The "eat less meat" challange!

Who's in?

Some people will never be able to commit to being full vegetarians. But I think that's it would be a good decision for our bodies as well as the world to try and incorperate some more plant based protein into our diets, and cut down on the meat!

Maybe some chickpeas instead of that peice of chicken.

Some yogurt with breakfast instead of the steak.

Your turkey sandwich? Try hummus and veggies!

As for me, I probably eat meat twice a week at MOST, and I've never felt better. So who's with me?

For your body, for the environment, for the cost, and more.

Blasphemy.

Original Post by tattooed_kitty:

Blasphemy.

Not quite the response I was looking for :(

But no worries, I have a ton of friends who would never give up their hamburger, I totally get it. Eat what you love, for sure.

Kitty, that was quite uncalled for and very unintelligent. Just thought I'd say it.

Carbivore (love the name!), I might be interested in joining you! I don't know if I'd be able to reduce as much as you do (I'm a teenager and my parents aren't really into the whole "vegetarian" thing just yet) but I would love to experiment with more meatless or meat-reduced meals! I love chickpeas, beans, nuts, seeds, and even tofu already! I was a vegan for about six months last year but I began losing too much weight and my parents made me go back to omnivorism.

This is a great idea! I hope you get some more takers!

Original Post by zebulancherry:

Kitty, that was quite uncalled for and very unintelligent. Just thought I'd say it.

Do me a favor kitten, before you get to taking yourself so seriously that you can't resist the urge to chastise me, define two words for me:

   1. blasphemy

... go ahead, I'll wait here while you look it up at Dictionary.com ...

   2. sarcasm

Now that you know what both words mean, I'm sure you're feeling quite foolish about misjudging my little JOKE.

Now, go get yourself some tofurkey and text your MySpace friends about the new sticker book that mommy just bought you ... then its of for a nap so you don't get cranky at your play-date later.

Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow.

Original Post by tattooed_kitty:

Do me a favor kitten, before you get to taking yourself so seriously that you can't resist the urge to chastise me, define two words for me:

   1. blasphemy

... go ahead, I'll wait here while you look it up at Dictionary.com ...

   2. sarcasm

Now that you know what both words mean, I'm sure you're feeling quite foolish about misjudging my little JOKE.

Now, go get yourself some tofurkey and text your MySpace friends about the new sticker book that mommy just bought you ... then its of for a nap so you don't get cranky at your play-date later.

Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow.

lol

Well if you weren't being rude before, you certainly are now.

And if you were so blind to see - I am not a vegetarian, I simply said this was an interesting thread and that I think is worth checking out. Get your facts straight. Don't you have better things to do than bully teenagers online? Get a real life.

Umm.. yeah. :)
I've been eating basically for meat; white meat and fish.
(For some time, I've been wanting to become a vegetarian.)

I love fruits, nuts, grains and vegetables. :P

why? because you want to stop hurting the fluffy animals or something? i feel like crap if i dont eat meat, as long as its not horribly fat marbled its great for you. humans are meant to eat meat

I'm a vegan. It's actually not all that difficult, and so long as you include calorie-dense foods such as peanut butter, you don't necessarily have to worry about unwanted weight-loss. However, if you do, a vegan diet can obviously be tailored to meet your weight-loss needs. Nevertheless, I can see how some people can love their meat just as much as I love cheerios with rice milk. And in the end, both lifestyles can be altered to allow for weight-loss, or alternatively weight gain, so long as the person in charge chooses to make it so. Therefore, people should choose the lifestyle that they prefer, and moreover, that they can stick with for the rest of their lives. 

Original Post by darkylinky:

why? because you want to stop hurting the fluffy animals or something? i feel like crap if i dont eat meat, as long as its not horribly fat marbled its great for you. humans are meant to eat meat

Then I do not recommend that you become a vegetarian, or by extension, vegan, anytime soon. Just go with the lifestyle that suit you best. If you love meat and it makes you feel healthy, then that is great for you. So long as you eat a balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, dairy, etc, along with your meat, then there is absolutely nothing wrong with your decision to remain an omnivore. 

