Topic: Eating Less Meat?

[pippy]

I wondered what everyone thinks when the press keep rolling out experts telling us we need to eat less meat to reduce carbon footprints and be healthier?  Meat is also getting more expensive and of course there are some nasty intensive production methods out there.

Personally I'm not a vegetarian but do have a healthy respect for meat and eat it 2, or maybe 3 times a week.  I try to buy the best and most ethical choices on a limited family budget, and to use up any leftovers in soups, stews and pasta dishes.  With small children I do worry about what protein they need and do resort to fish fingers and better quaility Chicken bite thingys for them from time to time.

What do you all do?  Do people have hints and tips for using up leftovers and/or creating meals without meat?

Just wondered if we could all share thoughts and/or tips!  Thanks!

[twinkletoes]

I like my meat - and as much as I love vegetables, I would never give up meat.  I am one of those who will eat it but would find it extremely difficult to take it from the field and prepare it for the fridge - so I guess that makes me a not very nice persons...... :-X
twinkletoes

[pippy]

I don't think so!  I think you are probably totally sensible. 

Here in the UK I think our farming is quite suited to producing meat, particularly pigs/sheep and of course chickens.  And the manure gets used on the crops.  I personally think we should eat less meat overall, but still eat it - it's just a matter of getting the balance right!

[OllieC]

Personally I think we should get rid of a few of these people telling us what to do. The amount of hot air they produce and oxygen that they pointlessly consume must be doing untold environmental damage. Just my 2p!!!

[twinkletoes]

...and it was very well spent Ollie   ;D
twinkletoes

[asbean]

It's the nanny state again  >:( >:( >:(

I resent being told how much/how little I should be eating/drinking by faceless goons who have no idea how much/how little I'm eating/drinking in the first place.

Grrrrrr  >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(

[Hyacinth]

Wonder if they're putting their knife and fork where their mouth is? :-\

[Moonbeam65]

I love my meat and would not even consider giving it up would even kill it my self
if i had to used to eat some of the rabbits i bred when i was quite young.
no matter what we do will not stop global warming happening this is only another way of governments to make money and try to controll the population the only thing i am prepared to do is compost and that's it.

[Mr Smith]

The last time I was over in the US visiting my sister I had three big 'T' bones in less than a week so that puts me in the pig category when it comes to meat, but not such a red meat eater these days prefare mi fish :)

[redimp]

It's the nanny state again  >:( >:( >:(

I resent being told how much/how little I should be eating/drinking by faceless goons who have no idea how much/how little I'm eating/drinking in the first place.

Grrrrrr  >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(

This is not a nanny state thing - that is where they tell you what is and what isn't good for you.  This is an environmental thing.  I am not going to get on my soap box but the meat is an inefficient food, resources input to output wise, and the meat industry causes a lot of environmental damage - air pollution, watercourse pollution due to the types of feed etc.

That is all I shall say on the matter.  It is up to everyone else to find out if they want and to make their own minds up.

[OllieC]

It's nanny someone - interfering *fatherless children* trying to tell other people how to live. If you don't like how I live, fine, don't live like me. We live in a free society, so how come it doesn't feel like it when these busy bodies continuously tell us what we should & shouldn't do.

And I just might climb onto my soapbox if I hear anyone else suggest that eating meat is a moral decision. It's only a moral decision if you opt out. I choose not to.

[asbean]

Humans are omnivores. They need protein, which is available from meat, therefore we do not need to become vegetarian.  Everything in moderation, I believe the saying is.

My point was that I and my family buy our meat from organic farmers that we know and trust, not prepackaged and sold as british just because it was packed in this country. We plan our meals two weeks in advance to make sure we have a varied diet (and that means not eating meat every day); nothing is wasted.  We cook all our meals from scratch, so have virtually no packaging to dispose of.  We recycle everything we can, compost everything that can be composted, the house is insulated to an inch of its life - WHAT MORE DO THE B******S WANT US TO DO  ??? ???

[Hyacinth]

- WHAT MORE DO THE B******S WANT US TO DO  ??? ???

Die before you collect your pension & so they can also clear up on their percentage of Inheritance Tax?

