[QUOTE=HuntSmacker;177727]Reminds me of the idiots in this : [url]http://youtube.com/watch?v=-7VeJDErkV8[/url][/QUOTE]
I love that Atkins part. I used to work at a place were there were a few people into that. "I can't eat that, it has carbs!" Oh no! Not carbohydrates!
I'd say my weight is pretty healthy. All I really concern myself with is cholesterol, since my cholesterol level was high a couple years ago. And what did I do when it was? Gee golly I just made sure to eat food with less cholesterol and exercise more. Nowadays I exercise pretty regularly since I go to Taekwon Do classes (though I haven't been able to for the past few months because of college classes), and I still try to watch how much cholesterol I eat, though I haven't been as good recently. In all truth, I think I might be in the best shape of my life now.
Ahh weight I tend to fluctuate depending on meds actually. At peak weight I was around 175 and was plump as a stuffed turkey. Now since I'm on an antidepressant I'm around 145-140 range. I have nearly no remaining gut. :)
My ex was a health nut. Always forcing me to eat organic so and so but she loved my tacos!
Dudes don't post euro weight we don't know what the hell that means.
Biggles<font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
I will never cease finding it amusing that the only three countries who have not adopted the metric system are [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Countries_adopting_Metric_System_2006.png]Burma, Liberia and the USA[/url]. Burma is a brutal dictatorship and Liberia was in civil war until 3 years ago, and is still transitioning to democracy. What's your excuse? :D
Myself, well... I'm vegetarian and nearly vegan, but not strictly so.
I still have an appetite for one fermented milk product. It's called "kefir" and is very suitable for mixing with juice. Sadly I don't know the proper English name for it.
Other than that, I avoid animal products in any food which I buy.
I do it for ethical considerations (factory farming is often quite cruel to animals, and while killing anything which wants to live is inevitably so, plants at least lack a neural system, seem to have less capacity to suffer, and some actually prepare edible fruit with the evolutionary goal of it being eaten, which no animal does)...
...as well as for reasons of efficiency (having extra intermediaries in the food chain seems like a waste of useful farmland, fuel and other resources which could be allocated elsewhere).
However, when someone kindly offers me something they've prepared, I usually do accept unless it has a majority of meat in it (in which case I do usually excuse myself by saying that I've already eaten enough).
I don't regularly consume any food supplements, but then again, I studied biology and maintain diversity among the stuff I use. When pursuing a vegetarian or vegan diet, it is highly recommended to make sure that you eat, besides the obvious stuff:
* enough foods made of beans, nuts, peanuts, grains and other plant seeds (doing so will fairly easily ensure that you can obtain all the amino acids which a human body cannot manufacture)
* some germinated plant seeds for variety's sake (in germinating plants, many useful substances are much easier accessible than in dry seeds)
* enough bread made with yeast, or juices enriched with the B group of vitamins, especially B6 and B12, of which many plants contain rather low concentrations
To put it shortly, if you limit your diet, taking extra steps to ensure diversity among the stuff you *do* eat is quite called for. When in doubt, take your time to adjust your menu. I personally took well over a year to go vegetarian, and still haven't gone vegan, though I do intend to.
As for meat and taste: there's potato products which taste quite a bit like it, and then there's soy meat. Some of it tastes like the real thing. Some of it doesn't. Sometimes because it's poorly done or overdone. Sometimes because it's only meant to be an approximation.
Whatever the case, one of my friends offered soy meat to some fairly carnivorous punks at a concert, and sure enough, they didn't notice a difference even with advance warning. :P
(Then again, they could have been a bit drunk. Which I don't practise. Another of those whims which I have in terms of what I consume. You see, I think that alcohol is for fuel cells, and since I don't seem to have any of those, I think it's for others who do. :P)
I don't drink alcohol either. Never been interested. I have drank alcoholic drinks before, but only maybe 3 or 4 in my entire life, and I've never finished an entire drink. Just not interested, and don't see what the big deal is about it.
