A few days ago I wrote, “I … have realized that the myth that we need high protein levels to thrive is just plain wrong. That could be propaganda from the meat industry!”

It is great to feel vindicated when you hold a unpopular viewpoint. It happened to me yesterday when I found these articles:

Vegetarian low protein diet could be key to long life
Secret of a healthy old age may lie in right balance of proteins

As suspected, the mad rush to consume protein via meat, dairy and protein powders is just plain misguided. I feel great using vegan protein sources including peanut butter and legumes, and using the Diet for a Small Planet techniques of mixing vegan proteins. Try peanut butter mixed with rice syrup for a sweet snack, or a combo-plate of rice, potatoes and lentils (my current favorite.) There’s plenty of protein to be had without doing anything unnatural, like killing an animal.

I honestly believe that killing animals to eat their meat is the original sin.

I was surprised when I looked at my stats today and saw that this site now gets about 150 visits daily. Now I feel a need to make the site more useful - and I’m going to do that by installing a section for linking to current news articles.

I come across health and food news daily but normally I add those links to my Delicious account. Instead, I’ll post them here so that site visitors will find a resource for learning about the latest news in food, natural healing and health.

This month we’re busy getting our garden soil ready. We’re planning a big garden - flowers, herbs and vegetables. That’s keeping me busy.

How about you? With the world economy in shambles are you planning to grow your own food this year? Will you be canning? Are you storing food just in case the stores no longer can supply our needs? Do you even believe that’s possible?

You know me… I believe in preparing for the future, and even though it seems unnecessary now, food storage is an important part of my life.

This morning I woke to two news articles about tainted meat on my Google home page, and once again praised my good luck that I prefer to be vegetarian. But I know most people aren’t, and thought about a blog I visited yesterday through a lucky click on my Stumble Upon toolbar.

First, the meat articles. They are Chemical in tainted pet food turns up on hog farms, and E. coli’s trail ends in Merced California … Not very appetizing, is it?

So here’s the solution: great vegetarian meals. The kind that make you feel like you’re not missing anything. That’s what I found during my visit to Vegetarian Meal Plans, a blog by Cassie Young that’s been serving up great vegetarian meal plan ideas and recipes, along with a serving of practical advice, since last December. The recipes with their colorful close-up photographs of her culinary creations are simple enough to be do-able, but complex enough to impress me. The author tells us this is what she’s been eating at her home so I’m sure we can do it at ours.

I work in a pizza restaurant that serves up meat-laden pizzas all day long. Very few come in asking for our veggie combo, and I wonder why, with all the publicity about tainted meat, so many people have a problem with making the break to more healthy, natural foods.

For me, it was a decision I made early-on in my life; I decided as a teenager that pillaging animals for their flesh was not for me. But most people eat meat as if their life depends on it. I wonder if it is caused by government propaganda that tells us meat is one of the four food groups.

Meat is not necessary for human survival. Living without it is a blessing, and is the best way to avoid tainted meat that is becoming more common in the 21st century.

Vegetarian Meal Plans deserves a link in my blogroll on the right-hand side of this blog.