Why eat meat?

“I have cut way down on meat over the past 15 years for health reasons, but have no philosophical problem with raising and humainly harvesting (that is the industry word) meat for human consumption. I will admit that I do not investigate this before I buy meat, however.

How animals are raised and slaughtered seems to be an issue with some animal rights people. But I do not consider humans to be just another type of animial and on an equal level with animals. I do not hunt, but have no objection to hunting. I would hunt for food or kill varmints if I had to. I fish when I can and eat what I catch.

I am not convinced that meatless diet is superior to a well-balanced diet that includes moderate amounts of meat (e.g. 2-4 ounces per day).”

“If God didn't want us to eat animals He wouldn't have made them out of meat”

“I'm patting ULTRAP on the back..... how bout some trip report ... more on the eyes and less on the brain eh? hehe”

“Babies' Mental Delay Tied to Moms' Vegan Diet
Thu Jan 30, 4:40 PM ET Add Health - Reuters to My Yahoo!


By Alison McCook

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The breast-fed infants of two mothers who did not eat any animal products, including milk and eggs, developed brain abnormalities as a result of a vitamin-B12 deficiency, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) (CDC) reported Thursday.



The primary sources of vitamin B12, which is essential for brain development, are animal products like meat, dairy products and eggs. Since the mothers ate little or no animal products, too little vitamin B12 was transmitted to their children through breast milk, according to the CDC's Dr. Maria Elena Jefferds.


Jefferds added that these cases serve as a reminder to parents and pediatricians to ensure that both pregnant women and mothers who breast-feed their infants consume enough B12, either through diet or B12-containing supplements.


"You have to make sure you're getting it," she said, in reference to vitamin B12.


And don't abandon breast-feeding altogether, Jefferds cautioned. Breast-feeding has many advantages, and mothers who choose to not eat animal products should still continue to breast-feed their infants.


"Vegetarians should absolutely breast-feed, there's no question about that," she said.


In the January 31st issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Jefferds and her colleagues describe the cases of two babies who showed signs of brain abnormalities as a result of a deficiency in vitamin B12.


In one case, doctors examined and diagnosed the deficiency in a 15-month-old child with slow growth and mental development. Her mother said she had avoided consuming all animal products for many years, and had breast-fed the baby for 8 months after birth.


After receiving supplements of vitamin B12, the child began to improve, but was still below her age group in speech and language at 32 months of age.


Jefferds explained in an interview that many children fully recover from vitamin-B12 deficiencies but that, in some cases, a prolonged period of low consumption of vitamin B12 can cause irreversible damage.


"I think it really depends on how severe the deficiency was, and how long it was taking place for," she said.


She added that while both children described in the report showed lingering symptoms of low vitamin B12, over time, those impairments may disappear.


The initial symptoms of low vitamin B12 in infants are often vague and not obvious, Jefferds noted. She recommended that doctors keep the possibility of a deficiency "on their radar screen," and ask mothers if they eat animal products or take supplements that contain enough vitamin B12, also known as cobalamin.


Vegans eat only plant-based foods, using grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables to fill all their dietary needs. Vegetarians, on the other hand, typically avoid meat, but may eat some animal products, such as milk, eggs and possibly fish.


SOURCE: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2003;52:61-64.”

“basically a cow raised for the supermarket is a walking cesspool of chemicals,herbicides,pesticides,virus',bio-diseases,contamination,infections, etc...I do not want to take a chance on that.The handling of meat at slaughterhouses is also bad,thats why they dont allow TV crews in there EVER.
Id love to eat a steak once in a while but wont for these reasons.Its been 10yrs since i had steak or burger.”

“Ultra, its funny that the only person that you think is "introspective" is the one who agrees with you...

I try to eat as little meat as possible. I eat about 70% carbohydrates 20% protein and 10% fats. If I plan it right most of my protein comes from stuff like beans, yogurt etc... I love meat. I am an avid hunter and if I get a deer I will eat venison weekly. I rarely eat beef mainly chicken nd turkey due to the fat content. Have I thought about the morality of eating meat, yep and Its moral. Plus whenever I brush my teeth I notice I have 4 teeth that are kinda pointy and sharp, like my dogs teeth. I think they are called canines, I reckon they are for tearing apart flesh not yogurt or carrots. I think they are there for a reason. Who am I to argue with human design?”