The day meat stops to taste as good as it does, will be the day people will stop eating it, until then I don't foresee a major shift in the food chain. BTW, there is no such thing as soy [I]meat[/I], or soy [I]milk[/I]. [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfEWzUoKBDU"]Quite frankly, it's insulting (the food industry is to blame here)[/URL]. I'm fine with tofu, but don't call it soy pudding or soy custard! There is a true meaning behind words and this constant abuse is intolerable. :D
I would also postulate the reason why meat tastes so good to most of us is because the body needs what it contains in one form or another, otherwise we'd all be eating something else. While I grant you that we could be getting those proteins and vitamins by other means, I prefer a piece of meat to one of those synthetic shakes which became so popular last century.
Maybe it's genetics, maybe it's just a thing of the mind. Personally I eat what I like and I try to cover all major food groups on a weekly basis. And even then, I don't eat that much meat. I would even go so far and say I eat more other things than meat. Yet I don't feel like I'm following a particular diet.
I can understand why people have a problem with how the meat industry deals with the animals involved and it is surely revolting to see and most certainly not appetizing, that much is sure. But that's an ethics problem, not a matter of food preference or gastronomy.
When you start to think about cooking, most of it has to do with making most food taste differently than it actually does in its raw and initial state. Quite a contradiction in itself.
This thread certainly turned interesting. I only meant to give myself a pat on the back for making a good steak and feeding it to folks who haven't had one in a decade.
If you are a vegetarian/vegan congratulations. Im not here to stop every one of you. But the predominating feeling is some of you seem to think my formerly veggie friends are wrong, or that they weren't smart about being vegetarians.
Well, they were. They are both extremely smart, and were very conscious about what they ate. They knew they needed extra protein, but there are some things you just can't get in a bowl of beans. Chuck has been a vegetarian for almost 20 years. Its not like they decided to be veggies last year and now they aren't. In fact, of every vegetarian I know, they have been the longest, and previously were one of the strictest.
Now, all that being said, I have talked them a bunch during this transition and they have more energy, feel better, and are generally enjoying it. They aren't going hog wild and eating meat with every meal, or even every day. But they are being smart and eating quality meat that tastes good. It helps that they like Chinese food as much as they do. They eat the same dish as they did with tofu, only with meat.
The one thing I think is strange, is they don't want to eat chicken. In terms of meat, I eat more chicken than I do red meat. But their view of it is, chickens are more mistreated usually than beef cattle. But thats fine.
This spring I am going to to see how they are doing, and maybe have them come over for my brisket. I will have to trim it up, Im not going to serve it to them as fatty as it usually is. I make my rub from scratch though, and have a nice wood/charcoal smoker for it to sit in all day.
If you are a vegetarian you may be in luck. The NASA astronauts who will be going to Mars will not be able to have any meat in their diet as the food they will be taking along, respectively growing on Mars, will be limited to fruits and vegetables along with some grain products. Apparently there is a risk of growing attached to farm animals that would prevent the astronauts from eating them (not to mention the hauling of lots of manure and hay balls). :D
The only issue, if any, that I may harbor against any kind of fad or fashion is this constant need by some people to be compartmentalized or categorized by what they do or don't do.
Like what do you call people who eat candy bars but drink their coffees black? I don't know, but I'm sure someone's working on this. I mean, who cares? :D
There are people who eat meat every day and they are just as healthy (i.e. Mediterranean) if not more than those who claim to have found the eternal fountain of youth by going down the herbivore route. The opposite is true as well, the Asian communities who live mostly of vegetables or fish do seem to live a healthy life as well. So who is right? Perhaps there is no right and wrong? Perhaps there's only something that's right or wrong for you or your body?
on the bullshit that farming animals is wasteful and burdensome on our ecologies...
not true
a categorical falsehood
feed-lotting and battery farming animals, which isn't farming at all, is what screws things up
We run about 400 sheep on our 1100 acres, they graze the stubble after we've cropped the land with cereals, (wheat, barley etc). We also grow two or three paddocks of pasture in our rotations to feed them in the fallow period where we can't grow a crop on that paddock. The result is the sheep effectively eat for free, there are no inputs into them at all in terms of feed. Making hay for the dry season costs a little in terms of resources but, its stored on our property and it's carted less than a couple clicks to any of our paddocks.
