offensive meat

[MrGongGong]

See what I mean?

It wasn't just your comment about the cartoons - many of your comments on the recent independence thread had much trhe same tone.

come on Flossie
I'm from Merseyside so the chip on my shoulder is much bigger than yours

Yes, yes , the horrible English, all the woes of the world blah blah zzzzzzzzzzz

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Try watching this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04fhbrt

Real "food" for thought.

It may be time for Alpie to become a vegetarian.

[teamsaint]

Try watching this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04fhbrt

Real "food" for thought.

It may be time for Alpie to become a vegetarian.

EA, it might be easier than you think. I'm not a vegetarian, but i eat very little, in fact almost no meat these days. After around 50 years of meat eating, (and enjoying)i found it amazingly easy to give up on meat . Admittedly I eat a lot of fish, and the smell of bacon is highly tempting, but I pretty much gave up meat eating without any difficulty, and without a strong moral imperative.
I don't really miss it much , either.

Edit: And i get a lot less indgestion these days.

[Richard Tarleton]

Admittedly I eat a lot of fish, and the smell of bacon is highly tempting

A thoughtful, fascinating and nuanced pair of programmes - the first on the effect of meat on you, the second looking at the effect of meat eating on the planet. Bacon (and ham and other processed meats) the villains of the piece as far as your health is concerned

He looked at WHO statistics, compared cattle grazing on open range and on feed lots in Kansas (and on permanent pasture in the western UK), intensive chicken rearing in barns, the effect of growing crops to feed livestock - and came to some interesting conclusions. Some excellent interviews too. Well worth catching up with if you were listening to the Proms....

[Mary Chambers]

EA, it might be easier than you think. I'm not a vegetarian, but i eat very little, in fact almost no meat these days. After around 50 years of meat eating, (and enjoying)i found it amazingly easy to give up on meat . Admittedly I eat a lot of fish, and the smell of bacon is highly tempting, but I pretty much gave up meat eating without any difficulty, and without a strong moral imperative.
I don't really miss it much , either.

.

I'm much the same. I'm not quite sure why I've stopped eating most meat, but I certainly don't miss it. Like most people of my generation I was brought up to think meat was necessary, and a meal without it wasn't really a meal. Fish was acceptable once or twice a week, but vegetarians were considered very eccentric.

I used to go to the butcher with my mother, and was always repelled by the smell, the carcasses, the bloody sawdust on the floor (yes, it was as long ago as that), but never even thought of cutting down on meat until I was in my forties. Now the only red meat I eat is a small amount of high quality minced steak made into a sort of sauce with a high proportion of kidney beans, onions and tomatoes. This serves as a base for several dishes. I freeze a few portions and eat it less often than once a month. Otherwise, fish and pulses provide my protein, and occasional free-range chicken.

I miss sausages and bacon a bit. Pity they appear to be so unhealthy. I don't suppose it matters much if they're only eaten occasionally.

[french frank]

I miss sausages and bacon a bit. Pity they appear to be so unhealthy. I don't suppose it matters much if they're only eaten occasionally.

Same here. I've retreated from being a fruitarian and a vegan to being a near vegetarian with a small amount of meat and fish. But they add variety: otherwise I could easily give them up. I actually enjoyed being a fruitarian with bowls of lots of different fruits for grazing from through the day. But it was a time when I didn't want to have to stop work to get meals. I have vestiges of veganism - soya milk and no butter. But cheese ...

[Barbirollians]

I gave up meat in 1987 and very seldom miss it - although there has been the odd lapse into a bacon sandwich when I have been very fed up !

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I think the only thing I would miss is fish.

[Ferretfancy]

All the biological evidence suggests that as a species we evolved as omnivores, hunting and eating animals when possible, feasting on them and eating plant food in the long interval between successful forays. In other words, our digestive system allows us to eat a wide range of foods, but probably with a smaller proportion of meat compared to today's consumption. This sounds rather like the currently fashionable 5:2 diet.

Vegetarians do need to be more careful in what they choose to eat, in order to supply themselves with the correct proteins in their diet. I don't think that vegetarianism has much basis in our biological history, except as a matter of personal choice, but there are many other factors determining that choice when we look at the economics of meat production.

