[mekrob]

Going completely without meat is a bad idea. It has plenty of nutrients. However, it shouldn't be eaten regularly. I believe the ideal diet is only one serving (4 oz of beef) every week or so.

[HamRadioRocks]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mekrob', 'G')oing completely without meat is a bad idea. It has plenty of nutrients. However, it shouldn't be eaten regularly. I believe the ideal diet is only one serving (4 oz of beef) every week or so.

[jato]

I eat meat every day...I don't plan on stopping!

[rabbit_hop]

Tend to agree that cutting out meat entirely is not such a great idea - many vegetarians end up having to buy little bottles of nutrient pills to make up the vitamin shortfall.
I find that a small amount of meat (25-50g) every two days or so, and fish once a week, is quite enough. Supplemented by six or seven portions of fruit, vegetables, salad every day.

[Ludi]

I'm mostly vegetarian, except for some chicken I raise at home. I don't eat meat every week. This diet is very inexpensive, nothing is cheaper than beans, rice, and fresh vegetables! But raising the chickens isn't especially cheap, though I could probably do it more cheaply, and plan to work toward that.

I think an omnivorous diet is probably the easiest with which to maintain health, with a leaning toward fresh fruits and vegetables, and complex carbohydrates. A strict vegetarian or vegan diet can be challenging for most people.

Storebought (grainfed, factory-farmed) meat isn't very healthy, it's loaded with saturated fat, which goes straight to the arteries. Better to go for grassfed or wild meats, if possible, or cut way back on the consumption of store meat.

[rabbit_hop]

Just referring back to HamRadioRocks' first post about enforced vegetarianism for the overweight... I don't think I've ever met a fat vegetarian. As it happens, obesity (once a US-only affliction) is becoming a real problem here in the UK, and child obesity particularly so - although to be fair the culprits are more likely to be too much chocolate and pop and not enough exercise, rather than an overdose of Peperamis.

[Loki]

I'm not entirely clear on why you think vegetarianism = bulimia/anarexia. Yes, if you barf up your veggie b-fast, lunch, and dinner, or only eat celery and iceberg lettuce, then you will look like that Richie girl. Otherwise you'll probably be eating a lot healthier than the great majority of Americans. You can easily get all the nutrients you need on an ovo-lacto vegetarian diet, including protein. You can even bulk up if you want to--sounds like you're already about the same BMI as Richie.

I've been vegetarian for many years and decided to bulk up a few years ago when I started lifting weights. Added about 25 pounds, mostly muscle, on a 100% vegetarian diet (dairy only, no eggs). When people say you can't get big on a vegetarian diet, I like to point out Big Ben Schosha, a lifelong vegetarian. Bill Pearl was also vegetarian when he won Mr. Universe in 1971. And sprinter Carl Lewis is mostly vegan. So it's certainly possible to be healthy and exceptionally athletic on a veggie diet.

As for the ecological footprint question, meat increases EF because it's an extremely inefficient way of producing protein. It takes a lot of land (and water) to produce that quarter-pounder hamburger, a hell of a lot more than it does to produce a veggie burger. Just google "ecological footprint meat"---there are plenty of sites that will explain in more detail.

[EndOfSewers]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mekrob', ' ') I believe the ideal diet is only one serving (4 oz of beef) every week or so.

[EnergySpin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jack', 'G')racious! Why would you wish to give up meat at this point in time?

[mekrob]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')utrition is very very simple as I've stated here before, though the subject is completely obfuscated by myth, prejudice, and the fact that diet books/supplements/drugs/videos etc is a multibillion dollar industry.

[rogerhb]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('HamRadioRocks', 'A')nother thing I get dinged for in the carbon/ecological footprint surveys is eating meat. What am I supposed to do, go on the Nicole Richie Diet?

[Loki]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'I')s a vegan diet agriculturally, economically, and culturally sustainable? Absolutely not. Can't return the nutrients to the farm from the suburbs.

[billg]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'H')aving been on both sides of this debate (personally, professionally, and surgically) I have to say this one confused subject. Just rife with misconceptions, romanticism, and relativism blah blah blah.

Should one eat pus-infected concentration-camp matrix-burgers? Of course not. like duh. This goes for beef, chicken, pork, chihuahua and all industrial Chicken-Little Growth-Medium (tm) products.

On the other hand is a medically-balanced healthy vegan diet possible? Possibly. Probably not. Where to get animal fats if not an animal. CLA's are necessary. Is a vegan diet agriculturally, economically, and culturally sustainable? Absolutely not. Can't return the nutrients to the farm from the suburbs.

Lacto-ovo vegetarian diet is a self-deception that must result in the the death of baby male chickens and calves, and tired layers and milkers.

Without copious quanitities of cheap petroleum the entire food/farm inteface has to change. Can it? no.

[TheTurtle]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('billg', ' ')... vegan dogs for deer control ...

[EndOfSewers]

Veganism will be healthier if civilization collapses. In industrialized nations you need supplements to prevent neurological damage because the food is just too darn clean. 3rd worlders get more B12 from all the fecal and insect contamination.

[billg]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TheTurtle', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('billg', ' ')... vegan dogs for deer control ...

[Loki]

Thanks for that link to vegan gardening billg. Something I hadn't considered. I looked at my box of "100% Natural Organic All-Purpose Fertilizer" and the first two ingredients are blood meal and bone meal. Also some feather meal and dried poultry waste in there. Yuck. Unfortunately none of the books that Wikipedia article cites are available at Amazon or Powells. And I can't do the humanure thing since I live in an urban apartment. Nevertheless, you're post has given me some (vegan) food for thought.

[Jack]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnergySpin', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jack', 'G')racious! Why would you wish to give up meat at this point in time?