Feedlots for sheep and cattle however, stuff the stock in tight, perhaps many thousands into a very small area. They truck in highly processed food from plenty of sources. They often need effluent dams, they are breeding grounds for vermin, like rats, corellas (big white cockatoos which destroy trees in large numbers), mice etc. They are also massive reservoirs of disease and parasites which need large ammounts of chemical control. The land beneath their feet is compacted into rock hard pans. They need shelter sheds.
The same can be said for battery farms for chickens.
What's required is balance. A balanced diet. Balanced non-intensive farming.
A couple billion less people to feed would also be good.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Soy is an irrigated crop in Australia and a majority contributor to a host of ecological problems. There are also plenty of food crops which promote unsustainable monoculture (growing a single species crop) and a dependence on only a handful of key varieties of plants.
In short, those who claim to eat veggies on an ethical basis... think again. What you choose to do, can often has as bigger impact but indirectly and over the long term.
If we destroy our arable land growing the wrong crops, then everyone is screwed, even the animals.
Well since this thread was resurected, I might as well give an update.
My formerly veggetarian friends have been eating meat now for a while. Mostly red meat, and high quality stuff. Things like burgers or poor quality is giving their stomach fits, but I eat meat all the time and a fast food burger that sucks makes my tummy hurt too. I tried to tell the not to eat stuff like that, but they wanted to try it anyways.
They say they have more energy, and feel better. So I guess thats something.
The first weekend in March I am going to get a 12-15lbs brisket, spend a night making my rub, and smoke it for about 9 hours. Invite them over for that. Im excited, I love brisket.
[QUOTE=shadow boxer;179759]We run about 400 sheep on our 1100 acres...[/quote]
Ummm lamb, tasty, tasty lamb....
[QUOTE=shadow boxer;179759]What's required is balance. A balanced diet. Balanced non-intensive farming.
A couple billion less people to feed would also be good.
[/QUOTE]
Unfortantely I think you've hit the nail on the head, until we limit the population, I do not think we will be able to move away from large scale farming. Remember, there were those who predicted that humanity would run out of food by the 80s, and not only is there plenty of food available, it's been done with population growth rates that outstripped those experts assumptions.
Of course we are only going to need more food, not less as we are supposed to be adding 3 billion more people in the next 50 years.
Jake
Random ChaosActually Carefully-selected Order in disguise
Tomorrow is going to be a very special day. I'm going to go out for dinner with some friends. We are going to have some salad. :D It's called lettuce and I've heard that if prepared with some dressing it's nothing short of fabulous. Just the thought of it makes me giggle like a little girl. :D
Comments
I love that Atkins part. I used to work at a place were there were a few people into that. "I can't eat that, it has carbs!" Oh no! Not carbohydrates!
I'd say my weight is pretty healthy. All I really concern myself with is cholesterol, since my cholesterol level was high a couple years ago. And what did I do when it was? Gee golly I just made sure to eat food with less cholesterol and exercise more. Nowadays I exercise pretty regularly since I go to Taekwon Do classes (though I haven't been able to for the past few months because of college classes), and I still try to watch how much cholesterol I eat, though I haven't been as good recently. In all truth, I think I might be in the best shape of my life now.
My ex was a health nut. Always forcing me to eat organic so and so but she loved my tacos!
Fixed that for ya. ;)
@Biggles, uhh this country never was a Democracy!