 ;D

[Froglegs]

Humans are omnivores. They need protein, which is available from meat, therefore we do not need to become vegetarian. 

And who am i to argue with millions of years of evolution.

[isbister]

It's kicking off, Pru...

Who says Humans are omnivores? We have adopted an omnivorous diet because it's easy and tasty, but we're not omnivores, our digestive systems are designed for nuts, fruit, veg and berry type stuff (see lowland gorilla whose digestive tract is identical - he may eat the odd mouse if he accidentally sits on it, but otherwise is vegetarian). As for protein, as adults we need very little, no more than 5% tops, it is needed for growth and repair. Mother's milk has highest proportion of protein, as you'd expect, but still only 7% and you'll never need more than that. Meat has 25% to 35% and our body can't store the excess, passing through our 25ft gut (carnivore 6ft gut, omnivore such as a goat has 8ft gut) this excess putrifies which explains, in my view, why modern houses are built with two or three bathrooms.
I hope this clears this up.

[oakmore2]

It's kicking off, Pru...

Who says Humans are omnivores? We have adopted an omnivorous diet because it's easy and tasty, but we're not omnivores, our digestive systems are designed for nuts, fruit, veg and berry type stuff (see lowland gorilla whose digestive tract is identical - he may eat the odd mouse if he accidentally sits on it, but otherwise is vegetarian). As for protein, as adults we need very little, no more than 5% tops, it is needed for growth and repair. Mother's milk has highest proportion of protein, as you'd expect, but still only 7% and you'll never need more than that. Meat has 25% to 35% and our body can't store the excess, passing through our 25ft gut (carnivore 6ft gut, omnivore such as a goat has 8ft gut) this excess putrifies which explains, in my view, why modern houses are built with two or three bathrooms.
I hope this clears this up.

Sorry, but a lot of that is absolute twaddle. A goat has mulitple compartments in its 'stomach' (omasum, abomasum, rumen, reticulum, just like other ruminant HERBIVORES (cow, sheep etc). This makes it perfectly designed to survive on vegetation only. In design, our gastro-intestinal tract is actually closer to a carnivore's than a herbivore's although it's well accepted that we are actually OMNIVORES, but that provided the diet is balanced correctly we can also survive on a herbivorous diet (just because we can survive happily on it, does not mean that that is what we have evolved to eat at the exclusion of meat).

Yes, it is also true that we can eat too much meat (particularly red meat), however as with everything, moderation is the key.

[colt seavers]

with the amount of methane a cow can produce, i feel it is my job to eat as much steak as possible.

[Old bird]

I personally think that this is being blown out of proportion.  I think the majority of people on this site are educated in that a varied diet containing meat vegetables fish eggs and more vegetables is sensible.

Out there in the wider world there are people who have no education and think that a balanced diet is a MacDonalds and milkshake!  There is enormous ignorance out there, partly due to parents not passing on information and the expansion of the ready made meals and supermarket meat counters which make meat  and ready meals more affordable, easier and "they taste nice!"

There is a large section of the population who are hugely overweight through ignorance and the availability of fast food with a high meat content.

I do agree that if you enjoy meat - go ahead enjoy it - but in slightly smaller portions and possibly less times a week. I used to expect meat at most meals sometimes twice a day.  I now eat meat maybe once a week, certainly I am fitter than before.

I think that this message is aimed at the people like the ignorant parents that were feeding their children fish and chips and McConalds through the school railings rather than let them eat the healthy food that the school were trying to produce.  Ignorance if left unchecked runs from generation to generation unless someone steps in to try to educate these people!

Some people do not know what vegetables are!  Isn't that incredible!  They walk past them in the supermarkets - possibly buy bananas and potatoes  - but that is about it and don't have a clue what the green things are!  It is these people that need educating not necessarily people like you lot on this site that know the advantages of a mixed diet!

Enough said - I am sure to have upset some!

O B

 ;D

[mike77]

If god didnt want us to eat meat he wouldnt have made it taste so good!! :P

[redimp]

Still think you lot are missing the point - the advice concerned the health of the environment and thus effects everybody else on the planet.  Not whether you lot are going to be obese or suffer from colon cancer.