Poll: Your opinion on meat products

[ShindoL Shill]

...
I want to know why I read 'Vegetarian' as 'Meat Virgin'.
I suppose some of them are...

I don't know, I've NEVER had it.

Veggie and proud, 18 years and still going strong

Like this guy. Meat Virgin.

OT: Num num num.
That's my opinion.

 

[Zantos]

Mmmmmm meat! I love meat. I don't compulsively have to eat it every meal, and I try to make sure it's part of a balanced diet, but I love me some meat.

My dentist has always had the theory that I'm definitely meant to be a meat eater. All I ever hear from him is that my teeth are far pointier than is normal, good for ripping meat, and he always seems to want to file my teeth if he's going to be doing something uncomfortable, in case I bite down. No fucking chance.

 

[Chevalier noir]

I love meat, this thread is making me hungry.

 

[Vivi22]

Meat really isn't as necessary as most people make it out to be, and too much can actually be bad for you

Not true. Meat is not only very much an essential part of the diet (without careful supplementation a lot of vegetarians, and vegans in particular, will suffer health issues in the long run which make them become ex-vegetarians/vegans), but eating meat isn't unhealthy. It's pretty much impossible to overeat, protein and fat making you feel satiated long before you could eat too much, whatever that arbitrary and unscientific quantity is deemed to be. Unlike breads and grains which stimulate appetite and make up a sizable chunk of most peoples diets. Moreover, you can thrive on a diet that's made up almost entirely of meat and fat. But when people cut those out and start replacing the lost calories with carbs, particularly sugars and grains, then people start having major health issues like weight gain, diabetes and heart disease.

If it weren't obvious, I love meat. Meat and other animal products easily make up the majority of my diet, and I feel all the better for it.

 

[Esotera]

Meat really isn't as necessary as most people make it out to be, and too much can actually be bad for you

Not true. Meat is not only very much an essential part of the diet (without careful supplementation a lot of vegetarians, and vegans in particular, will suffer health issues in the long run which make them become ex-vegetarians/vegans), but eating meat isn't unhealthy. It's pretty much impossible to overeat, protein and fat making you feel satiated long before you could eat too much, whatever that arbitrary and unscientific quantity is deemed to be. Unlike breads and grains which stimulate appetite and make up a sizable chunk of most peoples diets. Moreover, you can thrive on a diet that's made up almost entirely of meat and fat. But when people cut those out and start replacing the lost calories with carbs, particularly sugars and grains, then people start having major health issues like weight gain, diabetes and heart disease.

If it weren't obvious, I love meat. Meat and other animal products easily make up the majority of my diet, and I feel all the better for it.

High meat consumption correlates with increased risk of heart disease, obesity, and cancer. There are several studies that show this & it's pretty common knowledge.

That said vegetarians/vegans can encounter a lot of health problems if their diet isn't well planned out...vegans in particular. There isn't anything that I can think of that can't be replaced by a non-animal product though, except possibly Vitamin B12, which is available as a supplement anyway.

 

[lunavixen]

Nothing beats a good slow roasted beef or lamb section (i'm not a big pork product eater, but i love my beef). Depending on the cut of meat is how delicious it tastes.

Picture this, a slow roasted scotch fillet beef rolled roast, roasted in fresh garlic and red wine until it falls apart, so tender, that when you carve the roast your knife glides through it, then thickening the pan drippings with just a little flour and beef stock for a red wine and garlic gravy. Served with honey baked pumpkin, crispy baked potatoes and collar greens (broccoli, peas and beans).

Or, a chicken kiev made with clarified butter and roasted garlic, crumbed in a seasoned crust of breadcrumbs, herbs and spices. Served with a freshly made garden salad with herb viniagrette

 

[Vivi22]

High meat consumption correlates with increased risk of heart disease, obesity, and cancer. There are several studies that show this & it's pretty common knowledge.

Correlation doesn't equal causation. More importantly, many of the studies which come out showing a correlation either show a weak correlation, or completely fail to control other variables such as smoking, lack of exercise, alcohol consumption, or other carbohydrate consumption making their conclusions pretty much meaningless. Hell, the original study by Ancel Keyes which put forward the lipid hypothesis, the idea that consumption of dietary fat, particularly saturated fat, causes heart disease was bull when he originally put it out there. His original study which showed a correlation used data from 7 countries to show the relationship. But to get his data to show the trend between consumption of meat and heart disease he ignored the data from the rest of the 30 total countries that he had access to which showed no correlation at all and didn't include them in his study as it was published. Or we could look at T. Colin Campbell's The China Study which leveled blame squarely at meat consumption for things such as heart disease despite analysis of the very data he used showing the wheat flour consumption had a very strong correlation to heart disease while the correlation to meat consumption was substantially smaller. Something which he leaves entirely unexplored in favour of demonizing a food he doesn't agree with eating: http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/08/06/final-china-study-response-html/

In fact, the mechanisms by which people store fat and develop heart disease are pretty well understood at this point and they all rely on consumption of excess carbohydrates resulting in repeated spiking of blood glucose levels to trigger.

But I don't have all day to spend explaining the details. You can check out the movie Fathead, or some books such as Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis, or pretty much anything by Gary Taubes to get you started on becoming more informed on the science that's out there. The tide is gradually, but very surely, moving away from the lipid hypothesis as an explanation for heart disease and fat consumption being responsible for obesity amongst the scientific community and even the general public. Believe it or not, common knowledge can, and very often is, completely wrong.

There isn't anything that I can think of that can't be replaced by a non-animal product though

It's very difficult to get enough dietary cholesterol (such as saturated fat) for things like proper brain development in children and brain function, immune function etc. And the funny thing is, you don't lower cholesterol by not eating it. The stuff is so essential to proper human functioning that if you don't eat it your liver will produce it 24/7 for years, and generally at a higher rate than you can eat it because without it you'll basically die. But your liver producing it isn't the ideal option and generally leads to an excess of small LDL particles and triglycerides, two of the major indicators of being at risk for developing heart disease. Small LDL particles are actually the type of cholesterol which will clog arteries damaged by inflammation due to repeated spikes in blood sugar. Eating meat and the saturated fat the comes with it actually lowers the amount of small LDL particles present in the blood stream.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

I love meat. But I don't tend to eat a ridiculous amount of it, mostly because there are non-meat foods that are delicious too.

As for the whole vegetarian/vegan being extremely healthy, I honestly think that if most meat-eaters managed their diets to the extent that the average vegetarian or vegan does, they would be just as, if not more healthy than their non-meat eating counterparts.