There was a time when I was in my teens when my mother, encouraged by a friend who turned vegetarian, entertained thoughts of turning all of us into vegetarians. She “diluted” meat dishes with vege-meat which we hated. Then, her vegetarian friend started having dental problems. Apparently, the vegetarian regimen was not supplying his body with the right balance of nutrients and his teeth started to weaken. And that marked the end of my mother’s attempt to raise vegetarian children. Thank goodness.
Going vegan or vegetarian, eating only organic food, and eating only raw food are all very much in fashion these days. Some follow their chosen dietary regimen for health reasons; others do it for political or religious reasons. I don’t agree nor disagree with their reasons — every reason has two sides and choosing one is every person’s prerogative — but, for me, food is food. I love food, I love eating, I love meat. I love being at the top of the food chain. And I like it that man developed a brain big enough to allow him to discover and use fire because aside from the occasional sashimi and salad, I prefer to eat cooked food.
Many say that eating is like having sex — it is a sensory experience but there is something emotional and mental about it too. Think about it — some food we remember; others, we forget. Some food we inexplicably long for over and over; others, we’re sorry we ever tried. Personally, I choose food that satisfies me — gastronomically, emotionally, mentally and, yes, financially. And, irrespective of affordability, the thought of having any sex-like experience exclusively with a vegetable, especially raw vegetable, makes me cringe. I like my food to be spiced up and seasoned. I like flavors and I like to experience discernible textures with my eyes and inside my mouth.
Obviously, I will never be a vegan. Nor a vegetarian. Even if that makes me unfashionable. And even if that makes me politically incorrect. For those of you who feel a little strange and, perhaps, a bit guilty in a world that is fast becoming a planet inhabited by raw plant eaters, here’s something interesting. Meat is good for your brain. And I’m not talking about brain food cliches.
Our earliest ancestors ate their food raw — fruit, leaves, maybe some nuts. When they ventured down onto land, they added things like underground tubers, roots and berries.
It wasn’t a very high-calorie diet, so to get the energy you needed, you had to eat a lot and have a big gut to digest it all. But having a big gut has its drawbacks.
“You can’t have a large brain and big guts at the same time,” explains Leslie Aiello, an anthropologist and director of the Wenner-Gren Foundation in New York City, which funds research on evolution. Digestion, she says, was the energy-hog of our primate ancestor’s body. The brain was the poor stepsister who got the leftovers.
Until, that is, we discovered meat.
And that was when the human brain started to grow. You can read the rest of the story at NPR. Very interesting, indeed.
I will never be a vegetarian, too. I love meat although I was already asked by the doctor to stop eating red meat as my kidneys are beginning to be affected by my diabetes. Too bad! But still, I cannot agree that vegetarian is the way to go. Everything should be done in moderation. Even in food we eat.
It reminds me of our discussion in Evolution and natural history. We evolved from plant-eaters to becoming omnivores and indeed it became our advantage.
Going vegetarian is like handicapping yourself or becoming less human, because you exclude your self from all the wonderful dishes, the cooking, dining and culture, which is one of our defining attributes as humans.
Like you, Ma’am, I’ve always been omnivorous, and I plan to stay that way. Ang sarap po kaya ng steak.
Yey to meat eaters!!!
Where is it that I read that men are supposed to be eating vegetables because the way our teeth were shaped. They were intended to pound the food that we eat. Not like those animals’ fangs which were intended to slice or tear the food they are eating.
True or not, personally, I have my own belief. I believe that a man’s body dictates what and how much food does one will have. Maybe this was the one that made man to eat meat eventually.
There is the other thing that I’ve read. That our body metabolism will reject anything we eat that will harm our body. Something like one vomits once he/she has too much alcohol intake. Or we can only eat a certain amount of pork’s fat and we’ll already feel sick beyond that. It follows, of course, that our body metabolism will also accept those food that are good to our body. I take it to mean as eat and eat while you’re enjoying it.
However, there is one condition – we are supposed to eat our food without anything putting us under stress. Just like during the old times. Where people were not being told that eggs should only be eaten only once a week, etc. If we’re under stress when eating our food, our body metabolism will be confused. Those that are bad to our body will be accepted instead of being rejected and vice versa for the good foods.
Me, I like steaks with it’s fat not removed. Then the cow’s and pork intestine, specially in lugaw or barbecued. Or the sinigang/nilaga liempo or bulalo (the bone marrow, ang sarap ihalo sa mainit na kanin). I can even down five or more baluts in one sitting without filling anything bad except enjoying those baluts.
