I was reading this article (Eating our Way to Death, Literally) and I had to get something off my chest. Something that has been bothering me since the age of 2 or 3 (those are my earliest memories so it may be longer). Something that I try to keep private but has reared its ugly head more than once or twice. Something that has become such a taboo subject that I feel we need some sort of support group. It is something that if I don’t do at least 5 or 6 times a day I just don’t feel right.
I love meat.
Yes, I said it. I love meat. All kinds of meat. Beef, chicken, fish, pork, seafood (yes, that includes oysters and clams), and even game (if I can ever find it). I love eggs and milk too. OK, they are not meat but they are what I consider meat by-products by default. If it can run, swim, jump, or fly you better believe that I have eaten it.
I eat meat almost with every meal. As much as I possibly can. Beef is my number source of meat. I sometimes eat almost 2lbs of beef a day. Yes, I said two pounds. I sometimes add eggs to that mix. Anywhere between 4 and 8 eggs a day.
I also love chicken(s). I don’t eat as much as I would like since I eat so much beef but it is still great BBQ’d or rotisserie. Chickens are such wonderful creatures they give us eggs and meat. I know, cows gives us milk but most mammals do this so its not that special. Other birds (fowl) give us eggs but it is rare to find ostrich meat or eggs at your local market.
I have eaten meat pretty much all my life. My earliest memories are of my grandmother and I walking to the market (yes, we walked) and she would let me pick out the biggest reddest piece of top sirloin at the local butcher shop. The smell of raw beef was intoxicating. The sight of blood on the butcher’s apron was heart-warming.
Another confession I have is the fact that I am a true carnivore. What does that mean? That means that I like to eat my beef raw. Not rare, raw. Not cooked. I think this practice came about from those trips to the butcher shop with my grandmother. She said that you could not know if the meat was well aged unless you tasted it raw. So the butcher would cut out a small raw portion of top sirloin and she would taste it. If it met her standards then she would buy it. Of course seeing this I asked her to taste it. She didn’t hesitate. I still remember the first time I had that small portion of raw sirloin. It was smooth and chewy. Nothing like what beef tastes or feels like after being cooked. I was hooked.
I also learned to eat raw eggs from my grandmother. Come to think of it, she didn’t like to cook most things. Yes, pork and chicken were an exception but most other things were raw marinated in lemon juice for a few minutes to several hours. Sometimes not marinated at all.
To this day I hate eating at most restaurants since they have to cook the beef till it’s hard as shoe sole leather. There are a few restaurants that I frequent that are more liberal and I can get away with asking for very rare beef. They like to call it “seared” but believe you me, it’s as close as raw as you can get.
Do I eat veggies? Rarely. Once in a while with diner I will have a salad. I do eat fruit on weekends but that is mostly for breakfast. Come to think of it, I don’t many plant carbs. Most of my daily carbs come from whole grain bread and a small bit from eggs.
I do have lots and lots of essential fats to make up the fact that I am not eating carbs. The human body needs fuel. The body uses two main forms of fuel; carbs and/or fats. Since I don’t eat carbs most of my fuel come from fats in fish oil, extra virgin olive oil, flax oil, and the natural occurring fat from top sirloin (which is very lean so its not much).
You would think that with all that meat and fats that I would be overweight and my cholesterol would be sky high. Well, I have lost over 20lbs in the last year and my Chol is so low that it has to be checked twice to make sure that there was not a misread.
There was a period of time a few years ago where I did not watch what I ate and my body fat increased like crazy. I returned to my mostly meat diet and the fat began to vanish. Who knew that eating fats would actually make you lose fat.
Here is a before/after pic that I like to call “Body by USDA Choice”. These pictures are 9 months apart and more than 20lbs dropped. Body fat went from 32% to less than 15%. :
So, to all of you vegetarians and vegans out there eating all those plants, veggies, and fruits I thank you.
More meat for me.