“lmdao don and geo!


i remember i soory i heard bout a month ago that was saying freerange chickens were much more likely to have ....uhhh....bad stuff in them”

“"From Pulp Fiction: But Bacon tastes good, pork chops taste good."

"sewer rat might taste like pumpkin pie, but id never know, cause id never eat the filthy motherf*****!"

i dont much dig on swine either :p

i have often thought about just why i eat meat, ive got a couple good friends who are vegetarian. i understand their reasoning (its more efficient, less use of reasources) and i highly respect that- i wish i could do it too, but there's a simple fact why i dont. for all its higher efficiency, vegetanianism is quite a bit more expensive. i do things the most economically efficient way possible, and eating meat is the easiest and most thrifty way of staying healthy. dealing with the possibility of vitamin and mineral deficiencies is not something i have time or knowledge for, and i need to stay in top condition. doing anything oddball will always not only complicate a process, but will make the process more costly and time inefficient. engineers rule: "thou shall design unto accepted standards, so they that build such designs shalt not worry with oddball sizes and custom parts." i do think vegans are excessive though, what's ineffective about milk? its a renewable resource, from the way i see it, same goes for eggs. vegetarianism for the sake of cruelty to animals is a pretty weak reason in my mind. animals arent people.

but i suppose im still pretty bitter about pressure treated lumber being outlawed...there is no good replacement! plastic lumber is much more expensive, it has serious problems staying true(straight) over time, and the scraps are still toxic to burn.

and thats my thoughts on the issue.

later,
-nate”

“You are correct, vegetarianism is expensive, but it's a myth about lack of protein, amino acids, and vitamins. The average American gets more protein in a day than can be used in a week. Too much protein impacts the kidneys, and from what I've heard, kidney stones aren't fun.

Many state they feel red meat isn't harmful to them, and that may be the case. Age has to be factored in, and once a person passes his/her 40th birthday, all bets are off. I used to brag about the amount of cheeseburgers I had eaten in the course of a lifetime. For decades I could eat anything and everything without gaining weight, and apparently without ill effects to my body. But when I passed 40, the body began to change. I gained weight and my cholesterol shot to 280 where it had always been under 200...the only difference was my age. I am now 59, and I am in as good a shape as I have ever been in...my weight is 145, I'm 5'10" and my cholesterol is 181. My blood pressure is usually around 108/63, and my resting pulse is in the high 40's.

I run three days a week in the hills for 5 miles a run, and I hike mountains whenever I can, but even with that my weight is tricky...the body adapts to exercise, and it becomes most efficient, and calories HAVE to be counted. I don't want heart disease, diabetes, joint problems, or any of the other stuff that poor diet, the aging process, and lack of exercise brings on...I really want to live as long as I can. My wife is an incredible vegetarian cook, and we enjoy some terrific meals.

I would love to be able to eat thick steaks, pork chops, lots of over easy eggs and bacon, fries, and whole milk, but if I want to live and be healthy, I, and I'm not saying anyone else, I have to eat healthy...with all my lack of fatty foods and practically zero cholesterol, and a disciplined exercise regimen, I still need 20mg of Pravachol a day to keep my cholesterol at 180. It's a genetic thing.

I love life and I love living it, but it really is a lot of very hard work to stay healthy...but it is worth it. Every time I go up a twelver and back or hike 25 miles with no ill effects, or run 5 miles up and down hills, I thank my lucky stars my wife insisted I eat and live healthy.

Once the weight is on and you are over 40, it's tough to make the kinds of life style choices that HAVE to be made in order to keep the odds of living healthily to a very ripe old age even. You don't get second chances.”

