Mostly, I’m a healthy eater. Fiber One for breakfast sprinkled with almonds and blueberries. 1% milk with OJ on the side. And usually a chicken or turkey sandwich for lunch. (I’m a Subway regular.)
But there are two exceptions to my healthy eating.
First, I like meat. Real meat. Something that moo-ed or oink-ed in an earlier life. A big, juicy, medium-rare steak so heavily peppered that it almost sneezes. A burger with a hint of pink, lathered with mushrooms and jalapenos. A pork tenderloin that melts in your mouth. Beef fajitas. So go ahead: subtract a couple years from my life. But give me a hunk of red meat.
And second, I like dessert. A chocolate-chip Kudo bar . . . a chunk of dark chocolate . . . a hot brownie . . . a cake from McKay’s . . . cookies right out of the oven . . . a pie (nearly any kind will do — blueberry, peach, apple, cherry, rhubarb, lemon meringue, chocolate meringue, etc.). Just as God is not a respector of persons, I’m not a respector of desserts. Nearly all have something to offer.
Moderation is the key (I keep telling myself). Eat MOSTLY healthy. Work out even when you don’t want to. Guzzle the agua. Wolf down the vegies, fruits, nuts, and whole grains.
Here’s my hope: that if you eat enough guacamole it will offset any damage the red meat and sweets might otherwise cause.
Avocados: the true elixir.
“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
–J.R.R. Tolkien
One man’s fuel, is another man’s fodder.
I am also a fan of desserts. Ice cream, cake, cookies, brownies, whatever. My wife thinks I am kidding when I periodically ask if I can just skip dinner and have dessert. I am occasionally kidding.
I liked meat for the first 23 years and 10 1/2 months of my life but recently (about a month ago) became a vegetarian. One of the reasons is certainly health, but my decision is mostly due to respect for all life and the lack of efficiency of eating meat. If you have not read John Robbins book “Food Revolution”, I would highly reccomend it. If that’s not appealing, I will actually be posting on my blog tomorrow a summary of why I concluded it was an ethical Christian choice for me to become a vegetarian. Feel free to stop by and join the conversation that will undoubtedly ensue.
Blessings everyone!
To quote Emeril Lagasse, “Pork Fat Rules!” I love a huge pile of smoked pig (half inside meat, half outside) with some BBQ sauce! That’s eating! Of course you have to have a side of peach cobler with home-made ice cream when you are done with the pig!
I like the way you think! Ah, er, eat!
Mike — I’m famous for my brownies. I think they’re why Chad stays married to me. I’ll Fed Ex you some one day.
Mike,
When I lived in California my favorite place was IN & OUT Burger.
I’ll I have to say is I hope they have IN & OUT Burger in Paradise!
There’s nothing quite like dropping by Tommy’s Hamburgers in Ft. Worth for some good ol’ Vitamin H!
(I have it on good authority that cheese, grilled onions and jalapenos helps with the vitamin absorption!)
The positive effects of guacamole are limited by the utensil of choice. Spooned guacamole is one thing, but guacamole that arrives to the mouth via fried flour tortilla isn’t so beneficial.
Says who?
Phew, I almost panicked when I saw you listing a Kudo bar as a fabulous desset, but then I read on and breathed a sigh of relief that you had some of the “real” ones listed. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a Kudo, but if I have to begin counting those as dessert, then that messes up my food pyramid completely!
Because we are hot tea drinkers, let me suggest something. Take a good piece of chocolate, I am not talking Hershey here. Eat it and then follow with a drink of hot tea (obviously with milk in it). What happens next will amaze and delight you. All the little pieces of chocolate that were hiding in the nooks and crannies of your mouth will begin to melt because of the contact with the hot tea and bam! Before you know it your mouth will be swirling with warm chocolate and the delightful taste of hot English Breakfast tea. Love it!
Okay, let me regain composure - it is only food.
I’m guilty of the “mostly healthy” approach, too, hoping I can offset my indulgences. Salty snack foods are my weakness, although I’m good about staying away from potato chips. I’m also good about the serving-and-a-half of oatmeal every day thing.
Eat healthy, but every day you need to have something from each of the four basic junk food groups: sugar, salt, grease, and chocolate.
I must have this hidden craving for avocado. I enjoy guacamole for sure, but have you ever shaved with avocado shaving cream? It can’t be beat!
http://www.classicshaving.com/catalog/item/522960/1165231.htm
At least I’m shaving healthy.
