When you kill a beast say to him in your heart, "By the same power that slays you, I too am slain; and I too shall be consumed. For the law that delivered you into my hand shall deliver me into a mightier hand. Your blood and my blood is naught but the sap that feeds the tree of heaven"....Khalil Gibran
Of course we know that the majority of people out there that eat meat have never experienced the slaying of what they consume. It can for the most part really change the way you look at it. But we will not get into the Hippocratic portion of this topic.
I will always start by saying I am not a certified dietitian. My writings are simply from my experience. And I am trying to be a short and sweet as possible, without making it into a book, which in detail it could be.
For the average person, the approximate nutrient composition of the human body, based on the "Nutritional Almanac", is 55% water, 20% protein, 15% fat, 2% carbohydrate, 5% mineral, and 1% fractions of vitamins. Pretty interesting, huh?
It basically goes like this; Easiest assimilated protein is whey. Unfortunately, it is extremely hard to find a CLEAN whey. Flavoring, coloring, emulsifiers, artificial sweeteners, pretty much dirties the protein up. And if it WAS clean, not too many people would enjoy sucking it down like they do. Next is eggs, with or without yolks. Here again, you have companies making "convenient" egg whites you can buy by the gallon in different flavors, which personally, I think is a joke. Then comes sea foods. Next pork and chicken. Last, yup, last is red meat.
Why is it a lot of nutritional information is anti red meat? Well, "in my opinion" it is the way it is being eaten....oh...excuse me, shall I say enjoyed. From my experience, good, clean red meat is an exceptional way to get the protein, and MANY other nutrients into the body. From what I see on the nutritional part, red meat has more minerals than the other proteins, including iron. So, if you are just eating read meat with, say, potatoes (most peoples favorite), or as a hamburger, you are not getting the enzymes needed to process the red meat into the system.
THIS is why I first wrote about greens! If red meat is consumed with all the dark leafy greens I mentioned in my previous blog, the enzymes will do their job and help the meat assimilate into the system. It also naturally contains Creatine. There are so many different types of red meat. Beef, Bison, Deer, Elk, Moose, Ostrich, Emu, Kangaroo. All have the same basic nutritional benefits, though they do vary in amounts, say lean meat vs. fat ratio, mineral content, especially in the phosphorous amounts (Which I will discuss in a later blog that is hugely important)
Interestingly, red meat seems to be controversial, in my opinion, because it is so complex, with the most massive amount of other nutrients besides being a protein. And for MY lifestyle, I only eat between 4 to 6 oz. once a day, for breakfast, with my fresh juiced, nasty, bitter glass of greens (Drink the juice first, of course).
And the elephant in the room is always about the cleanliness of meats. Yes, it is extremely important on all killed proteins to know as much as you can about where your protein comes from (I am so sure no one ever wonders where their whey comes from, or how it is manufactured) Yes, organic is more expensive. But if you are eating the right portions based on your lifestyle, it really is not going to put that big of a hole in your pocket vs., say.....illness later down the road which will cost a LOT more.
I will address seafood, for it too can be controversial. If it is FARMED, it is DANGEROUS! No such thing as safe farmed seafood. I see posts on FB, or over hearing someone talking about various seafood that is farmed and it makes me cringe. I do have the advantage of being married to a commercial fisherman, therefore I know a LOT when it comes to that topic. But I have mentioned the dangers to some, and frankly they just don't care. Short term, vs. long term is all I will say.
I am aware that we are all different. The way we process nutrition has to do with everything from genetics, what we were fed from the time we are babies, city life vs. farm life, physical fitness backgrounds, all play a huge roll in how our bodies react to different foods. Unfortunately now, where our food comes from and how it is processed almost plays a bigger role, even if it is packaged organic. Between e-coli, and salmonella, and gawsh knows what else, we gamble every single time we eat something that we didn't grow or kill ourselves.
I do not judge or have an opinion either way when it comes to people that prefer vegetarian protein consumption. However, as humans, we NEED balanced proteins in order to be healthy and survive. If you have an athletic life, protein is even more essential to sustain healthy muscle. In order to attain a supreme athletic body as a vegetarian, one has to study, and through trial and error find a way to get a complete amino acid balance, which there really is no one plant based food combo that contains a condensed amount, so it would take a lot of volume to achieve. And with volume, comes calories, as well as inflammatory foods. I know this, for I tried it back in my early years. No, it didn't last long.
I am curious, when it comes to the topic of cancer, and how much is written about red meat proteins being the cause, how many of those people consumed their proteins with a sufficient amount of greens? It could possibly be an interesting study. I do know for myself, it has worked for me..........so far.
I hope this helps anyone with the curiosity and respect for the one body we are given.