Father, forgive me for I have sinned:
I confess, I am a carnivore. In my post 75 Questions to Inspire 25 Things I asked:
"Are you a carnivore, a vegan, a vegetarian?"
I somehow left out pescetarian, mostly because i had never heard the term until the wonderfully talented and generous Robin Slick used it to describe in a message, replying to my request for her advice on how to cook a moose roast. Fortunately, I found a helpful recipe on a website. The roast turned our so well that is-sized B said 'If I didn't know it was moose, I would think it was beef".
And, there's the rub. My wonderful guys are unrepentant carnivores. They love their meat, especially beef.
I personally at least avoid red meat, but eating with them tends to cause backsliding.The boyos deserve a break from the endless variations of chicken and pork (with occasional fish).
I know that heart disease runs in my family ( I'm within a few years of the age at which daddie dearest had that teeny heart attack). But, two Saturdays ago, it was an unusually glorious day in the neighbourhood, so I bought a few steaks at the neighbourhood butcher shop. I did restrain myself to a half dozen tasty mouthfuls nubbed off the end of their steaks, though. Except, the Thursday before, I was at a banquet where they had served perfectly cooked beef tenderloin...if I'm going to die, rare red meat soft enough to melt in my mouth would be a fine way to go.
I won't mention the raviolis I had the Friday in between at lunch at the lil Italian 'wannabe Sopranos' hangout, since I have no idea what sort of 'meat' they used. The red sauce was the part to die for there....so succulent that I stuck with just salad for supper.
In my defence, I DID stick with turkey burgers this Saturday, when, again firing up the bbq, I did a double batch - beef and turkey.
I don't see giving up poultry or even pork any time soon though. I know the vile treatment of animals raised for consumption, but the boyos eschew most veggie proteins, and personally, I detest tofu also. I guess that's why I deal for the devil. And despite my repentence, will sin again.
I'm ready for my penance now. And I'm not even catholic, except in my tastes.
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Linda Seccaspina
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Comments
The change was gradual, I first stopped having fish then meat and finally after about a year even eggs. For the past seven years now I have been a complete vegetarian. I mean I have cakes and confectionary using eggs among their ingredients but other than that nothing. And though initially I used to have sudden cravings ( which I indulged), I have never felt like going back.
I am not animal rights champion, nor is my family vegetarian ( my mother can live on a diet only consisting fish), and neither did I have any sort of epiphany to go green. The hardest question I face is "Why did you go vegetarian?" My friends have created entire reels of possible reasons. All I have to say is that I do not know, I just felt like it.
Forsaken? There are three deer outside my widow. If They were not there eating greens,
I'd not be reading O.S..
I'd be down at the farm.
The farm is in the valley.
To leave now the deer flee.
Talk about wild beauty? Yes.
The hyper -vigilance. The startle.
And here I'm typing keys clumsily.
Deer have made it through hunt season.
War is like that? People shoot at humans.
War carnivores shoot as if you are to be ate.
I'm for carving turkeys shapes from cottage cheese.
Tofu drum sticks? The deer are munching the greens.
I'm gone down to the farm. Forsaken is a poem by a priest.
Priest Saigyo was not know. He'd eat baloney? Who knows?
Why should I bitter be, Priest Saigyo ask,
Although he cold has grown? There was a time when he to me
and I were quite unknown. Kamakura Period. (1118-1190) ~;,
call pope? e-coo-spirit 2-2-0, O, Hail Mary Amen Alleluia ~;,
AJ: yes, I feel joyful...
Vegetarians scoff at us. But I don't care. It's what I am, and it's how I'm raising my son. We live near an awesome market where there's an entire alley just devoted to organic meat producers. I can eat wild game, lovingly tended pigs. So yes, once every few months we eat some bacon, or a bison burger. And I don't sweat eating some turkey at a family dinner. But I like the health and financial advantages of the vegetarian lifestyle, and I think it's the most politically responsible way to eat.
But if Anthony Bourdain shows up for dinner, we'll be eating some pork based thing.
Juliet: "flexitarian"...I love it! I forgot about bacon. Yup, could never give up bacon...another guilty pleasure I enjoy less often than I'd like, but really enjoy. Bourdain would also insist on using butter... another pleasure.
my kids crave red meat as well. we don't eat it often, but when we do, they scarf it up. I do think there is some biological/nutritional reason for this - they have always flirted on the borderline anemic side
it's not that we don't get protein and iron from other sources, but I know that if I go too long without paying attention to it, a good steak does the trick. I'm actually thinking of buying a CSA cow this year in order to balance my meat-eating with environmental/animal rights sides
but in your case, the heart attack issue is nothing to fool with ... here's my advice (because we journalists know a little bit about a lot of things. or so we think, haha).
Exercise daily. See your doctor regularly. Enjoy the beef in moderation. And most important of all -- banish guilt (especially the catholic variety! i know first hand! that's why i'm a fallen catholic and will surely go straight to hell). Guilt will kill ya faster than eatin a half-cow daily. Oh -- and don't forget -- pleasure is good for longevity! (but watch the ticker!)
yours in good health,
self-proclaimed Doc of a little bit about a lot of things ... maybe just a tiny bit about a few things ....
jld: I love your unapologetic approach
cindy: good thing I'm not catholic, then. are you suggesting that we play doctor?
several of my friends have gone in together for a cow in the past and I think it's a great idea for a couple of reasons
- well, the whole non-hormone, non-industrialized lot approach, but also because it might give my kids a better sense of where food actually comes from
(i.e., not a styrofoam tray at the grocery store)
& yes, I'm heavily influenced by M. Pollan's In Defense of Food and have the Omnivore's Dilemna in a stack to be read
lps: I look forward to your future comments & posts on the subject - you seem very knowledgable. I frequent our local market, and supplement with small scale locally owned shops, but still buy way too much at chains. Our climate would make the 100 mile diet very tedious (I'm not given to hard work except at workity work), but every incremental step helps, methinks.
So I am now an UNrepentant carnivore and feel pretty damn good, thanks. :)
sciencechick: mother superior might still swat you with her ruler...
Part of what I love about being vegetarian, 16 years now, is that my carbon footprint is much smaller. I would appreciate some environmental reform in the meat eating world, so that it is sustainable, as well as more human treatment, that is my *ahem* "beef" with omnivores. The world may very well have to reduce meat consumption though, as part of a comprehensive climate survival package.
This article does sort of cast doubt on the sustainability of meat eating though. It's a good read: http://www.alternet.org/environment/127280/is_it_possible_to_be_a_conscientious_meat_eater/
I agree with your comment- everything is best- in moderation. Good Post.