Original Post by zebulancherry:

Well if you weren't being rude before, you certainly are now.

And if you were so blind to see - I am not a vegetarian, I simply said this was an interesting thread and that I think is worth checking out. Get your facts straight. Don't you have better things to do than bully teenagers online? Get a real life.

Umm...you, in your naivete, called her comment "very unintelligent" so I would say she has the right to defend herself.  And don't you have some homework to do, young lady?

Well Ive been a vegetarian for about 3 years. I dont eat any meat but I have grown up in a family of meat lovers. There was a time where I could put away a huge pepperoni calzone like it was nothing. I definitely think that people should eat what ever makes them feel healthy and happy about themselves. My reasons for not eating meat started as a pure "diet"/health thing then I started realizing the cost benefits. Now it has evolved into an environment and animal rights thing for me. I personally would not challenge someone to be a vegetarian if they were not committed themselves. I do think its a good ideal to try and eat leaner meats if one is doing it for heath reasons. I have known ppl who are fit, feel great about themselves and eat meat all the time. Its really a choice one has to make for themselves.     &nbs p;

For your body? You can care about animals and whatever, but don't start acting like eating meat is inherently unhealthy.

I could use eating more meat, my protein has been a little low lately.

I was a vegetarian for about 12yrs...then I started eating meat again.  To be clear, I never stopped eating meat due to animals or health issues, I just don't like it.

I started eating it again because it was difficult to go to people's house or out to dinner at that time, about 10yrs ago, and be able to find veggie alternatives.  I also ate a bunch of junk rather than healthy stuff to replace the meat.

Anyway, about 4-6months ago, I decided to just eat turkey and chicken, since that it what I prefer.  I feel better, since meat never quite agreed with me.  I only eat it about once a day..but I need to work on more protein in my diet, so I am all up for suggestions...just don't say eat more meat :(

As far as the unhealthy stuff, red meat is higher in cholesterol and sat. fat then some other choices, and I am conscious of this, since high blood pressure and cholesterol run in my family.

carbivore - somehow this thread got a bit hi-jacked from your question. You did not ask how or why to become a vegetarian. You said you were eating less meat as it felt like a healthy thing to do and you wanted to know if others were either cutting back on meat already or wanted to join you.

Yes I agree it is much healthier, cheaper, and each time you choose to eat this way you are making a positive contribution. Count me in with you. Less meat replaced by healthy fruits/veges/whole grains/legumes/nuts/soy is a wonderful decision.

Good decision carbivore!

Good Luck with your challenge Carbivore!!

I fell into the habit of eating less meat purely my accident.  I found beans and tofu just tastier and easier to prepare.  One day I realized I had not eaten meat in weeks.  I now usually only eat meat while eating out.

I do eat a lot of dairy and egg whites to make sure I get enough protein every day.  Without meat is is very easy to not get enough protein, I would just keep an eye on how much protein you are eating.

I saw you did not mention tofu in your challenge, if you have not tried it I would highly recommend it.  For a quick, easy, cheap and healthy dinner, I stir fry extra firm tofu chunks, that add any stir fry sauce.  Add veggies and some whole grains and you have a great meal.  You can also marinade it.  I put the left overs on my salad for lunch.

Good luck!!  I never missed meat!!

I'm not a vegetarian, and I still eat some meat here and there, but I can go weeks without it.  My main reason for not eating meat is that outside of organic or near-organic, I do not trust the quality of commercially raised meat.  I think it's full of chemicals, anti-biotics, growth hormones and fed and unnatural diet that produces meat with an unnatural and unheatly balance of Omega3/Omega6 fats.  I mostly eat chicken and turkey, raised on a farm I have visited, free range, naturally fed, with no anti biotics or other shots given to the birds.  I think it tastes better too, but I accept that it could all be in my head as well. 

