Friday July 25th, 2008
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Go Meatless on Mondays
Posted by Su Avasthi on April 29, 2007 - 9:09pm.
I just found a great new rule to add to my long and complicated list on how to be a good carnivore: I am swearing off meat -- and other foods that are loaded with saturated fats -- on Mondays.
It's called the Meatless Monday Campaign, a national health initiative aimed at preventing heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer. It encourages people to cut back on burgers and pork chops in a realistic fashion, because even a modest reduction in fatty foods can improve our health. It can also get us back on track after an over-indulgent weekend.
Plus, thanks to the power of alliteration, it's easy to remember.
When my friends and family hear about Meatless Mondays, they're going to roll their eyes in my general direction. It's not that they aren't supportive. It's because they already know how weird I am about meat.
I've cycled between being a vegetarian or a carnivore all my life—I switch off about every three years. Rather than thinking of myself as a failed vegetarian, I've settled on the flexitarian label. Sadly, this term only seems to further confound the lovely and intrepid people who invite me over to dinner. Of course, at the heart of the matter isn't a label, but my nonsensical approach to the consumption of meat.
For example, I've never eaten chicken pieces if the bones are still intact, but lately and for inexplicable reasons, boneless chicken breasts have started to freak me out too. While it generally unnerves me to eat anything that still resembles whatever it looked like when it was alive (such as whole fish), I have no qualms cracking open a lobster.
Technically, I'm a carnivore these days, which usually means I get bacon on my veggie burger. I never cook red meat, but on a couple random occasions, I've had a baffling desire to whip up a hearty beef stew.
Oh, and when I'm a vegetarian, I reserve the right to eat hot dogs at baseball games.
I love the idea of Meatless Mondays because it's smart to cut back on unhealthy foods, like meat or -- for the flexitarians out there -- cheese and ice cream. Dedicating one day a week to this it makes a lot of sense to me.
Unlike my other dietary quirks, I suspect this one will actually make a lot of sense to other people too.
Topics:
- Food
- beef
- Cancer
- cardiovascular disease
- carnivore
- carnivores
- fake meat
- meat
- Meatless Monday
- pork
- vegetables
- vegetarian
- vegetarianism
Every once in awhile I crave a real hamburger. I mean, one made with 100% beef. Nothing compares.
I too, do not usually eat red meat or cook it for my family.But the iron you get from a juicy hamburger or some lean flank steak is too good to pass up. We make ourselves crazy over what to do with our eating. Everything is moderation I say. Eat your burger and than wash it down with a fruity cocktail!!! That should work.
I can relate to your flexitarian diet, as you so call it. I’ve been switching up my diet for the past 8 years, from vegan to vegetarian to pescetarian and to being a carnivore, ever since I was 8 or 9 years when my doctor advised my mother to cut off meat from my diet since I had trouble digesting it! Nowadays the only meat I consume is chicken or some type of fish, since I’m also allergic to almost all fish.
& of course I sometimes crave burgers and hot dogs, & I get to eat burgers twice a week, with soy patties of course, but quite frankly I can not tell the difference between animal meat and soy meat, particularly when I use boca meat.
But I still include dairy products in my diet, religiously. Perhaps I shouldn’t as much but I love my yogurt in the morning and ice cream on movie nights!
I suppose that excluding them on Mondays would work just fine, though. JI, also, will have to wait until next Monday to begin the "Meatless Monday" regime; I didn't read this until after I had eaten my lunch. I think it sounds like a great idea though! My "gut instinct" is an "omnivorous in moderation" approach; I eat meat but not often and not in great quantity. Were I taking only my own taste into consideration, I would eat beef a couple of times a month (mostly for the iron as my cycle dictates) and pork quarterly, if that often. When one has more than one's own diet to consider, though, and one is the "chief cook and bottle washer", the menu changes.
I have found, though, that Yves "Veggie Ground Round" or "The Good Ground" can be substituted in chili, pasta sauce and other "meaty dishes" of that variety and the resident carnivore can't tell the difference. It was totally worth it to announce, when he had polished off his second bowl of chili, that the food he had just consumed with so much gusto was "vegan" - but then again, I am easily amused. I am also a fan of Boca products and Garden burgers, as well as a good salmon burger. What I haven't done in the past is to choose a specific day to be conscious in this specific way.
It sounds like an idea worth exploring and on this Beltaine Eve - I say, "Why not?!?" Can I offer anybody a lovely bowl of chili?
Blessings.
I've been doing this for a while already and it feels great. I think the trick is to give in and enjoy that juicy burger when you really want it -- so you're not giving anything up. Just don't settle for the burger mindlessly, because you're used to it, because you haven't bothered to think of anything more interesting, etc. I've actually started looking forward to skipping meat on Mondays because it gives me an excuse to experiment with new things. Plus the timing thing helps, too. Can do what I want Saturday/Sunday then feel virtuous again on Monday...