I’ve been having a lot of conversations recently about eating for best health and disease prevention with family and friends. Especially after The World Health Organization (WHO) released their findings showing the link between processed meat and cancer [FAQ here].
This post is for family and friends.
These people are dear to me. Some are ready to go vegan right this minute. Others worry that they couldn’t because they love the taste and enjoyment of eating meat too much.
So here’s been my advice for how to plan your plate when you still like meat.
And I approach it from two angles. Knowledge and Adjustment.
Knowledge
You say you like meat. I can empathize with you, but I really don’t understand. I was always picky when it came to meat. Growing up in the Chicago suburbs I didn’t know there were other options and truthfully thought I needed meat, based on food pyramids and dietary advice at the time. As well as just being instructed to finish what was in front of you.
But we’re not talking about me. If you truly like meat. I would at least ask that you start to research and think about where your meat comes from. How did it arrive in the package or form in front of you? Ignorance is bliss or so they say. But every perfectly shaped chicken breast or pork chop came from a terrified animal that did not want to die.
If you wouldn’t eat dog, how can you eat cow? Indoctrinations are not an excuse, but a starting place for us to question why we do something the way we do.
I honestly believe that if we all visited slaughterhouses 95% or more people would not be able to stomach eating meat.
I have more respect for hunters who only eat meat when it’s something they’ve killed and processed. Only then is an individual participating in the understanding of a process. I hope there’s a sense of gratitude and appreciation for the life and nourishment that happens when you participate in the circle of life that way.
Watch Food Inc. Watch Cowspiracy.
Adjustment
So you’ve done research and still want to eat meat.
At least try eating less of it.
Portions and quantities of animal products have only increased thanks to big-ag and marketing. What we eat is not even close to what our grandparents or great-grandparents grew up eating. Nor do we have to work as hard for it.
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How do I eat less meat?
Imagine your plate is a clock. Fill your plate with vegetables and plant-based carbohydrates or grains from 12 until 10 or 11. The remaining slot could be your lean animal-based protein.
Follow this 7 days a week or challenge yourself to do a few meatless days a week. Once you learn a few meatless recipes it’s quite easy to imagine yourself eating less meat still while enjoying what you eat.
Our plates should not be meat-palooza. We are in bigger danger of being fiber deficient than taking in too little protein.
Check out some of my favorite cookbooks from yesterday’s post as well as the always growing list of Feed Your Skull recipes.
Take one day out of the week to learn a new vegetable or recipe. Once you do, your world only grows. It doesn’t diminish.
I eat more variety now than I ever did as a picky omnivore. And I’m still picky sometimes. 🙂 xx