About 18 months ago I read Fast Food Nation, which is as much about consumerism in the United States as it is about fast food. It started a chain of events that changed how I live.
I had seen Super Size Me when it was released and while I stopped eating fast food in my early twenties after finding out I had a genetic disposition to high cholesterol and heart disease, I was still thoroughly disgusted at the overall mainstream food industry. Only adding to this distate was the scene in Napoleon Dynamite when Napoleon gets the job moving chickens from one coup to another. While a lot of the audience was laughing, I leaned over to my husband and said, “I’m never eating chicken or eggs from a non-free range farm again.”
Needless to say, after reading Fast Food Nation I became an organic and earth-friendly convert and I began regularly bonding with Whole Foods Market.
With this change in lifestyle came an added bonus: It’s quite fashionable to be green in Austin, Texas. In Austin it’s hip to drive a hybrid, hang out on the patio of Central Market on a Friday evening sipping a microbrewed beer or glass of wine, ride your bike to work or happy hour, eat a healthy and low-fat diet (to make room for all the awesome Tex-Mex restaurants), or to jog on Town Lake with your dog.
We love our pets in Austin. We make house and car choices based on the needs of our pets. We have dog-friendly restaurants, such as BB Rovers, that will bring a bowl of water for your dog while you enjoy a beer and bar food on the patio. We even have several no-leash parks that let your dog frolic with other dogs in a closed area.
And, we pay attention to their health like our own. We have specialty hospitals for our pets that need some extra help. Hell, my cat has an internist who treats his diabetes and arthritis, and one of my greyhounds sees an allergist.
We started giving our dogs vegetables in their food to encourage them to eat at one sitting. Our veterinarian confirmed that veggies are actually quite good for dogs if you can get them to eat them, and our dogs love them.
Animal Wellness magazine recently published a list of superfoods for pets:
- Carrots
- Broccoli
- Green beans
- Pumpkin
- Sweet Potatoes
- Tomato
- Apples
- Blueberries & cranberries
- Cantaloupe
- Watermelon
Of all things, canatloupe has become quite the hot ticket item at our house, and we can even use it as a training treat. Go figure.
technorati tags: life, austin, pets, dogs, organic, green
