Assignment
If you have been curious about vegetarian eating then this project may be for you. For a two-week period you will make a commitment to eat a vegetarian diet. It is up to you which type of vegetarian diet you pursue (whether you include dairy, eggs, fish or go strictly vegan.) Going without meat will be a big challenge. You will need to prepare by being sure you have alternate sources of protein in you diet e.g. chick peas, beans, lentils, nuts, nut butters, tofu, etc. You will have to shop differently, and depending on your time you may cook new vegetarian dishes. You will keep a daily journal that will include:
• What you ate for meals and snacks
• How you felt physically, emotionally (e.g. moods) and mentally (e.g. ability to concentrate). This should include temptations and cravings. (If you break the diet you can still continue as you can still learn a lot, but you need to record what happened.)
• The reactions of people around you: family, friends, classmates, and people you work with. Include experiences in restaurants and social occasions. These reactions and comments are the sociological part of the research, as they will reveal to you many of the common attitudes in our culture regarding food and vegetarian eating.
You should have 14 Journal Entries as + an Introduction entry + a conclusion entry (16 total). You will be able to edit all of your entries until the due date of the assignment. The content for each of the 14 entries is as follows:
1. Logs of what you ate for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks between meals
2. How you felt (physically, emotionally, and mentally).
3. Reactions of others in your life to your diet (include restaurant eating, and social occasions)
4. Any other observations or reflections Drawing on research, end your project with a detailed response to the following:
A. Why is adopting a vegetarian diet valuable and important for food sustainability? (consult at least two sources here)
B. Provide a brief overview of what your expectations were before you began the diet and any preparations you made.
C. A reflection (250-500) about what you gained from the experience summarizing what you learned from the experience about our meat-centric culture, about attitudes to vegetarianism, and about the effects of the food you eat on how you feel.