So I stopped eating most meat around a week ago. No red meat no white, no fish or other seafood.
Here's the thing though I'm still eating bugs 😬 Not harmless bugs, only invasive or destructive species such as grasshoppers and locusts. The biggest reason humans use dangerous pesticides on crops is because we don't eat the bugs that are eating the crops, at least not in the United States.
I've been ordering chapulines (toasted and seasoned grasshoppers) for several years and I'm still using them as a condiment on top of a lot of my food. They have a lot of protein, they are delicious, and they are destructive to the environment. In Mexico they're smart enough to eat the bugs to try to keep them from eating their damn crops. In the United States people think they're too good to eat bugs which is funny because humans eat bugs.... you have no choice.
I know there are people out there repeating in their head over and over again that it's an *urban legend* that we all eat spiders while we are sleeping...
It's not 🕷️
Cockroaches like to crawl into people's mouths while you are sleeping too, you know how I know that? Because I woke up with a cockroach halfway in my mouth once in Phoenix, Arizona. They have sewer cockroaches there that crawl out of the drainage systems and up through the pipes, they like the taste of toothpaste and suck it off of people's toothbrushes while they are sleeping..... Then you use the toothbrush the next day not knowing a cockroach has been sucking on it all night 🤢 I guess that cockroach really loved the taste of toothpaste because he was sure looking for it when I woke up.
I think there is a difference between purposely eating bugs and accidentally eating them though.
Kind of like with addiction sobriety if somebody puts alcohol or drugs into something you consume without you knowing it, then that's considered poisoning and it doesn't go against your sobriety. It doesn't count as a relapse if you have accidentally ingested a substance against your will, so in my opinion I think the same thing applies with vegans and vegetarians if they unknowingly consume animal products.
I think if people go well out of their way to avoid any kind of animal products, they still get to call themselves vegans and vegetarians without being hypocritical (at least in practice). It's completely impossible to go without having any animal substances enter our bodies at some point during our lifetime, but I don't think that means that vegans and vegetarians don't get credit for their voluntary diet restrictions.
I think for now I'll just say I'm a flexitarian, I am eating the bugs completely on purpose so it's not accidental ingestion. But I am going to post a couple links
***for my own personal validation*** that kind of explains a little bit on why I'm still going to eat (some) bugs. Not that I need to explain myself for other people's approval, this is just for anybody that wanted to learn a little something about me 😎 I validate myself now 🤭 Relying on validation from outside sources is unhealthy🤗
This next link is to a website selling insect products, I am not affiliated with the website and I'm not urging anyone to buy any of their products whatsoever, I just think they have a lot of good information on this page. It's none of my business what you eat, I will not try to urge you to eat bugs if you are not interested but I will give you this info so you can learn about it.
Below are the only insect protein products I'm going to plug. I won't bother even putting any company names, especially since nobody's paying me 😅 You can get both of these items on Amazon and eBay from different sellers
1. Chapulines. Toasted and seasoned grasshoppers. Great to sprinkle on top of other food (like tacos, vegi-chili, mac and cheese).
2. Cricket flour. Ground dried crickets, a protein powder that can even be added to baked goods like cookies.
I don't use very much cricket flour in my cooking because I used to breed crickets for my reptiles... For anyone who's had crickets before, you already know that they produce a ton of waste including ammonia.
It's a very unpleasant scent and I can smell a hint of it when I sniff cricket powder, lol, that smell grosses me out. I hold my breath when I open the bag of flour and when scooped into the food I'm making 🤭 Once it's mixed into the batter I can't smell it and there isn't much of a taste either, just a little earthy and bitter if you add too much.
If you want to experiment with cricket flour I recommend adding a little too oatmeal raisin cookies or chocolate/fudge brownies. They mask the taste the best in my opinion.