Give up meat

Kristi Whitley

Healthy Living

Why Give Up Meat?

Hopefully your New Year's resolution includes getting healthy. Yes, but why should that mean giving up meat, you ask? Here are my favorite reasons.

1-Save money. A pound of ground beef costs $4. A pound of beans cooked from dried costs less than $.80.

2-Lower blood cholesterol. Vegetables contain 0g cholesterol.

3-Increase fiber consumption. Vegetables contain soluble and insoluble fiber to reduce blood cholesterol, balance hormones, decrease toxicity, eliminate constipation. Animal flesh contains 0g fiber.

4-Cleaner and safer kitchen. Ecoli and Salmonella are the major causes of food poisoning. They are animal-borne microbes. Vegetables only contain these when handled by contaminated humans.

5-Lose weight. See calorie counts below.

6-Improve gut microbiome. Vegetables contain probiotics from the soil and prebiotics in their fiber.

7-Reduce cancer risk. Grilled meat is the #1 cancer CAUSING food.

Here's how meat and beans compare nutritionally.

*Ground Beef                               Beans (Black) (per 8 oz serv.)

Calories                             354                                    227

Protein                               44g                                    15g

Fiber 0g                                    15g

Fat (saturated)                    7g 0g

Omega 3 69mg 181mg

Cholesterol 137mg (46% DV) 0g

Thiamine 4% DV 28% Daily Value (based on a 2,000 cal diet)

Niacin                               52% DV 4% DV

Vitamin B12 70% DV   0% DV

Vitamin B6 33% DV 6% DV

Folate 3% DV     64% DV

Calcium                              2% DV 5% DV

Potassium 19% DV 17% DV

Iron 26% DV 20% DV

Magnesium 10% DV 30% DV

Zinc 70% DV 13% DV

Selenium 47% DV 3% DV

*Ground beef = 90% lean, cooked from 8oz of meat

If your New Year’s resolution is to lose weight and get cholesterol under control, beans are the clear choice here! If you have a meat-tooth you may say “Aha, look at the difference in protein content!” Consider that a 120 lb woman only needs around 30g of protein per DAY. Excess protein consumption causes kidney stones, kidney damage, and excess weight.

EVERY single person I talk to about giving up meat says, “I don’t eat much meat.” When I talk about meat, I am referring to every kind of animal flesh including fish, chicken and eggs. The cholesterol content of all animal flesh is the same per calorie, meaning, 100 calories of fish has the same cholesterol as 100 calories of steak.

Meat contains 0 fiber. Optimal fiber intake is 30g per day. Although very filling, meat provides 0g of fiber. Filling up on meat prevents the intake of adequate fiber. That is why America is a nation of constipation.

When I started my meatless journey, I used substitutes. Most are made from vital wheat gluten which presents it’s own set of health problems like leaky gut, irritable bowel and inflammation of all kinds. Now I use them only on special occasions. Some of the ones made from gluten are Morning Star Farms Veggie Crumbles ground meat substitute, sausages, hotdogs and bacon. Some of their veggie burgers have it too. Another name for the glutinous soy mixture used to resemble ground meat is TVP, which stands for Textured Vegetable Protein. Its main ingredients are soy and gluten.

A better substitute for ground beef is crumbled Fakin Bacon made from tempeh, which is a whole food, fermented soy product. Fakin Bacon is great on veggie pizza or sandwiches. You could add barbecue sauce to it for a barbecue sandwich too.

You will find plain tempeh on the shelf next to the Fakin Bacon. It is flavorless and substitutes for white-meat chicken in any recipe or sandwich. I make a delicious “chicken” noodle soup with it. Slice it thin and put it on a sandwich right out of the package. It is the absolute healthiest form of soy. It is whole beans and fermented, providing protein, fiber, calcium, prebiotics, and probiotics. Tempeh will take on the flavor of whatever you add to it. For example, if you like mayo and mustard on your turkey sandwich the tempeh will give you the texture of turkey and the mayo and mustard will provide the flavor.

I use lentils in the place of ground beef in my soups, chili, spaghetti and lasagna. They are the healthiest substitute and, by far, the least expensive.

Another soy-free meat substitute is jackfruit. Which, as the name states, is a starchy Asian fruit. It comes in cans and when drained and shredded apart resembles shredded chicken. Add some barbecue sauce for a sandwich, or taco seasonings for chicken tacos. You cannot tell the difference. Jackfruit has about 56% less calories than meat, 3g fiber and 0 grams of fat!

Eliminating meat in recipes often leaves them without the flavor we associate with “heartiness” in foods. A way to add some heartiness flavor back into food is with smoked spices such as smoked paprika and smoked salt and/or the woodsy flavor of mushrooms. My favorite and most often used meatless ingredient is mushrooms. They add nutrition, texture, and smoky woodsy flavor to chili, tacos, soups of all kinds, my Mexican bowls, lasagna, and spaghetti. I like white or brown buttons, shiitake, porcini, portabella, morel, oyster and whatever I can find! I keep dried mushrooms on hand and crumble them right into soups and stews. They have the most flavor and are a great pantry staple. Dried mushrooms are cheapest at Asian markets. No matter the cost, they are a great value because of the convenience and the fact that you aren’t paying for water.

Remember: eating 0 meat or animal products means we MUST supplement vitamin B12. It is cheap and available in many convenient and easy-to-take forms. The only vegetable source of B12 is sea vegetables and the B12 in them has a low absorption rate.