29 Days

Almost a month now since I stopped eating meat. The sight of it virtually turns my stomach, so no, I don't really miss it at all. I have been eating shrimp along with my vegetables, a bit of kani in sandwiches, and squid only once. Have yet to really eat fish coz I'm still reminded of that eel they hooked to the wall and skinned semi-alive and still twitching in that darned Julia Roberts movie. I'm in love with fruits; especially bananas, mangoes and strawberries. I drink a glass of fresh orange juice at least thrice a week for breakfast. And oatmeal and tofu are my best friends.

I am plagued by my conscience for eating so many darned chicken/pork/beef dishes in my 27 years of existence. And I'm sincerely hoping that a month from now I still feel like this.

Consequently, I also stumbled upon this study hailing the health benefits of being a pescetarian as opposed to other diets. Here's the abstract:

We combined data from 5 prospective studies to compare the death rates from common diseases of vegetarians with those of nonvegetarians with similar lifestyles. A summary of these results was reported previously; we report here more details of the findings. Data for 76172 men and women were available. Vegetarians were those who did not eat any meat or fish (n = 27808). Death rate ratios at ages 16–89 y were calculated by Poisson regression and all results were adjusted for age, sex, and smoking status. A random-effects model was used to calculate pooled estimates of effect for all studies combined. There were 8330 deaths after a mean of 10.6 y of follow-up. Mortality from ischemic heart disease was 24% lower in vegetarians than in nonvegetarians (death rate ratio: 0.76; 95% CI: 0.62, 0.94; P < 0.01). The lower mortality from ischemic heart disease among vegetarians was greater at younger ages and was restricted to those who had followed their current diet for >5 y. Further categorization of diets showed that, in comparison with regular meat eaters, mortality from ischemic heart disease was 20% lower in occasional meat eaters, 34% lower in people who ate fish but not meat, 34% lower in lactoovovegetarians, and 26% lower in vegans. There were no significant differences between vegetarians and nonvegetarians in mortality from cerebrovascular disease, stomach cancer, colorectal cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, or all other causes combined.

Thirty-four percent is a huge difference from 26% isn't it? Just as well, since I cannot go entirely vegan what with my love of sweets, breads and pastries (meaning they contain eggs and dairy). With members from both sides of my family having had heart problems, I think this dietary choice would really be beneficial for me after all, don't you think?