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| Top of the food chain. Taken on safari in the Serengeti in August. |
I read an article today and it inspired me to write about a topic that is very important to me. Meat. As in the food. ;) With Thanksgiving around the corner and the imminent slaughter of thousands of turkeys that are raised specifically for this one meal, I thought it pertinent to bring this topic up.
Let me start with saying that Thanksgiving is by far my most favored and treasured holidays. I adore the fact that the entire holiday is geared towards spending time with your friends and family over a meal. So much love and care is gone into one meal spent with important people in your life - I wish we had Thanksgiving more often! But a different kind of Thanksgiving. One that focused on seasonal, fresh and delicious foods. I have a theory - I believe that most of us (yes you!) really do like pretty much every vegetable out there. It’s just not fresh and not properly cooked when we eat it, so we *think* we don’t like brussel sprouts. Hmm... brussel sprouts... I can honestly say that I hate grapefruit. I try it every freaking year hoping that my tastes will change and I’ll like it. No such luck yet. So there are exceptions. I challenge you - give me a veggie that you hate and I’ll give you a recipe to try! Who knows, maybe you’ll like it!
Anyway, back on track here. Take a moment and pause. Think about what you ate today. How did it make you feel after eating? Did you feel more energetic? Happy? Lethargic? Hungrier? I ask as I think we focus so heavily in the US on food as sustenance. We don’t really enjoy our meals. When was the last time you truely tasted and enjoyed something that you ate?
In thinking about creating a *tasty* meal that I’ll enjoy and appreciate, I tend to think of the dinner plate as having three parts: vegetables, complex carbohydrate and protein. The importance of each item is in that order - vegetables are the most important thing you can put on your plate. Next, a complex carbohydrate that is full of fiber. Lastly, high quality protein.
Now onto the meat question. Ask yourself - how much meat have you eaten today? In the past week? How does eating meat make you feel? I’ll spare you the whole Michael Pollan discussion - I’m sure you know it by now. I do want to point out a few things about meat, however. First, sorry to say it, but you are what you eat. The majority of meat produced in this country is poor quality meat that I believe is detrimental to your health - for many reasons. Animals are raised in small, confined areas, which can only make them stressed out their entire lives. How do you feel stressed out all the time? I personally can only imagine what toxins are roaming around my body when I’m stressed. Animals are fed horrible diets - remember that adage “you are what you eat?” Think about the quality of meat from animals fed terrible diets. Animals are also given high doses of antibiotics and growth hormones. I’ve been reading some articles lately about how these hormones can be passed from the animals to their meat products and directly into our bodies. This could lead (nothing has been proven) to weight gain and other Western diseases. And then there are the environmental impacts of meat. Massive consumption of energy, oil, water; tons and tons of animal waste polluting our water tables and rivers. Is it time to consider how you can change your buying behavior?
Do I disagree with eating meat? Absolutely not. In fact, I believe that most of us should eat meat. However, we should probably eat about ¼ the amount of meat that we currently consume. Being a woman, I personally don’t need much protein, so I typically eat meat about 1-4 meals per week. Yes, I said meals. Not days. For men, maybe that needs to be 4-7 meals per week. For protein sources other than meat I suggest:
My suggestion - cut out meat for a week and introduce meat back into your diet slowly. See how you feel. Maybe you'll lose a few pounds or maybe you'll feel crappy. If you need more meat, listen to your body! If you need less, stop eating it and replace it with beans or another plant based protein source. I personally feel like crap after a 60 mile bike ride unless I have a big dinner with quality protein - i.e. a 100% grass fed, pasture raised steak!
