Fast Food: Different Strokes for Different Folks
The other night, I was really in the mood for "pigging out" on fast food, so I went to Subway. I ordered a 6-inch "Veggie Delite" on whole-wheat bread. It came with no meat and no cheese. I asked for the foundation of toppings to be spinach, not lettuce. I also got it with carrots, green peppers, cucumbers, onions, oregano, and oil and vinegar, and I splurged and asked for "lots of" pickles. I also got a bag of greasy, fried potato chips, but I took my sandwich home and had juice with it instead of getting soda at the restaurant.
While waiting, the woman in front of me kept complaining to herself that she felt sluggish, and she repeatedly dropped her cell phone and keys for no apparent reason. The first of her two sandwiches was a foot-long sub with turkey, cheese, and mayo: Her sandwich required the suffering of three different species of animals! Her second sandwich was a 6-inch sub with meatballs, melted cheese, and a garlicky butter spread; this Exodus 23:19 violation of a sandwich had no vegetables on it whatsoever.*
My motivation to be vegan is the ethical issue: I refuse to support the institutional cruelty to animals that's inherent to commercial animal agriculture. But I am happy to know that I'm eating healthier than the average American, even when I'm "pigging out" on fast food. When given the choice of the two stories above, the second meal seems utterly repugnant.
* Truth be told, the prohibition against mixing meat and dairy products comes up three times in the Bible.
While waiting, the woman in front of me kept complaining to herself that she felt sluggish, and she repeatedly dropped her cell phone and keys for no apparent reason. The first of her two sandwiches was a foot-long sub with turkey, cheese, and mayo: Her sandwich required the suffering of three different species of animals! Her second sandwich was a 6-inch sub with meatballs, melted cheese, and a garlicky butter spread; this Exodus 23:19 violation of a sandwich had no vegetables on it whatsoever.*
My motivation to be vegan is the ethical issue: I refuse to support the institutional cruelty to animals that's inherent to commercial animal agriculture. But I am happy to know that I'm eating healthier than the average American, even when I'm "pigging out" on fast food. When given the choice of the two stories above, the second meal seems utterly repugnant.
* Truth be told, the prohibition against mixing meat and dairy products comes up three times in the Bible.
posted by heebnvegan @ 5/13/2006 08:42:00 AM
4 Comments:
At 5/13/2006 11:57 PM,
KleoPatra said…
GREAT, great post. Thank you.
At 5/14/2006 5:22 PM,
Yitzchak Goodman said…
If the Lady wasn't Jewish, then she was not violating anything. If she was Jewish, the second sandwich would only have been Biblical basar vecholov if the meat and cheese were cooked together. So if the cheese was melted onto the bun, say, and not directly onto the meatballs, then we would have Rabbinic basar vecholov. Which is also what the Turkey sandwich was. And speaking of the three suffering species, I assume you mean turkeys, cows, and chickens. What about the cheese cultures? Multicellular-ist!
At 5/14/2006 6:39 PM,
heebnvegan said…
What I said about three different species of animals is correct. If you're talking about the enzymes used in cheese-making, I think rennet is pretty disgusting. It's the enzymes of a calf's stomach, and it's used to make cheese. So if you call yourself vegetarian, you really shouldn't be eating most commercial cheeses because they contain rennett. My sympathy goes to the cows, not the enzymes themeslves--they can't suffer.
And I'm not trying to lay any "guilt" on this woman. I'll probably never see her again, and if I do, I probably wouldn't recognize her anyway. I was just using her as an example.
Thanks for commenting and using the word "multicellular-ist" :-)
At 1/14/2009 10:38 PM,
heebnvegan said…
Apparently, Blimpie's Veggie Supreme sandwich has more fat than two Big Macs! An article (http://tinyurl.com/a364sl) named it the worst "healthy" sandwich and noted, "Sure, a Veggie Supreme sandwich sounds healthy, but this foot-long comes with three different kinds of cheese, and it’s drenched in oil." Here are some stats:
1,106 calories
56 g fat (33 g saturated fat)
2,831 mg sodium
96 g carbohydrates
Post a Comment
<< Home