I don't understand the new push for plant based diets..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Michael Pollan’s rule still applies: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

Everyone doesn’t need to go entirely vegan, but most people and the planet would be better if most ate less in general and cut down on meat. Jonathan Safran Foer , who wrote “Eating Animals” about factory farming, also said that if people could eat meat only once a day, that would be a huge improvement. I keep kosher so the logistics of eating meat more than once a day just don’t work, but over the last few years I’ve found myself eating meat less and less, and moving towards a plant-based diet. I now almost never eat red meat, eat chicken maybe twice a week, fish maybe twice a week and all other meals are vegetarian, if not vegan. The feeling of fullness I get after eating meat now is unpleasant, but I do occasionally eat a burger and enjoy it. I eat this way for my own health, and also because I think it is a more responsible way to eat.

+ 1 million

+2 million. Personally I went vegetarian/vegan for awhile before adding meat back in. It helped me build my menu/cooking skills and realize how little vegetables I was actually eating, although I thought I was. The above is my typical diet these days and I feel so much better. All you meat lovers should give it a shot, you may be surprised how much better you feel without your body trying to digest meat constantly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of the chubbiest, unhealthiest people that I know are vegetarians. I guess its all the starch and carbs like sweet potatoes, rice, potatoes, pasta etc.

The best way to be more environmental is to buy local, cook from scratch and ditch all the packaged foods, plan what you cook so you don't waste food and embrace filtered tap water. Other good ways to be environmental is to buy less crap, work from home, don't remodel your home, and if you have to buy something like furniture or clothing then buy second hand.

You are not saving the environment chowing down on TJ's packaged frozen vegetarian meals, having a zillion things shipped to your house via amazon or drugstore.com, and taking Uber whenever it rains, snows, is hot, is cold, tearing out your 1980s or 1990s cabinets and replacing with Ikea etc.

Transport distance has surprisingly little to do with the carbon footprint of food -- very, very much less than the type of food. Veggies from very far away still have a lower carbon footprint than local beef.

https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2020/01/Environ...-foods-by-life-cycle-stage.png

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought that all the old studies saying eggs and all red meat was bad for you were debunked. Lean red meats, especially bison, emu and lean cuts are supposed to be healthy. Eggs are considered healthy now too.

Links? Please educate us, oh enlightened one.

DP. The number if find is 70% in the US in 2015, although it continues to rise.

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2016/12/fda-antibiotic-use-food-animals-continues-rise


Here's a policy statement on antibiotic resistance and antibiotics in meat production from the World Health Organization:

https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/07-11-2017-stop-using-antibiotics-in-healthy-animals-to-prevent-the-spread-of-antibiotic-resistance

People who don't know much about industrial beef production are usually surprised to find out that American cows gain most of their weight in feed lots, where they are cramped into small, filthy and overcrowded spaces. They are fed corn (raised with pesticides and trucked to the feedlot by diesel powered trucks), which they aren't evolved to eat, so it makes them sick. That and the general unhealthy, cramped and filthy conditions require that they be routinely force fed antibiotics so that, although the suffer enormously, they don't die until they are ready to become steak and hamburger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Also I think the majority of people should just limit their meat intake to 4-8 oz a day and 1 cheat day a month for a big meat laden meal. I think that would go a long way. You don't have to do 100% plant based but it should be the majority of your diet.

Isn't this what normal non-vegetarians eat anyway? I don't know anyone who eats 16 ounces of beef a day. People usually eat a mix of beef, poultry, dairy, fish throughout the week with grains, vegetables, fruits etc.

Let’s see... my family eats:
Turkey sausage at breakfast
Lunch meat or tuna at lunch
Chicken or fish or beef for dinner
That’s a lot of meat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keto is amazing! I was shocked at how it changed my appetite, how easy it was to lose weight and how easy it has been to keep it off. I don't bother with bacon as its a PITA to make but do eat beef, poultry, and fish with lower carb vegetables. I am so much healthier now than when I was primarily eating plant based foods.

I’m doing the Mediterranean diet, which is heavy on fresh vegetables. It is amazing. Plant-based meals do not mean you eat a ton of bread and pasta.

[Anonymous]

I just don't want all the antibiotics in meat. They make you fat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Michael Pollan’s rule still applies: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

Everyone doesn’t need to go entirely vegan, but most people and the planet would be better if most ate less in general and cut down on meat. Jonathan Safran Foer , who wrote “Eating Animals” about factory farming, also said that if people could eat meat only once a day, that would be a huge improvement. I keep kosher so the logistics of eating meat more than once a day just don’t work, but over the last few years I’ve found myself eating meat less and less, and moving towards a plant-based diet. I now almost never eat red meat, eat chicken maybe twice a week, fish maybe twice a week and all other meals are vegetarian, if not vegan. The feeling of fullness I get after eating meat now is unpleasant, but I do occasionally eat a burger and enjoy it. I eat this way for my own health, and also because I think it is a more responsible way to eat.

What a break through! So he recommended food he? And it was because before
his brilliant recommendation people were eating pants not plants?

Maybe you should read one of his books so your snark doesn't sound so uninformed.

Food <> processed food

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meat is just over. It's pretty revolting most of the time and once you stop cooking it, you don't have to worry about food safety too often in the kitchen. Makes life easier, and meat isn't very healthy to eat anyway...

This is quite the song you sing yourself to feel better about your own diet choices.

I don't need to feel any better! I feel great! I eat vegan and gluten free and I work out twice a day. I look and feel amazing, but thanks!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yawn. I don’t like animals being murdered.

Are you like the coworker I had who sincerely believed that even carnivorous animals in the wild should not be carnivorous? (and the guy was educated, PhD in geography).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just don't want all the antibiotics in meat. They make you fat.