I still have an appetite for one fermented milk product. It's called "kefir" and is very suitable for mixing with juice. Sadly I don't know the proper English name for it.
Other than that, I avoid animal products in any food which I buy.
I do it for ethical considerations (factory farming is often quite cruel to animals, and while killing anything which wants to live is inevitably so, plants at least lack a neural system, seem to have less capacity to suffer, and some actually prepare edible fruit with the evolutionary goal of it being eaten, which no animal does)...
...as well as for reasons of efficiency (having extra intermediaries in the food chain seems like a waste of useful farmland, fuel and other resources which could be allocated elsewhere).
However, when someone kindly offers me something they've prepared, I usually do accept unless it has a majority of meat in it (in which case I do usually excuse myself by saying that I've already eaten enough).
I don't regularly consume any food supplements, but then again, I studied biology and maintain diversity among the stuff I use. When pursuing a vegetarian or vegan diet, it is highly recommended to make sure that you eat, besides the obvious stuff:
* enough foods made of beans, nuts, peanuts, grains and other plant seeds (doing so will fairly easily ensure that you can obtain all the amino acids which a human body cannot manufacture)
* some germinated plant seeds for variety's sake (in germinating plants, many useful substances are much easier accessible than in dry seeds)
* enough bread made with yeast, or juices enriched with the B group of vitamins, especially B6 and B12, of which many plants contain rather low concentrations
To put it shortly, if you limit your diet, taking extra steps to ensure diversity among the stuff you *do* eat is quite called for. When in doubt, take your time to adjust your menu. I personally took well over a year to go vegetarian, and still haven't gone vegan, though I do intend to.
As for meat and taste: there's potato products which taste quite a bit like it, and then there's soy meat. Some of it tastes like the real thing. Some of it doesn't. Sometimes because it's poorly done or overdone. Sometimes because it's only meant to be an approximation.
Whatever the case, one of my friends offered soy meat to some fairly carnivorous punks at a concert, and sure enough, they didn't notice a difference even with advance warning. :P
(Then again, they could have been a bit drunk. Which I don't practise. Another of those whims which I have in terms of what I consume. You see, I think that alcohol is for fuel cells, and since I don't seem to have any of those, I think it's for others who do. :P)
I would also postulate the reason why meat tastes so good to most of us is because the body needs what it contains in one form or another, otherwise we'd all be eating something else. While I grant you that we could be getting those proteins and vitamins by other means, I prefer a piece of meat to one of those synthetic shakes which became so popular last century.
Maybe it's genetics, maybe it's just a thing of the mind. Personally I eat what I like and I try to cover all major food groups on a weekly basis. And even then, I don't eat that much meat. I would even go so far and say I eat more other things than meat. Yet I don't feel like I'm following a particular diet.
I can understand why people have a problem with how the meat industry deals with the animals involved and it is surely revolting to see and most certainly not appetizing, that much is sure. But that's an ethics problem, not a matter of food preference or gastronomy.
When you start to think about cooking, most of it has to do with making most food taste differently than it actually does in its raw and initial state. Quite a contradiction in itself.
Jake
If you are a vegetarian/vegan congratulations. Im not here to stop every one of you. But the predominating feeling is some of you seem to think my formerly veggie friends are wrong, or that they weren't smart about being vegetarians.
Well, they were. They are both extremely smart, and were very conscious about what they ate. They knew they needed extra protein, but there are some things you just can't get in a bowl of beans. Chuck has been a vegetarian for almost 20 years. Its not like they decided to be veggies last year and now they aren't. In fact, of every vegetarian I know, they have been the longest, and previously were one of the strictest.
Now, all that being said, I have talked them a bunch during this transition and they have more energy, feel better, and are generally enjoying it. They aren't going hog wild and eating meat with every meal, or even every day. But they are being smart and eating quality meat that tastes good. It helps that they like Chinese food as much as they do. They eat the same dish as they did with tofu, only with meat.