“Whatever happened to "Be Young, Have Fun, Drink Pepsi!" Just kidding, Mtnmaster. My best friends is a veggie. She's a great cook and very knowledgeable about nutrition. She tells me every chance she gets (thank God she's in the African jungle, sweltering for 2 yrs. and not buggin' me, lol) that I'm going to die a horrible death due to my eating habits. I burn up the calories like crazy just breathin' though. My cholestrol and what-have-you are all fine. I have a very, very low body fat percentage (what's the name of that test w/ the caliphers?). I'm not saying that what you have to say about old age isn't true and that I couldn't have a healthier diet. (I'm not devoid of good nutrition either, just not as careful as many on this board.) Right now, I think my routine is workin' though.”

“I'm not a crusader, and I don't presume to tell others what they should and shouldn't do. Your friend would get on my nerves also.

I remember those days of burning calories like crazy. Basic metabolism changes with the aging process. You will do what you have to do, I'm sure. But the country now has epidemic obesity. That's a problem that starts with very young kids, fast food, snacks, and bad habits that are hard to break and pounds that are hard to keep off, etc., etc....I'm sure you've heard the rap. But the offshoot is the morbid kinds of thing that happen as a result of poor choices in diet..type II diabetes is becoming common in teens, and once that is upon you, there are some serious health problems for a lifetime.

For some reason people assume they can go on a diet, lose weight and all will be OK. Would it were that simple. It isn't. Weight will come back once the diet is stopped, but if a person adopts significant life style changes, i.e., diet, exercise, quit smoking, drink in moderation, and manage anger and stress, the changes will be permanent. As I said in an earlier post. Getting older isn't for sissies. We were all invulnerable to everything...smoking, bad food, booz, dope, etc... in our teens, 20's, and 30's. After that it's a crap shoot with your health, but with some good choices and discipline, your health can be tip top for decades after you turn 40.”

“ULTRAPACKER...I don't want to sound like a complete jerk, but your experience in the desert may be something that may never happen to many human beings.

An epiphany is rare, but to those who are lucky enough to experience even one epiphany in a lifetime, the revelation can be substantially life changing.

I laud you and I certainly support your thoughts, efforts, and decisions about not eating meat, but I have to warn you. For some reason, and my wife and I can't figure out why, many people become resentful that others choose not to eat meat. Some almost get angry and very defensive that someone else chooses not to eat meat. We don't know why...both our mothers went off the deep end, and swore we would die from lack of nutrition and protein.

If you truly are going to do that, do the research. You won't suffer any nutritional deficiencies, and if you feel you might be, there are tons of valid supplements, and it only makes good sense to take a multi vitamin every day.

Good luck to you...once you quit...wait for about six months then wolf down a huge cheeseburger and an order of fries...your system will balk, and you probably won't like the way it makes you feel.”

“Mtnmaster, I am there w/ you on the obesity in American and in America's children especially. It is sad. I just watched a tv show about it a few days ago (Dateline or something). I assure everyone on the board, that although I love fast food and what-not, I do not eat and do not allow my child to eat like some of the children and families on that program ate. That is sad, to say the least.”

“UP...

Because there is nothing I find tastier then a big juicy hunk of rare prime rib coated with pepper and dipped in horseradish all washed down with a tall cold glass of beer.”

“Davexx, I suspect that there is more to the reason TV crews are not allowed in ever at the slaughter houses. I saw a PBS show on the early pig slaughter houses recently. I could just imagine the PETA types picketing that animals were being brutally killed. Now, I understand, thanks to them, the animals have to be put down via injection. Nothing will satisfy the Peta types, and all it will do is generate bad publicity. That, in itself is enough for the slaughterhouses to deny access.”

“Meat killed my granddaddy when he was 87...”

“"I saw an interesting statistic regarding the number of animals killed to harvest an acre of grain."

i never thought of that before, Lee. very interesting.”

“I tried a vegetarian diet for about six months and didn't feel particularly healthy. It was too much work getting a balanced diet and eating away from home was a challenge. I just like eating meat. To each his or her own.”

“Believe it or not, I was a vegetarian for about two and a half months. I did it as an experiment, only wanted to do it for a few weeks, but I ended up stretching it longer.

It promptly ended after severe ridicule from my brother during a visit to see him one summer.”