I coined a new phrase that Webster just won’t print…yet. I like to say I’m a MEATetarian. Carnivore doesn’t sound as tasty.
Thanks for writing this post on the day I didn’t eat breakfast. Now I’m at work and ready to gnaw off my own arm.
Our son Jeromy went vegetarian 10 years ago. Still eats eggs and milk products. His influence has moved me that direction but, like the Kingdom, not there fully. I’m having great fun with fruit smoothies for breakfast. Get all your daily fruit in one shot. You can be very creative. Some you end up choking down, others start the day with a bang. One frequent supplement is fresh Lemon Basil. Having fresh organic garden veggies makes it great too.
We eat quite a bit of a Mediterranean diet: pasta, olive oil, garlic, cheese, tomatoes, some meat. A good pasta dish is the best thing going, imo.
That said, we also eat steak - and I’m with ya on the medium-rare. Well-done anything is a waste of flavor.
And of course, ’tis the season for dove fajitas.
Chris,
Your decision to be stop eating meat must not be due to your respect for “all life”. You still seem to discriminate against plant life. Are you just an anti-photosynthesis guy? What makes a cow’s life worth more than a carrot’s?
Sounds like a tailgate party waiting to happen. It is true; never heard of anyone becoming overweight for eating too many veggies and drinking too much water.
Khill-
Not entirely sure if you are serious but this is a question that I have honestly been asked before.
I find the main difference between a cow and a carrot the fact that cows breath and can feel pain. Cows have also been found to have an amazing sense of parental duty and other emotions that have yet to be discovered in carrots.
Chris - I’ll look forward to seeing it. I have great respect for nonjudgmental vegetarians. I have a friend who became a vegetarian a few years ago for health reasons. He has lost lots of weight and feels much better.
However, that respect has not translated into conversion for me.
There is nothing better than a steak grilled over a mesquite fire, followed by a piece of coconut cream pie. I think the avocado has one of the highest fat contents of the fruit and vegetable family - I could be wrong on this, and it does not really matter…….
Chris - I was somewhat less than fully serious. I do commend your searching and trying to live up to your conscience.
This is an issue I find interesting. I think God set human life apart from all other. However, within other life - is complex life worth more simple life? Did God not condone killing, eating, sacrifcing complex animal life?
The final word for me on eating meat came from my lovely daughter Abby, who at age 10 said “I would be a vegetarian if steak didn’t taste so good”.
Mike - Thanks. I certainly hope I have come across as nonjudgmental here and that I will continue to do so on all my beliefs and not just the issue of vegetarianism.
khill- those are good questions. I don’t know that I will answer them specifically but I hope you will check out my blog tomorrow.
I like to snack often & eat small meals. I’m partial to carbs - lots of them! Pretzles dipped in sour cream, salami & Lawry’s salt, cheese & crackers, queso - pretty much all things salty. However, you can’t have a good salty snack unless you follow it up with something sweet! I prefer chewy sweets like Red Twizzlers or gooey like a Caramello bar.
hello my name is clint and i am a food-a-holic and now that i live in San Antonio with Ruth’s Chris right down the road well let me say life is good.
Clint, dearly missed friend,
As they say in Spanish, no cuentes tu dinero enfrente de los pobres!
“Don’t count your money in front of the poor.” Or as we say in West Texas - quite yer crowing!! LOL
Clint, don’t tell us life is good when you have left us. We miss you. I didn’t even get to tell you goodbye.
Hi Mike~
I, like Chris, am a red-blooded vegetarian from Texas. I hope that I can be described as non-judgemental- most of my friends, family, and church members eat meat with clear consciences. While I am motivated by certain convictions, I hope to be known by my love.
That being said, here are some thoughts I have. Chris will probably say many of the same things tommorrow, but for the benefit of those who don’t venture over there:
I was raised eating meat, have a grandfather who raises cattle, and I used to scoff and scowl at these “misguided vegetarians.” When, at age 17, I came across a website touting the “health benefits” of a vegetarian diet, I determined to do my own research and prove the vegetarians wrong. After 6 months I was resolute and convicted. A healthy vegetarian diet *is* by far healthier than your most well balanced non-veggie menu. Shocked, but convicted. The reality is that animal products are full of saturated fat, cholesterol, unhealthy aninal proteins, heme iron, and contain no fiber, or phytonutrients- not to mention the disease, antibiotics, and other unmentionables that those “steaks” (and chicken breasts, and [fill in the blank]) carry with them.