The one thing I think is strange, is they don't want to eat chicken. In terms of meat, I eat more chicken than I do red meat. But their view of it is, chickens are more mistreated usually than beef cattle. But thats fine.
This spring I am going to to see how they are doing, and maybe have them come over for my brisket. I will have to trim it up, Im not going to serve it to them as fatty as it usually is. I make my rub from scratch though, and have a nice wood/charcoal smoker for it to sit in all day.
The only issue, if any, that I may harbor against any kind of fad or fashion is this constant need by some people to be compartmentalized or categorized by what they do or don't do.
Like what do you call people who eat candy bars but drink their coffees black? I don't know, but I'm sure someone's working on this. I mean, who cares? :D
There are people who eat meat every day and they are just as healthy (i.e. Mediterranean) if not more than those who claim to have found the eternal fountain of youth by going down the herbivore route. The opposite is true as well, the Asian communities who live mostly of vegetables or fish do seem to live a healthy life as well. So who is right? Perhaps there is no right and wrong? Perhaps there's only something that's right or wrong for you or your body?
- yet another reason why I should be an astronaut.
"Hey there little chicken, you have been cute, but I'm hungry."
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqc8JNzniUc&feature=related[/url]
not true
a categorical falsehood
feed-lotting and battery farming animals, which isn't farming at all, is what screws things up
We run about 400 sheep on our 1100 acres, they graze the stubble after we've cropped the land with cereals, (wheat, barley etc). We also grow two or three paddocks of pasture in our rotations to feed them in the fallow period where we can't grow a crop on that paddock. The result is the sheep effectively eat for free, there are no inputs into them at all in terms of feed. Making hay for the dry season costs a little in terms of resources but, its stored on our property and it's carted less than a couple clicks to any of our paddocks.
Feedlots for sheep and cattle however, stuff the stock in tight, perhaps many thousands into a very small area. They truck in highly processed food from plenty of sources. They often need effluent dams, they are breeding grounds for vermin, like rats, corellas (big white cockatoos which destroy trees in large numbers), mice etc. They are also massive reservoirs of disease and parasites which need large ammounts of chemical control. The land beneath their feet is compacted into rock hard pans. They need shelter sheds.
The same can be said for battery farms for chickens.
What's required is balance. A balanced diet. Balanced non-intensive farming.
A couple billion less people to feed would also be good.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Soy is an irrigated crop in Australia and a majority contributor to a host of ecological problems. There are also plenty of food crops which promote unsustainable monoculture (growing a single species crop) and a dependence on only a handful of key varieties of plants.
In short, those who claim to eat veggies on an ethical basis... think again. What you choose to do, can often has as bigger impact but indirectly and over the long term.
If we destroy our arable land growing the wrong crops, then everyone is screwed, even the animals.
My formerly veggetarian friends have been eating meat now for a while. Mostly red meat, and high quality stuff. Things like burgers or poor quality is giving their stomach fits, but I eat meat all the time and a fast food burger that sucks makes my tummy hurt too. I tried to tell the not to eat stuff like that, but they wanted to try it anyways.
They say they have more energy, and feel better. So I guess thats something.
The first weekend in March I am going to get a 12-15lbs brisket, spend a night making my rub, and smoke it for about 9 hours. Invite them over for that. Im excited, I love brisket.
Ummm lamb, tasty, tasty lamb....
[QUOTE=shadow boxer;179759]What's required is balance. A balanced diet. Balanced non-intensive farming.
A couple billion less people to feed would also be good.
[/QUOTE]
Unfortantely I think you've hit the nail on the head, until we limit the population, I do not think we will be able to move away from large scale farming. Remember, there were those who predicted that humanity would run out of food by the 80s, and not only is there plenty of food available, it's been done with population growth rates that outstripped those experts assumptions.
Of course we are only going to need more food, not less as we are supposed to be adding 3 billion more people in the next 50 years.
Jake
Jake
J/k... carry on.