Human beings are not "meant" to eat meat, they are "capable" of eating meat.  Our digestive tract is long and winding, the standard digestive tract of all vegetarian animals, but we are physically capable of eating meat.   What 99% of the population cannot do, is eat meat in the quantities we now eat it because unless we are running through the jungle or the forest or across the plains to catch our meat, we are not burning enough calories nor is our metabolism high enough to process the high levels of saturated fats and calories that come with the meat.   Without the high metabolism, without burning massive calories each day, some small portion of those fats will eventually clog your arteries and lead to heart/circulatory problems and more. 

Also, more and more scientific evidence is pointing towards a diet high in Omega 3's as being very healthy, the type of fat found in oily fish for example, but also naturally found in cattle, chickens, pigs etc, so long as they are fed their natural diets which they are not unless they are organic.   The meat that most people consume is high in Omega 6 fats, which combined with high consumption of most seed oils like Sunflower, Safflower, Corn etc, also high in Omega 6's, leads to a very unnatural and unhealthy balance of fats.

In short, I don't eat commercially sold meat any more, not because I dislike meat, but because I don't trust it as a food source and don't think it's in a state that we were intended to eat it.

I love and enjoy meat; but I think we eat far too much of it as a society and so I prefer to eat occasional bits of very good quality, free range meat. It tastes so much better and I suspect it is better for you. I also think serving sizes of meat are ridiculous; the amount of steak meant for one I will often turn into a meal for two or three. Asian cooking makes meat go much further. I am not sold on the "meat and two veg" type of meal.

Last meat dish I ate was actually fish - it was called Ika Maka and involves raw red snapper marinaded in lime juice and coconut with chilli and papaya and red onion... so summery... found that in a magazine... that was like 350g of fish and fed three of us. I just bought some awesome looking sausages from a butcher so might make a boyish sausage casserole with beans and that later in the week. The rest of the stuff that grabs my eye when out in the market is usually veg...

So I would say I eat fish once or twice a week, and meat once or twice a month. I have basically given up chicken because it is so overproduced, and bland tasting. I prefer pork and lamb, steak sometimes.

I do not think is anything wrong with eating meat in itself, but as some other posters have said, the meat availble to us (cheaply at least) is pretty disgusting quality and animals have led unnecessarily cruel and bizarre lives. If I could keep my own animals and kill them myself I would be more willing to eat meat every day!

Anyway I love vegetables and there are about twenty different veg to cook and only about four types of meat, so that roughly equates to how often I get round to cooking it.

So I'm with the carbivore - I think it gives you a much greater variety of food, and is definitely cheaper and maybe healthier. As for the person who said meat is healthy if it's not marbled with fat - oh my god - but what is the point in eating meat without fat - fat is what gives it all the taste!

Wow, this topic got waaaay off track for a while. I didn't realize that eating more chickpeas would start arguments!

Anyways, thanks to everyone who actually got what I was trying to say here! I just used to eat a whole lot more meat, at least once a day, and sometimes twice. There was a whole lot of reasons for me to cut back, and I was just wondering if anyone in the CC community wanted to join me! That's all!

Eating a heavily meat-based diet is harmful to the environment and is unsustainable, I don't really know if you can argue otherwise. And although I really don't think that meat is bad for you or something, I do think there are a whole host of healthful meat alternatives that a lot of the carniverous Western world miss out on because they haven't thought beyond a dinner of steak and potatoes, you know?

And to those of you who recommended tofu- good god I love tofu. It's so awesome and easy to prepare. It's kind of intimidating to buy if you've never made it, but I'd reccomend anyone who hasn't yet tried it to do so! Yum.

And this wasn't supposed to be a thread arguing the merits of vegetarianism! I'm not even vegetarian.

And I also don't understand why this was moved to the weight loss forum. I'm not trying to lose weight, this isn't about trying to lose weight.