New Years Diet Advice from the Animals

[Caution, NPR listeners: there are some nicely informative pictures of internal organs in this post, so if you are faint of stomach, as they coincidentally say, or are eating a tender and juicy anything, please stop with the eating for one quick moment.]

I've mentioned before about how, if I may say so, it is strangely lovely (or at least, strangely interesting) to be able to inspect all the internal organs of an animal that you've raised, and plan to eat.

One of the inspections that I am most intrigued by is cutting open the stomach to see what the animal has been eating.


Above is the stomach of the volunteer, Skittish Pig, who sacrificed herself to the fence and the pleasure of many of our closest friends and family members at our First Annual(?!) Many Named Multi Themed Party Event.

As you can see, it is mostly foraged greens, rounded out with a small helping of mostly whole grains.

This is a crop from one of the turkeys, killed the week before Thanksgiving. (I meant to look up what, exactly, a crop was, and how it works, but I spent all day doing estate taxes at work, and if I have to work through anything that reads remotely like Form 1041-I (which at this point is all words, ever), I will probably dissolve into an unbecoming puddle of self-pity. So, instead, I am going to salvage my evening and let you know that my imagination figures that this is where gobbled food goes before it is either regurgitated to be chewed at a later time, or where it hangs out for a while before some really bad ass chemicals come and help break it down there a bit before letting it pass on to the next stop. You can decide which you think. Or, obviously, look it up for yourselves.)

Anyway, the crop exhibits roughly the same mix of greens and whole grains, albeit in a more recognizable state.

So, in these odd, culturally mandated weeks of regret and atonement after the just-one-more-spritzer/sugar plum/whatnot-on-a-toothpick month of December, perhaps we should take a page out of the animals' books -- whole grains and lots of greens, not to mention naps whenever you feel like it, deciding not to leave the house when it is very snowy or a bit too breezy, and lots of socialization and snuggling before an early bedtime. They seem to have it pretty well figured out, actually. If I had to pick one, I suppose my New Years Resolution would be to live more like them.