As I bake my first ever very own homemade loaf of bread (which is of course not on any kind of cleanse diet, and yes, it’s no-knead, so it probably doesn’t even count as homemade?), I was looking around iTunes for the audiobook of “Quantum Wellness” by Kathy Freston. I found it and I’m about to start listening to it, but I wanted to mention it to you first. And then I also found this article she wrote on the Huffington Post today, which is really great. I thought for a moment of sending the link out to some friends and family via e-mail and then said to myself “what am I thinking? post it on the blog!” So I hope you all find it as interesting as I did.

I can’t even do her ideas justice with paraphrasing; she has done a wonderful job putting more eloquently than I ever could some ideas I have been mulling over for a bit now, but too chicken sh*t to talk about here. haHA. get it? chicken? no, you probably don’t, because I haven’t even gotten to the whole point yet which is basically this: Don’t want everyone to suffer and get sick and the world to end? EAT LESS MEAT.

I don’t want to go around telling anyone what to do (erm, who are we kidding, of course I do. I’m a capricorn and I’m bossy!), but I would like you to just possibly consider perhaps reading this article, then maybe perhaps clicking some of the links, and maybe then maybe listening to her interview on Oprah’s Soul Series, which is where I heard of Ms. Freston in the first place. Then maybe we can listen to or read the book together and have a little discussion? Maybe?

This of course all also relates to those other books I mentioned a while back.

Here’s a little excerpt from the article:

“There has been a lot of talk in recent days about how factory farmed animals are the cause of the deadly hybrid virus that is eerily mutating, and some are calling it cosmic retribution, a sort of “chickens coming home to roost” scenario. I don’t know about that, but an animal virus like swine flu is a completely predictable (and was a widely predicted) response to our modern horribly cruel and appallingly filthy factory farming systems.”

…

“Basically, our current food choices (the average American eats about 200 pounds of meat annually) are killing us on a host of different levels. Perhaps now more than ever, it’s time to clear out old, tired, uninformed ways of eating and opt instead for food that nourishes us, is easy on the planet, and gives the animals some breathing room.

Oh, and especially useful in these exceedingly difficult economic times: Eating a plant-based diet is cheap relative to eating meat. Compare the price of grains and beans with that of chicken and cheese. And growing grains and vegetables is by no means the filthy business that animal agriculture has become.

I realize it’s not painless to give up what we are used to, what we like the taste and tradition of, in favor of a diet that we know is better for us and the planet. But if we lean into the shift of eating consciously by giving up one animal at a time (give up chickens first, as I discuss here), or eating only vegetarian for two out of three meals, we will find our way and get used to new tastes. We will grow to love different foods that are kinder to our bodies, the environment, and the animals.”

I’ll leave the discussion for another day, because my bread is almost done and needs some attention. But I hope you’ll take a minute and do a little clicking around on these subjects — after all, we’re all in this together, right?