For me this really quickly became a stewardship issue for me. God has given me my body as a gift. Just like other gracious blessings (e.g. our money, our kids, our talents), I felt a duty to take care of my body- to honor God’s gift to me, and to be in the best possible health to serve him. If (as the most modest studies suggest) eating a healthy vegetarian diet can give me 7-12 more years on this earth to serve God, to care for my kids and grandkids, to love and cherish my wife, for me it is worth the sacrifice. If those additional years can be healthy years, not full of illness and disease, not full of hospital bills and bypass surgeries, what a blessing!
Many have given up smoking because the evidence is clear that smoking is devestatingly harmful to the human body- the evidence is equally as clear as it relates to a meat-centered diet.
We pray, “God help this food to bless and nourish our bodies,” yet we eat food that simply is not designed to nourish us. Imagine praying, “God help this cigarette to nourish my body,” or “God help this 40 ounce to nourish my body.”
I can’t speak for anyone else’s congregation, but in the church where I am privileged to minister, our people are sick. And because over 75% of illness and disease is *diet* related, most of them don’t have to be. Some of them have made the switch to a vegetarian diet, others are moving in that direction. When it comes to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and cancer, our diet choices make a powerful difference.
There are two new vegetarians in my life: my 47 year old mother, and my loving step-father. We recently recieved news that my mother has stage IV non-smokers lung cancer. It was spreading rapidly moving from her lungs into her blood stream and into the bones of her ribs and pelvis.
She quickly switched to a full vegetarian diet (no animal products- vegan). When they did her blood work 3 days later immediately prior to her first round of chemo they found that her immune function in all major catagories had almost doubled. While others in her condition have struggled with their white blood cell counts, and other immune functions, her’s has been consistently above the highest levels. The doctors who once told her that diet change would make no difference, and encouraged her to eat beef, are now, admitting they were wrong. They have never seen anything like it, and other patients are asking my mom for more information about her vitamins and diet (see http://www.cancerproject.org ). After two rounds of chemo her cancer has halted all growth, and we are praying that God will fully heal her.
Even if one is not struck by the health benefits, or convicted by a call for stewardship, there are other reasons to consider carefully our diet choices.
If you interested in the problem of world hunger I invite you to read a recent blog post of mine entitled “Hungry for a Better World.” That post details the realtion between meat consumption, available food and water resources, and global starvation.
If you are interest in global warming I encourage you to read an article entitled “Another Inconvenient Truth: Meat is a Global Warming Issue.”
And finally, many people are “animal lovers”- in fact most are on some level. We read our children books full of cute little animals, we take them to petting zoos, and we lovingly raise and care for our pets. And so animals=food becomes highly problematic, logically, and ethically. There are fines for kicking and beating dogs and cats, yet in some countries dogs and cats are simply food. In our own country many animals are not given care and compassion but are raised, fed, and slaughtered in the worst possible conditions. Why are some animals loved and others disregarded? Is it because of lower intelligence, or unequal beauty. And is it appropriate to decide that some innocent, defenseless animals should not get to live because we think (incorrectly) that they are less smart, and less cute? I commend to you a book called “Dominion” , by Matthew Scully. I also encourage you to watch the two videos that are on another blog that my wife and I manage: simplevegan.blogspot.com . To truly be able to eat meat with a clear conscience means being able to watch something like that and not feel compassion. I have never met a person that has watched these videos without having been deeply, and profoundly affected. Also, on that blog, I am in the middle of a series where I hope to show the relationship between Christianity and vegetarianism. The aim is less grandiose than it sounds. I simply want to let some seldom heard voices find expression.
I hear ya Mike- I too spent many years loving meat, and pie.
Take a look at the kind of meatless meals my wife and I throw on the grill.
And believe me, if there is a good cook in your house, there are AMAZING vegan deserts- healthy, tastey, deserts that are great when you get that craving.
I look forward to Chris’ discussion.
Please pray for my mom!
b blessed and God is peace
russ
Ok, so vegan deserts are actually really tasteless, but vegan desserts, yes, *desserts* are great!!
b blessed and God is the author with no spelling errors
russ
What’s up with the italics?
AAAHHHH McKays! Sour dough bread, thumb print cookies, and the cakes….
Thanks for the memeories as I dine on broccoli salad.
Had my first slice of McKay’s last weekend…yummers!
Avocados are healthy and can offset high cholesterol. Eat them on a turkey sandwich with no mayo! I was told they are full of the good cholesterol.
Russ-
I don’t see your spelling error above? Did you have another comment on here?
My husband is a meat fanatic too. He says his favorite food groups are Cow and Pig, not beef or pork.