A word on purchasing meat - please buy organic (or find out how the animal was raised). The following words mean nothing and should be avoided and/or investigated: “cage-free,” “grass fed,” “natural,” “access to the outdoors,” etc. Whole Foods is one offender of “grass-fed.” Keep in mind it likely means that the animal was started on grass and finished on grain/corn. Cows don’t eat corn - it makes them sick. Corn fed cows as a marketing ploy for better marbling? That cow is so sick from eating corn; consider what sort of crap is in that meat product. Please do me a favor, do yourself a favor, do the planet a favor - go to your farmer’s market and purchase from them. Buy beef that has lived 100% of its life on pasture. Buy only pasture raised chickens and eggs. Buy pork from your beef provider. Join a meat CSA (I’m a part of Clark Summit Farms in the Bay area). Shop at specialty butcher shops that only source local meat that was humanely raised and slaughtered (I buy meat from Avedano’s in Bernal Heights). Yes, it's hard to get eggs in the winter and lamb in the winter but think about your body and what you’re putting in it. Think about the planet and how we all are in this together. All 7 billion of us.
I have a coworker who raises pigs on her land. She says that in order to actually break even, or make a little bit of money, they have to charge about $6 per pound of meat. If you go to Safeway and check the price of a shrink wrapped (yikes! the plastic!) meat, it is likely around $2-3 per pound. Does that seem right to you? What do you think industrial feeding operations do to the meat in order to produce it so cheaply?
I say - eat meat. Eat less of it. Pay more to support your local farmer who is providing you high quality meat in the best possible way. Most of all dear reader, above all else and no matter what your opinion on this matter is, please, please, please ENJOY your food!
Let me start with saying that Thanksgiving is by far my most favored and treasured holidays. I adore the fact that the entire holiday is geared towards spending time with your friends and family over a meal. So much love and care is gone into one meal spent with important people in your life - I wish we had Thanksgiving more often! But a different kind of Thanksgiving. One that focused on seasonal, fresh and delicious foods. I have a theory - I believe that most of us (yes you!) really do like pretty much every vegetable out there. It’s just not fresh and not properly cooked when we eat it, so we *think* we don’t like brussel sprouts. Hmm... brussel sprouts... I can honestly say that I hate grapefruit. I try it every freaking year hoping that my tastes will change and I’ll like it. No such luck yet. So there are exceptions. I challenge you - give me a veggie that you hate and I’ll give you a recipe to try! Who knows, maybe you’ll like it!
Anyway, back on track here. Take a moment and pause. Think about what you ate today. How did it make you feel after eating? Did you feel more energetic? Happy? Lethargic? Hungrier? I ask as I think we focus so heavily in the US on food as sustenance. We don’t really enjoy our meals. When was the last time you truely tasted and enjoyed something that you ate?
In thinking about creating a *tasty* meal that I’ll enjoy and appreciate, I tend to think of the dinner plate as having three parts: vegetables, complex carbohydrate and protein. The importance of each item is in that order - vegetables are the most important thing you can put on your plate. Next, a complex carbohydrate that is full of fiber. Lastly, high quality protein.
Now onto the meat question. Ask yourself - how much meat have you eaten today? In the past week? How does eating meat make you feel? I’ll spare you the whole Michael Pollan discussion - I’m sure you know it by now. I do want to point out a few things about meat, however. First, sorry to say it, but you are what you eat. The majority of meat produced in this country is poor quality meat that I believe is detrimental to your health - for many reasons. Animals are raised in small, confined areas, which can only make them stressed out their entire lives. How do you feel stressed out all the time? I personally can only imagine what toxins are roaming around my body when I’m stressed. Animals are fed horrible diets - remember that adage “you are what you eat?” Think about the quality of meat from animals fed terrible diets. Animals are also given high doses of antibiotics and growth hormones. I’ve been reading some articles lately about how these hormones can be passed from the animals to their meat products and directly into our bodies. This could lead (nothing has been proven) to weight gain and other Western diseases. And then there are the environmental impacts of meat. Massive consumption of energy, oil, water; tons and tons of animal waste polluting our water tables and rivers. Is it time to consider how you can change your buying behavior?