“We've been eating a lot of Bison lately; mostly ground and it's pretty lean. I even fed some to the Monatapaloozers last summer at the barbeque. I didn't tell them until they were half way through their burgers and only a few gagged!”

“I've had buffalo jerky before. Good stuff!”

“i was a vegan for 4 years and didn't feel that healthy. possibly because i was in college and 3/4 of my diet consisted of beer? LOL! it was SO much work, and i got SO much crap about it, i can't even tell you. now i only buy organic (non-factory-farm) milk/eggs, fish, turkey (for Tarpy...i don't eat turkey or any other meat but fish).”

“iguana's are perty tasty if ya cook um right...”

“Lyra you beast, shooting those helpless beers!

Here ya go....
I need a huge bun! YUM!”

“i knew what that was going to be before i even opened it, Aero! hey, so where'd that dude get the buffalo? are they all roaming around free as the wind, or what? buffalo are mythical beasts to me.”

“He (some guy from Utah) got it off a ranch where they raise bison and cattle. They're not hard to shoot, but you sure go through a lot of pickles and catsup!

The funny part was the picture was at a truck stop where they were buying all the bags of ice they could find to keep the critter cool!”

“enchanting. so, is a bison the same thing as a buffalo?”

“A bison is what we here in the U.S. call buffalo. "Buffalo" is sort of a misnomer, but it's the popular term for the beast.

Cape Buffalo

Water Buffalo”

“Hey Goose I hope meat don't kill me til I'm 87!!Also goose is good too.”

“They're really bison. A buffalo is like a water buffalo, but people call the American Bison (Bison bison) buffaloes which covers all the wild ox-type animals. The wild ones running around Yellowstone are bison. The calves look really funny, like pre-historic animals.”

“From "Motel Hell"
Meats meat and mans gotta eat!
My wife's boss is a veggie. She is always eating stuff that is made to look & taste like meat.Why?”

“They do the same thing with antelope. The American antelope is really a Pronghorn.”

“Folks interested in reading more about vegetarianism, amount of acres required for cattle vs. soybean production, complementing non-meat food sources to get all essential amino acids, check out;

Diet For a Small Planet, by Frances Moore Lappe.

This book is a classic. Ms. Lappe defines vegetarianism as a "grain-based" diet to try and avoid equating vegetarians with animal activism. I think she makes a good point, to have a diet that is based around grains rather than meat-based. You can eat complementary grain sources 90% of the time and still have your cheeseburgers too.”

“Arky...because someone is a vegetarian doesn't necessarily mean they don't like meat. I happen to love everything about meat, but I choose not to eat it, as I said for health and philosophic reasons. There are some very good "faux" meat products on the market these days that have the texture of meat and the flavor of meat, but what they don't have are the problems created by meat... animal fat and cholesterol. They aren't cheap either. Morningstar Farms has good products as does a company in Louisiana called Lumen foods. I go to a Thai restaurant in Laguna Beach whose "faux" meat is a veggie abalone...to kill for..better than ANY piece of meat I have ever eaten, and that includes those great steaks at Frank Giuffrida's Hilltop Steak House in Saugus, Mass.

If you decide to stop eating meat, know why you want to stop, and be very careful to plan how to cope with this significant life-stylr change. Don't let others talk you out of it.

Oh, and to whomever said meat killed his dad at age 87. Mine too, but he had emphysema up to his earlobes, and they could not get a needle into the vessels in his legs. In the end his feet were gangrenous, and no blood could get through the 87 years of damage caused heavy meat eating and heavy smoking. The last 20 of those years were far from being quality years. He used to sit in his air conditioned Dodge during the hot days of summer so he could breath and smoke at the same time. Life is a about choice...good one can be made and so can bad ones. They are all up to each of us.

Some of your comments are very interesting. Artex, you were intimidated out of your goal...why?

Others claim not to have felt better on a vegetarian diet. Did you feel bad to begin with? Probably not, but then again a person with extremely high blood pressure never knows about it until a test is taken or gets jolted by a stroke...the same with high cholesterol and heavy animal fat intake. Blood tests, a heart attack, or quadruple by-pass surgery usually confirms an individual's inability to handle the animal products. But by then all the promises and half-hearted efforts to eat healthy are too late.

