“If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian.” — Sir Paul McCartney
Being an animal lover, and a general respecter of life, it sickens me to see the reality of how we barbarically obtain the flesh of different animals for our consumption. This awakens in me a strong desire to go vegetarian. However, I have titled this: “Eating Less Meat…”, instead of eating NO meat, because I cannot promise that I will never ever touch any meat product again. (Sometimes I am invited to family or friends’ homes, and they include meat products in what they cook. I am not going to obessive-compulsively demand they cook vegetarian just for me, nor am I going to inquire about all the ingredients they have used.) My desire, and drive is to lead a minimal to no meat lifestyle, and while I cannot ensure 100% that I will never touch a meat product again, I will definitely do what I can to not purchase it for my home, or order it at a restaurant, etc.
Buying Little to No Meat For The Past Year: And Yes, I Cook For My Husband
Our original reason for buying less meat at the supermarket started out about saving money. A little over a year ago, meat prices where we currently lived were outrageous. The cheapest meat was around $3.00lb, and I don’t even want to get into how a gallon of milk had shot up to $6.00 each. Living on a $40 a week food budget, I didn’t want to sacrifice my eating out for these items at the grocery store. What to do? What to do? Simple, stop buying meat (and milk while I was at it). So, as my father would think, if there is no meat how do you make a meal? Well, luckily around the same time we also began following a diet brought to our attention by a well-known alternative medicine doctor in Puerto Rico. He claimed that by eating potatoes, and carrots, these would supply the necessary nutrients the body needed, while helping the body lose weight, and heal itself. I was concerned about my body healing itself, my husband was concerned about losing the weight. We didn’t stick strictly to his diet, but we began eating meals composed of potatoes, carrots, beets, steamed vegetables, and brown rice. My husband is an ex-carnivore, but he was very open to change, and it was great to see how he appreciated the new flavors, great post-meal feeling, and the health benefits that the new meals brought him. (Side-note: He lost 20-30 lbs during this time.)
Nutrition in a Potato
You are probably thinking: potatoes????, Aren’t they full of carbs?, How can you lose weight with that??? Are they full of carbs? Yes, complex carbs which take longer to burn in your system, providing a more steady flow of energy. Think of sugars as firewood. You need them for energy, and your body burns it. Simple sugars or simple carbs, are like twigs they burn fast, and only last a short period of time. You might get a burst of energy from them, but then you crash. Complex carbohydrates are more like logs that burn low, and slow for hours providing a more steady flame. No crash here. Much like a grain of rice most of the nutrients are towards the outer part of the potato, with starch in the middle. Most people eat the potato without the peel, and only the inner part of the rice grain, essentially, not enough nutrient- to- starch ratio. Then they assume potatoes make you obese. To start off with, it’s all in the preparation, the glycemic index of a potato changes with the way you prepare it. A baked potato has a higher index than a boiled one. Also, we would boil our potatoes skins, and all, preserving the essential nutrients. We would only top our potatoes with extra virgin olive oil.
Addressing The Protein Intake Question
As all people who dare to defy the consumption of meat, of course I get the protein intake question, but I have a few questions myself:
What is protein, and what does it do for our body?
Protein’s basic structure is a chain of amino acids used to repair, and maintain our body. Imagine proteins, as building blocks for our body. While the correct blend of amino acids create the right protein, T. COLIN CAMPBELL, PHD states “Animal proteins also have a higher concentration of sulphur-containing amino acids that get metabolized to acid-generating metabolites. As a result, a slightly lower physiological pH must be corrected and buffers like calcium are used to attenuate these adverse acid effects–to the disadvantage of the host.” Meaning it takes your much-needed calcium to be useful, not to mention the strain added to your liver, kidneys, and cholesterol levels.
How much do we really need?
According to Paige Waehner in Calculating Your Protein Needs “Most experts believe that most people get more than enough protein daily. In fact, some believe the average sedentary American eats about 50% more than the recommended daily amount, which ranges from 40-70 grams each day depending on your gender, age and situation.
If you’re an exerciser, however, your protein needs may increase since resistance training and endurance workouts can rapidly break down muscle protein. A position statement published by the ADA, DOC and ACSM recommends that endurance and strength-trained athletes have between 1.2 and 1.7 g/kg (0.5 – 0.8 grams per pound) of protein for the best performance and health.
What if you’re trying to build more muscle? Shouldn’t you eat even more protein? Not necessarily. There’s evidence that bodybuilders, much like exercisers or athletes, do require more protein but that any more than double the RDA won’t necessarily help you build more muscle. In one study, experts studied three groups of weight lifters: A low protein group (0.86 g/kg), a moderate protein group (1.40 g/kg) and a high protein group (2.40 g/kg) and found that, “There were no effects of varying protein intake on indexes of lean body mass.”
In essence, the more you exercise, the greater your protein needs will be. However, taking it too far, for example more than doubling your protein intake, won’t necessarily help you build more muscle.
How to Calculate Your Protein Needs:
1. Weight in pounds divided by 2.2 = weight in kg 2. Weight in kg x 0.8-1.8 gm/kg = protein gm.
Use a lower number if you are in good health and are sedentary (i.e., 0.8). Use a higher number (between 1 and 1.8) if you are under stress, are pregnant, are recovering from an illness, or if you are involved in consistent and intense weight or endurance training.
Example: 154 lb male who is a regular exerciser and lifts weights 154 lbs/2.2 = 70kg 70kg x 1.5 = 105 gm protein/day.”
(All of this information is not mine, but comes from the same previously mentioned article.)
What other sources can we get it from?
Let’s start by looking at all the other items located in the “Meats/Protein” section of the Standard American Diet (SAD) pyramid. Well, lookie there, apparently beans, eggs, and nuts are adequate substitutes, even according to that pyramid. Believe it or not, even foods like potatoes have a certain amount of protein. For everything else, you can get your amino acids from things like brewer’s yeast (which helped with my vitamin b12 levels, giving me more energy) to quinoa. According to a vegan athlete I saw on the documentary “Vegucated” it’s about: “Quality over quality” when it comes to proteins.
So…What Do I Buy/Eat?
I make my spaghetti with mushrooms, I order a bean burrito instead of meat, I just generally steer towards non-meat products. That has always come naturally to me, now I have more reason for it.
Tags: Food, food budget, health, meat, protein
Sara E Dunphy 