That's enough ! I feel a bacon buttie coming on !

[Serial_Apologist]

I'm much the same. I'm not quite sure why I've stopped eating most meat, but I certainly don't miss it. Like most people of my generation I was brought up to think meat was necessary, and a meal without it wasn't really a meal. Fish was acceptable once or twice a week, but vegetarians were considered very eccentric.

I used to go to the butcher with my mother, and was always repelled by the smell, the carcasses, the bloody sawdust on the floor (yes, it was as long ago as that), but never even thought of cutting down on meat until I was in my forties. Now the only red meat I eat is a small amount of high quality minced steak made into a sort of sauce with a high proportion of kidney beans, onions and tomatoes. This serves as a base for several dishes. I freeze a few portions and eat it less often than once a month. Otherwise, fish and pulses provide my protein, and occasional free-range chicken.

I miss sausages and bacon a bit. Pity they appear to be so unhealthy. I don't suppose it matters much if they're only eaten occasionally.

For sausages, I find the vegetarian ones in a choice of 2 (I think) flavours, manufactured by the firm started up by the (late) wife of one of the Beatles, in every way as delicious as the best porkies, and of course lacking in any gristle. As a 95% vegetarian (and therefore not a vegetarian at all, they will say) I do however eat fish twice a week: one meal consisting of a tin of sardines/skippers on toast for the benefits from oily fish. Like others my digestion has improved greatly since going over, and in 20 years I have suffered no negative health consequences, as far as I am aware - the heart attack was down to smoking.

[french frank]

I think the only thing I would miss is fish.

But they've even invented a word for you so that you don't have to - pescatorian. As S_A said, the oily varieties of super-good for you.

I think the environmental (and economic - as Ferret mentioned) arguments are as strong as any: using land for grazing and growing crops for animals that have to be fed for at least 2-3 years before providing meat to eat makes less sense than using (probably rather less) land for growing crops directly for humans.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Vegetarians do need to be more careful in what they choose to eat, in order to supply themselves with the correct proteins in their diet.

I don't think that's much of a problem when a good variety of foods are consumed. It's all about the balance between the 8 essential amino acids. Apart from human milk, eggs have the highest biological value in terms of protein balance. Meat is similar to beans and nuts - i.e. a little lower, but still good.

[Ockeghem's Razor]

I am fortunate to have a good independent butcher here (appropriately situated in the Cow Wynd) who provides the names and photographs of the local farmers from whom he sources his meat. I can also buy eggs (chicken and duck) and his finest Irn Bru and sweet chilli sausages. As I am on medication for five chronic complaints, all of them ultimately, like the paths of glory, leading but to the grave, I have taken the decision to enjoy it all while I can.

[Richard Tarleton]

and his finest Irn Bru and sweet chilli sausages.

You can't post a photo can you OR? I'm trying to picture the colour. I hope you're not hastening the inevitable unduly.

As of 1999 [Irn Bru] contained 0.002% of ammonium ferric citrate, sugar, 32 flavouring agents including caffeine and quinine (but not in Australia), and two controversial colourings (Sunset Yellow FCF and Ponceau 4R). On 27 January 2010, A.G. Barr agreed to a Food Standards Agency voluntary ban on these two colourings although no date has been set for their replacement

Made in Falkirk I see. I lived near Dunfermline for 2 years as a youngster and have travelled widely in the Highlands but never sampled Irn Bru

[doversoul1]

I don’t eat very much meat simply because I cannot digest it in any quantity. As my diet consists of a vast quantity of green (and orange) vegetables mostly from my own garden, small amount of good quality meat is the best way to balance the diet. I also have an independent butcher nearby. I like fresh fish but I like to eat it on the day I buy it which limits how often I eat it.

The problem I find with vegetarian diet is that it tends to depend heavily on imported food (where do all those beans and rice come from*?) or highly processed and packaged products. As E-A says, I don’t think there is anything fundamentally wrong in eating meat, but it is a question of balance.

*I grow Borlotti (podding) beans and dry quite a lot of runner beans but I eat them as a vegetable rather than making into a main dish.