there is a difference between the two. My weight shows some of the results, but my blood work this year was far more telling. Most people would be happy with my results - but my cholesterol is up, my glucose sucks, Vitamin D is in the toilet and that is the first time it's ever been that way. I've found my fifties to be a midlife crisis of sorts, where I'm questioning how I'm going to live the rest of my life and that definitely plays into the diet and exercise. So I've been watching documentaries on diet and more specifically vegetarian as that is what I've been for a very long time now. The only thing I've never been able to give up is dairy and when I examine that, most of my dairy with the exception of cheese is substitutes (soy milk, nondairy creamers, etc) and that is going to be reduced further. I was watching "Vegecated" this morning while I worked out and at one point I stopped so I could cry. How do we justify what we do to farm animals? I've supported hunting for years and will continue to do so, I'm not against eating meat. Just because I don't eat it doesn't give me the right to tell others not to - and I don't even think it's wrong personally. I have friends that have small herds and those cows and bulls are treated very humanely - most of the cattle farms here are family owned and you see them out grazing the fields until their days are done.  But the inhumanities we practice with factory farming are beyond the scope of thought. Most people do not realize that cattle are skinned alive as it's more cost effective, pigs are dropped live into vats of scalding water, some even trying to swim to safety while they scream from the pain. Chickens are hung upside down and their heads are run through electrified water baths - it makes you wonder who we are calling animals, That was a very small part of this documentary, the focus was more on taking 3 people and seeing the effect of a full vegan diet had on them. But the impact of those short clips of film were enormous and supports my position on hunting even more. For years I've had to listen to people talk about how they're against hunting while they are happily downing yet another burger - I'm glad I don't eat meat and even though I doubt I'll ever be able to completely go vegan, it will certainly make me more consciousness in the future of what I put into my mouth.