To you folks who claim not to have fel healthier..what exactly were you looking for? Did you do some research as to your nutritional needs, did you ever consider calories and their impact on your body, or the necessity of vitamins and minerals. Simply giving up eating meat isn't the way to do it. If you intend to go veggie, you will need to do lots of research and expect to have hunger pains for a long time. Your body takes quite a while to adjust, and what make you feel so full and sated are the fats in your food...cookies, pastries, meats, buttered popcorn, heavy oily salad dressing, pizza, potato chips, nuts. It's the fat that causes your satisfaction, but it is also the same fat that can play real havoc with your body.

Even if you still eat meat and enjoy fatty food, and that is fine also, moderate portions and count calories. Exercise and food intake...that's what it is all about. If you haven't had a complete physical and blood work-up in a couple years...especially if you are over 30, you might also want to do that. If you know what you are up against, it is much easier to take preventive measures.

Statistics show the largest killer in this country is heart disease. Most heart disease is preventable...diet, exercise, and not smoking.”

“Here is a link to a very informative sight about the effects certain foods have on our bosies and our health...hopefully some one is skillful enough to turn it into a clickable link

http://www.ul.ie/~sextonb/swd.htm”

“MtnMaster

Frank Giuffrida's Hilltop Steak House in Saugus, Mass.!!

I grew up watching folks stand in line outside that place . . .on that long porch in front of all the plastic cows on the front lawn


You always new it was coming up because of the huge Saguaro Cactus sign you could see a long way off down Route 1.

Speaking of meat . . you ever stop in at the Caberet or Golden Banana?”

“Eating meat is covered on the gay test.”

“Oh yeah...we used to have a routine during the summer. Head into Boston..from Maine...go either to Chinatown off Washington Street and eat dim sum...big old multi story red and gold building, then wash it down with suds from a couple bars around the Fanueil Hall area, or head straight for the Hilltop for lunch..always had the large filet with a side of lobster pie (talk about artery blocking)...then head home with a stop at the Golden Banana for a couple hours and a few drinkskis and boobsies.

My wife's cousin and his frat brothers from MIT copped one of those fiberglass cows back in the 70's and put it atop the MIT dome.

Ever eat at Hue Loo's...the largest restaurant in the world...the Hilltop is the second largest, and they are only about two miles apart.”

“Sorry, it's spelled Weylu's.”

“Should Vegetarians eat animal crackers?”

“why is it that people think that meat or carbs or eggs or fat etc. is bad for them...

everything in moderation.”

“Violin I'd say no, LOL!”

“That's true DONMAN, but every indivudual is different, and each body handles each of those items in different ways. It's best to first know which foods can cause an individual problems then make the dietary considerations based on that.”

“Davexx, it depends on where you get your meat, I guess.

I know who is raising the cattle and pigs I am buying. They are brought to the local butcher where they are processed. The butchers shop is extremely clean all the time. And, it's actually less expensive than the store and better meat.

I also hunt and fish and only harvest what my family will eat. I don't take my deer or elk to a processor, I butcher it myself, therefor I get better cuts. Right now my freezer is full of nothing but meat, and it feels great!!!!!!

OK, there might be a bucket of ice cream in there too.”

“"The closest Ultra ever comes to introspection is trying to find out if he's farting or taking a dump."
pedxing
04:17:43 PM
01/30/03

Attn. ULTRAPacker: farts don't have lumps.”

“Sure they do. Between your ears.

Thanks for the help, mountainmaster2003.”

“You're welcome, ULTRAPacker...I love to hike around Arizona...the desert is a great way to winter.”

“I eat meat. I have heard that the turnover rate for employees at slaughterhouses is high. They can take only so much of it before it gets to them.”

“It can be pretty gruesome, especially when the critter isn't quite dead, and the worker still has to begin carving. They say the final ten minutes of life for many animals in slaughterhouses isn't something anyone would want to witness.”