Well, I've decided it's time to blog. I've had this story on my mind for quite some time and really need to tell it because I consider it sort of a "sign" from something beyond me to ease up on animal flesh consumption.

For a while, even though I craved meat a lot during the master cleanse, I noticed something very interesting about my body when I listened to it: during my body's waning moon (which coincides pretty nicely with the true moon right now) I realized that my body has been trying to clean itself out. It needs a lot of green leafy veggies for magnesium and chlorophyll, and lots of water to help keep things moving. Acid forming foods also tend to worsen PMS because they seem to leach these precious minerals from the body in order to process them and neutralize their effects. I think that during this time the body is trying to get rid of all the nasty things dead animal flesh accumulate in the GI tract and blood.

So, as this waning moon progressed last month, I decided that perhaps in this phase I could certainly become vegetarian EXCEPT I could not come to terms with my love for fish. One or two weeks before leaving for Europe, I ventured into Whole Foods on a Sunday evening and asked the fishmonger what he recommended. There was a fresh batch of pot-caught cod glistening on the ice that had apparently been flown in that morning. Naturally, as this is a beneficial food for As, how could I refuse FRESH (not frozen) cod? Cod is not my favorite fish, by any means, but it does have a lot of good things in it.

Well, I got a little busy these two nights and finally decided it was time to cook the fish on Tuesday evening. So, I was standing there with the fish, beginning to unwrap it from the paper over the sink, and when I lifted the fish off the paper, there was a WORM on the paper!!! IT WAS ALIVE!!!!!

Luckily, I was not alone in the house, as this was somewhat disturbing to me. The girl I was about to go to Europe with was upstairs. I called her to come down ASAP to show her the worm. She said, "you have to take it back!" and I was like, "I know, but I don't want to leave the house!"

So, we piled into the car (it was almost 9 pm and I was HUNGRY, well sort of, though I also sort of had the heaves, so you can understand the inconvenience of this grocery store trip). We got to the customer service counter and I told the gal about the worm and insisted that I speak to the fish guy to see what he said about this (and get a fish less notorious for worminess). So I got my gift card with the refund amount from what I paid for the cod and went straight back to the fishmonger to discuss the experience.

When I told him about the worm (and we also showed it to him), he was very non-chalant about the whole thing. "Cod gets worms all the time; so does monkfish. If you cook it long enough, you'll kill the worms anyway." Uh, OK. In theory, I agree with him but I cannot consciously put parasites into my body, dead or alive, if I know they are stuck in the fish! So I opted for the salmon, a less wormy seafood choice according to him.

Coming back home to make the salmon, I just really had a hard time eating the thing, even though I poached that damn thing for at least 20 minutes. I just couldn't get the worm out of my mind. Ahh! Grubster came over to eat fish with me but I did not tell him the worm story until AFTER he was finished eating. I didn't want him to lose his appetite either.

Now, the next day, I was still very obsessed with this whole experience. Like any OCD-prone Blood Group A person, I googled in "cod" and "worm" and found a wonderful blog from a fish expert who explained the phenomenon. I also found a great cod worm "life cycle" diagram which describes how the cod gets eaten by seal, the seal poop out the eggs, the krill eat the eggs and the larvae goes to the first stage, the shrimp eat the krill bringing the larva to the second stage, then the cod eat the shrimp and the worms grow to their full adult size.

Very fascinating indeed. Also a great way to gross out your fellow co-workers. So, I guess to make a long story short, I've been thinking twice about eating meat, ANY meat. I've been trying to wrap my mind around the timing of this discovery. I wonder if I would have even seen these worms had I cooked the fish the night I purchased it. There is a process called "candling" in which the fishmonger shines a light through white-colored fish to search for these worms. Either this did not happen, or the worms were hidden deep within the belly flesh until they began crawling out two days later and so they were missed. I don't know. But man, this has made eating cod very difficult for me ever since!

So, while vegetarianism is fairly easy for me to adopt, veganism is a whole other story. It seems like I need one or the other; either I eat dairy or meat, but I am no where near ready to give up both. This veg thing for me may not be permanent and it is certainly NOT FOR EVERYONE, though I do think 95% of all Americans would be better of eating LESS meat since it is consumed so far away from its origin (the farm) and most folks are very disconnected from the direct process of killing an animal.

If you've ever watched Animal Planet or the Discovery Channel, or my favorite, the movie Madagascar, you know firsthand that some animals, such as my dog, are meant to eat meat. Humans, or "manimals" are in that category. But as a Blood Group A manimal, I'm doing OK without it right now and I'm really not missing it too much so long as I get to have mozarella, chevre, and farmer cheese. And eggs.

More about my trip in a later blog..... I'm ready for bed now!!