THE EDITOR, Sir:
PLEASE GRANT me space in your newspaper at the start of Lent to spout a bit about some of the advantages of a vegetarian, preferably a vegan diet. Most health practitioners seem to be recommending this lifestyle, even though they rarely say, 'go on a vegetarian diet'. Instead they say 'eat lots of fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts and ensure that you get adequate amounts of fibre', which you can only get fibre from the plant kingdom. In other words eat like a vegetarian.
So may I remind your readers of a few of the advantages of vegetarian meals? Plants contain no cholesterol, though some plants are relatively high in fat. The frequency of heart disease and cancer decreases as the consumption of fruits and vegetables increases, and a vegetarian diet can be inexpensive.
Just watch out for the genetically modified stuff, make it organic whenever possible.
Because of new dangers like 'Mad Cow Disease', growth hormones in chicken feed, and lately 'Chicken Flu' I have restricted my intake of 'two eye' protein to fish. However after speaking to a lady that rears pond fish and learning that she doesn't feed her fish growth hormones 'only' a substance that makes them sort of uni-sex , so they don't over-proliferate, I only eat sea fish, with the exception of smoked salmon, which I adore.
Now I'm going to have to give this up too, since, apart from finding out that some salmon farmers feed their fish red food colouring to make the salmon red, now there is some contaminated salmon from Chile making the rounds. So for Lent the only things with eyes that I'll be eating are potatoes and peas.Last but not least, check what Genesis 1:29 has to say on the matter: "And God said, Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of the earth, and every tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat". Peace.
I am, etc.,
COLETTE GARRICK
wanderer46@hotmail.com
3 Queensway
Kingston 10
Via Go-Jamaica