My favorite food group is PASTA, not just carbs….PASTA. All shapes all sizes. Flavored vinegars, some EVOO and some lightly sauted veggies.
Mike, I made a pasta salad with some avocados last night. YUM! Weird, I always think of you when I eat an avocado. Wonder why!
Chris~
I wrote *deserts*, as in the Sahara, instead of *desserts*, as in my wife’s chocolate applesauce cake. lol
My wife caught it…
b blessed
russ
avacados. a good reason for an annual trip to Fresno, Ca!
I hate to puncture the balloon of healthy pigging out on avocados…check out Dr. John McDougall’s newsletter. He’s reputed to be a serious and excellent nutritionist. I am really mad to learn just today that research has suggested 1/7th of the wonderful fruit is the max healthy fat recommended… one TBSP! BTW, Chris, his August newsletter includes some interesting vegan recipes.
http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2006nl/august/060800.htm
Mike, since it’s late and I’m just now reading your blog, you may not find this comment, but I’m happy our granddaughter is in your class. Her mom was touched by the cell phone call you had your students do this week to their parents…only she thought it was an accident and didn’t learn until later what she had missed.
It sounds like gluttony is the new “acceptable” sin these days.Why is there not more preaching against over eating?
http://www.suntimes.com/output/falsani/cst-nws-fals25a.html/
For a whiff of chocolate, a chocolaty scent without the sin, check out this article on “Gardening Chocolates: no calorie gardening” by Terra Hangen at Positively Feminine, a site that encourages biblical femininity.
http://www.positivelyfeminine.org
I have just recently discovered a newfound love for guacamole-I want to eat it ALL the time!! I never liked it before, but try it everywhere now. Homemade is by far the best-oh my word….it is just so good! I don’t care if it is just 1/7th of the avacado that is good for me
I am going to continue in my love for it…they are incredible on a good hamburger! Yum…I am going to stay on board with your guacamole theory 
You’ve been tagged, Mike!
With Love,
Steve Holt
Mike, I am a dietitian, and we teach our patients “all foods in moderation.” So go for those meats and desserts–balance is key. And good for you for eating Fiber One–that is something I cannot make myself try just yet. I do agree–avocados are #1 on my list!
Why is it that some restaurants and cafes think their guacamole needs to be extended, smoothed or just made less expensive by adding mayo? Don’t they realize that it tastes awful? qb
Leah~
“Position Statement: It is the position of the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada that appropriately planned *vegetarian* diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and provide health benefits in the *prevention* and *treatment* of certain diseases.”
While moderation is better than excess, in the case of meat, none is best.
“Well-planned vegan and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Vegetarian diets offer a number of nutritional benefits, including lower levels of saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal protein as well as higher levels of carbohydrates, fiber, magnesium, potassium, folate, and antioxidants such as vitamins C and E and phytochemicals. Vegetarians have been reported to have lower body mass indices than nonvegetarians, as well as lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease; vegetarians also show lower blood cholesterol levels; lower blood pressure; and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer.”
http://www.eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada/hs.xsl/advocacy_933_ENU_HTML.htm
b blessed
russ
Mike,
Just be glad Abilene doesn’t have a Krispy Cream.
“Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.” - God, to Noah in Genesis 9:3
I didn’t read anyone on here that said “God told us not to eat meat”, Beaner.
Not everything that God told us we could do is always best for us though for sure. We have to use discretion in all that we do and that includes the things we put into our mouth’s on a daily basis.
Good timing on this post. We just served “Redneck Surf and Turf” for Labor Day lunch yesterday — baby back ribs and grilled shrimp. (Excellent recipe on Alton Brown’s website called “Who loves ya baby back ribs”) The sides were mostly healthy.
Let us know when you are coming to Georgia Mike and we’ll be glad to dine with you.
cheap shot clint.
Chris, I was implying that if God said we could eat meat then it CAN’T be bad for us (unless we slather it in sauces etc.). Is that not true?
Beaner-
I think most all health officials in the US and around the world would say that eating meat the way that most people do in the US is unhealthy. Eating red meat three times a day with no sauce will still likely lead to some sort of heart disease. So no, I don’t that is true. Moderation is the key and we have gone way overboard with the ways we eat meat almost every meal here in the US.
it is so funny how I think you are the only other person besides my mom and sister who like Kudo bars! If they would not make me fat I would try to eat them all the time!
I am still savoring the memory of the Wendy’s frosty I had yesterday.
Today I am back to trying to eat healthy.