Do I disagree with eating meat? Absolutely not. In fact, I believe that most of us should eat meat. However, we should probably eat about ¼ the amount of meat that we currently consume. Being a woman, I personally don’t need much protein, so I typically eat meat about 1-4 meals per week. Yes, I said meals. Not days. For men, maybe that needs to be 4-7 meals per week. For protein sources other than meat I suggest:
- Alaskan wild caught salmon
- Beans, beans, beans!
- Lentils
- Quinoa
- Cheese, yogurt, milk
My suggestion - cut out meat for a week and introduce meat back into your diet slowly. See how you feel. Maybe you'll lose a few pounds or maybe you'll feel crappy. If you need more meat, listen to your body! If you need less, stop eating it and replace it with beans or another plant based protein source. I personally feel like crap after a 60 mile bike ride unless I have a big dinner with quality protein - i.e. a 100% grass fed, pasture raised steak!
A word on purchasing meat - please buy organic (or find out how the animal was raised). The following words mean nothing and should be avoided and/or investigated: “cage-free,” “grass fed,” “natural,” “access to the outdoors,” etc. Whole Foods is one offender of “grass-fed.” Keep in mind it likely means that the animal was started on grass and finished on grain/corn. Cows don’t eat corn - it makes them sick. Corn fed cows as a marketing ploy for better marbling? That cow is so sick from eating corn; consider what sort of crap is in that meat product. Please do me a favor, do yourself a favor, do the planet a favor - go to your farmer’s market and purchase from them. Buy beef that has lived 100% of its life on pasture. Buy only pasture raised chickens and eggs. Buy pork from your beef provider. Join a meat CSA (I’m a part of Clark Summit Farms in the Bay area). Shop at specialty butcher shops that only source local meat that was humanely raised and slaughtered (I buy meat from Avedano’s in Bernal Heights). Yes, it's hard to get eggs in the winter and lamb in the winter but think about your body and what you’re putting in it. Think about the planet and how we all are in this together. All 7 billion of us.
I have a coworker who raises pigs on her land. She says that in order to actually break even, or make a little bit of money, they have to charge about $6 per pound of meat. If you go to Safeway and check the price of a shrink wrapped (yikes! the plastic!) meat, it is likely around $2-3 per pound. Does that seem right to you? What do you think industrial feeding operations do to the meat in order to produce it so cheaply?
I say - eat meat. Eat less of it. Pay more to support your local farmer who is providing you high quality meat in the best possible way. Most of all dear reader, above all else and no matter what your opinion on this matter is, please, please, please ENJOY your food!
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| My rendition of my preschool turkey. Only this time I only had a sharpie and no finger paint! Yes, we sang "Albuquerque Was a Turkey." |
A Brussel Sprout Recipe, because now I want brussel sprouts....
Brussel Sprouts
1 pound of brussel sprouts
1 tablespoon of butter
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
Lemon juice, parmesean cheese, salt & pepper to taste
Wash the brussel sprouts (a cheap veggie wash is to use apple cider vinegar mixed with water). Cut the bottom of the brussel sprout off. Slice the brussle sprout in half. Continue for the rest of the brussel sprouts. Heat the oil and butter in a saucepan on medium heat. Smash and peel the garlic cloves. Once the oil/butter combo is hot, place the brussel sprouts face down in the pan along with the garlic. Put the lid on the saucepan and reduce the heat to low. Cook, covered, for about 10 minutes or until your brussel sprouts start to carmelize.
Remove the brussel sprouts and garlic from the pan, toss with salt and pepper, add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and top with grated parmesean cheese.* YUM!
*For the love of cheese, do NOT purchase that crap out of a green bottle. Do your taste buds a favor and buy a proper block of parmesean. Pick up a microplane (I promise, you’ll use it for everything - it’s worth the $15) and grate fresh parmesean!!
I’ll be shocked if you don’t like brussel sprouts after this. This recipe converted me. I’m a brussel sprout convert.
No go ENJOY some brussel sprouts! (and thank me later for now loving them...)
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