+1

Honestly, it's pretty depressing that you can see the difference in kids between families that eat mostly organic and families that eat mostly conventional.

[Anonymous]

I think you need to better inform yourself on this. The biggest environmental impact is the combination of growing food for cows to eat and then the methane those animals release. The travel and packaging impact is relatively minor compared to that.

This is a helpful diagram:

https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2020/01/Environ...-foods-by-life-cycle-stage.png

Wow, the shock here is just how different the impact of cow/mutton vs. chicken/fish. It seems almost a disservice to the environmental message to lump them together and to simply promote a "meat-free" diet. It would seem that pushing instead for diet of moderate chicken/egg/fish (for nutrition/satiety purposes) and otherwise plant-based would be almost as beneficial to the planet and much more accessible and doable for most (i.e., the somewhat-green-friendly diet you will do is much better than the very-green-friendly diet you won't!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I think you need to better inform yourself on this. The biggest environmental impact is the combination of growing food for cows to eat and then the methane those animals release. The travel and packaging impact is relatively minor compared to that.

This is a helpful diagram:

https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2020/01/Environ...-foods-by-life-cycle-stage.png

Wow, the shock here is just how different the impact of cow/mutton vs. chicken/fish. It seems almost a disservice to the environmental message to lump them together and to simply promote a "meat-free" diet. It would seem that pushing instead for diet of moderate chicken/egg/fish (for nutrition/satiety purposes) and otherwise plant-based would be almost as beneficial to the planet and much more accessible and doable for most (i.e., the somewhat-green-friendly diet you will do is much better than the very-green-friendly diet you won't!)

I agree, I'm the PP who quoted Michael Pollan above, and a diet that is mostly vegetable/plant-based and has some chicken, fish and eggs in it is very sustainable and (to me) delicious. Given that most Americans eat so much meat, it's too much to suggest that everyone completely stop and go vegan, but simply reducing and eventually eliminating red meat will go a very long way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Also I think the majority of people should just limit their meat intake to 4-8 oz a day and 1 cheat day a month for a big meat laden meal. I think that would go a long way. You don't have to do 100% plant based but it should be the majority of your diet.

Isn't this what normal non-vegetarians eat anyway? I don't know anyone who eats 16 ounces of beef a day. People usually eat a mix of beef, poultry, dairy, fish throughout the week with grains, vegetables, fruits etc.

Let’s see... my family eats:
Turkey sausage at breakfast
Lunch meat or tuna at lunch
Chicken or fish or beef for dinner
That’s a lot of meat.

Do you eat sausage every day, year round?

I am refeeding my daughter with anorexia. She is on a very large, strict meal plan. She eats precisely 8 Oz of meat per day. Four at lunch, four at dinner. Dinner might be beef, pork, fish, chicken, shrimp... Lunch is turkey.

Her breakfast protein is eggs, and she also eats cheese and nuts throughout the day. If she doesn’t need more than 8 Oz per day, I’m having a hard time imagining people needing more.

Are Americans on average actually eating 10 Oz of beef per day? Or is that much sold and then divided by our population, you get 10? I’m just wondering if there is a lot of waste baked into that number.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Keto is amazing! I was shocked at how it changed my appetite, how easy it was to lose weight and how easy it has been to keep it off. I don't bother with bacon as its a PITA to make but do eat beef, poultry, and fish with lower carb vegetables. I am so much healthier now than when I was primarily eating plant based foods.


Do you eat more than 8oz of meat a day?

No, the beauty of Keto is that it keeps you from simply craving food so you eat when you are hungry. An 8 ounce burger, steak, piece of fish or chicken is more than enough to satisfy me. I probably do more of an Arkins lo carb than keto now because I don't think I get as many fats as Keto recommends but not avoiding fat makes the world of difference in terms of satiety and flavor. I actually eat far more vegetables on Keto than when I ate the high carb foods like rice, bread, potatoes and other flour products. Lots of cauliflower, spinach, green leaf lettuce, asparagus, mushrooms etc. The carbs that I do eat come from tomatoes, garlic, berries, and onions.

From a health standpoint, it has been amazing. No more creaky joints, more energy so I work out, no bloating, no feeling overly full or hungry, and in my late 40s after having several kids I am back at my pre-marriage weight and size which had been basically impossible for the past 15 years before trying Keto and giving up a mostly plant based diet.

The problem is that plant based and vegetarian diets are usually so carb heavy. Quinoa, beans, rice, bread, pasta, sweet potatoes, corn, potatoes are all incredibly high carb. The heavy carbs make you hungry again latter on and you eat way more in volume and calories.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Michael Pollan’s rule still applies: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

Everyone doesn’t need to go entirely vegan, but most people and the planet would be better if most ate less in general and cut down on meat. Jonathan Safran Foer , who wrote “Eating Animals” about factory farming, also said that if people could eat meat only once a day, that would be a huge improvement. I keep kosher so the logistics of eating meat more than once a day just don’t work, but over the last few years I’ve found myself eating meat less and less, and moving towards a plant-based diet. I now almost never eat red meat, eat chicken maybe twice a week, fish maybe twice a week and all other meals are vegetarian, if not vegan. The feeling of fullness I get after eating meat now is unpleasant, but I do occasionally eat a burger and enjoy it. I eat this way for my own health, and also because I think it is a more responsible way to eat.

What a break through! So he recommended food he? And it was because before
his brilliant recommendation people were eating pants not plants?

Yes, food. As in, not chemicals and additives and fillers that make up a lot of processed “food.” Try to actually know what you’re talking about so your attempts at snark don’t make you sound like an idiot.