This week I did two new things: I ate eggs again and I started, finally, eating non-GMO.

To my new understanding, eggs fit into the “meatless” category. The reason they are considered meatless is because they contain no animal flesh: meat, muscle, or tissue. When I googled the question of “are eggs considered meat,” I found that the restriction for a vegetarian diet is to not eat dead animals. Although I have been eating vegetarian for almost two months, I hadn’t really put into words what I was doing exactly. I haven’t just said “I am not eating dead animals.” Instead when people ask what I’m staying away from, I really just say chicken and ham because those were really the only meats I ate. It just sounded kind of weird reading that what I am doing is just not eating dead animals. The debate about whether eggs are meat or not comes from more of a moral dilemma. Some vegetarians eat this way because of religious or spiritual reasons, some eat this way as a stance against animal cruelty and protecting ‘innocent’ animals, and, like me, some people eat this way for health reasons. The reason I quote innocent is because of the fact that I don’t personally have that reasoning behind being vegetarian. I wanted to eat a meatless diet for the simple health benefits. Eggs are high in cholesterol and fat, although they are also high in protein. Eggs are also a good source of nutrients that help protect against age-related diseases such as macular degeneration. Macular degeneration is a fancy way of saying loss of vision. I already have really bad vision so I feel like I can’t shoot anything down that can help preventing vision loss. Just like any food, eggs are good in moderation. There are many benefits to eating them, such as high levels of proteins and nutrients, that I want to continue to eat them. The yolk is what contains the high source of cholesterol, so if I decide that is something that is of concern to me, then I can just strictly eat egg whites. Eating eggs was really nice this weekend since my family came to visit. It really opens up the options when going out to breakfast as well as just eating breakfast at home. My dad has this recipe for scrambled eggs that is so good that I could not say no to Saturday morning. For the time being, I will definitely continue to eat eggs.

My brothers and I at the hockey game on Saturday

Okay, so what I have been most excited about is the fact that I have started my non-GMO diet. Since my family came up this weekend, it was easier for me to start non-GMO on Monday. Non-GMO means the food contains no genetically modified organisms or engineering. Most of the foods you eat are genetically modified. They are modified because it is more cost effective for the producer. By modifying the genes, it allows for ‘better’ nutritional value and a longer shelf life. The thing I eat everyday that is genetically modified is cereal. The entire General Mills brand uses genetically modified corn. The crop itself is altered to help prevent against harm to the crop due to insects or bacteria. Just the fact of knowing that my food has been altered in a lab is something that makes me feel gross. I would much rather eat simpler food than something that has been altered in a lab to make last longer.

The best thing for this week has been going to the farmer’s market and referencing what I eat with the non-GMO project website. From my experience, I everything I buy at the farmer’s market is grown naturally without any chemicals, or pesticides. Pesticides have a whole array of negative effects, similar to genetically modified foods, it alters the natural process of farming and growing crops. The non-GMO project website lists all the companies who contain the non-GMO project stamp on the boxes of their products. Currently 50,135 products are verified by the project, meaning there are 50,135 processed foods that do not contain any genetic modification. It is easy to search for a product or brand and see whether or not it is non-GMO. I am definitely going to continue this into next week so I have at least a full week of eating non-GMO.