I’m 5′ -10″ tall and my weight has never exceeded 150 pounds. My blood pressure is always normal.
(He he he, mukhang nagsalitang tapos ako…My disclaimer is – different folks, different strokes).
Body weight compared to height aren’t always good indicaters of health imho.
Look at me – I have a bulging belly, I weight 215 lbs, and I’m barely 5’7′.’ Visually speaking, I’m obese.
But I also practice boxing and arnis, I can climb 10 floors at my previous office in less than 3 minutes, and I’ve got fairly decent stamina compared to most blokes; I’m preparing for a couple of 5km runs in the next few months XD.
“Body weight compared to height aren’t always good indicaters of health”
Oh, I agree. It’s just that Western culture insists that there is a “standard” weight range for a particular height. And a body mass ratio. I guess the insistence helps sell a lot of products — from gym memberships to gym equipment to diet pills and diet books.
Sass, I agree with you and I also don’t so much agree with the Body Mass Index to measure the obesity of a person in relation to being healthy.
In my previous comment – “I’m 5? -10? tall and my weight has never exceeded 150 pounds. My blood pressure is always normal.”
What I’m implying is that those high cholesterol food that I’ve mentioned that I’m very fond of eating does not make me obese and does not make my blood pressure to be abnormal.
Oh yes! It is like having sex. I agree 100%.
The body needs protein, a lot of protein. So I had an Indian friend who told me that she gets protein from soy. And you know how soy tastes without salt. For a lifetime? And compare this with a succulent ribeye where you are adding nothing but worcestershire sauce cook to perfection. The aroma is unmistakable, that is why they needed yoga discipline more than ever. And she was already smiling and pinched me. The bad part (I mean good for the world) they invented kamasutra in the process when it could have been easier if they just eat steak.
She was hysterically laughing.
Eh d0d0ng, if we’re going to discuss food and sex, they have their familiarities, and this one is worth reading -
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,598124,00.html
A snippet -
“Some foods just look sexy. Rich colors, suggestive shapes, and sensual textures are likely the reason. Some real lookers include:
Figs – When split open, they bear a striking resemblance to the female anatomy.
Honey – Just the texture itself, let alone the taste, brings to mind all sorts of naughty images.
Ripe fruits – There’s just something about a juicy strawberry, a ripe mango, a bunch of plump grapes, that click the sensuality switch is the brain.”
That’s why maybe, up to now, I’m still thinking that honeymoon is something similar with honeydew, a kind of food.
Honeymoon is pulot-gata in our vernacular…
Haha.
Just consider our local foods like buko (virgin coconut), mani (peanut), tahong (mussels) and talong (eggplant). They are for your taste buds and wild imaginations.
And the saying, “Bahala na kung saging, basta loving” (regardless if eating banana, as long as we love each other).
I am about 90% vegan for 6 months now. 90% because I still eat meat when going to parties or restos (when they don’t have any good veggie dish) or when there is an interesting dish that has meat on it. I love good food that’s why I had weight problem for a long time. What surprised me since I went vegan is that I discovered that vegans and vegetarians love tasty food just as much as the next person. I think it is always a mistake to imitate meat dishes because it could never be a copy of the real thing. Don’t like vege-meat too.
But on their own… they do delight the tastebuds. My current fave now is yellow mung bean with squash, miso and rosemary, believe me I will choose that over a steak without difficulty. It feels good on the stomach afterwards, none of the stuffed feeling. Tonight I will be having chopped romaine lettuce with bleu cheese, edamame, cashews, dried cherries, balsamic vinegar – my mouth is already watering just thinking about it. Okay, bleu cheese is not vegan. Have a hard time doing away with blue cheese – and seafood. I am not really resisting it, I have no problem with settling for an-almost-vegan label =)
Meat eater here too. We love eating vegetables too but I don’t see us being exclusives, hehe.
I don’t think I can be a vegetarian, although I do enjoy eating salads and vegetarian food. Di lang ako OA.
I heard an anecdote years before that if you lack animal protein you’ll go crazy. And then there were examples like Napoleon Bonaparte and some other famous people who went a little over the edge later in their lives. I wonder if its true but since then I vowed I will always have meat in my diet. =)
I tried vegan/vegetarian diets in the past, but they weren’t for me. You might enjoy reading Vilhjalmur Stefansson’s stories and research about the all meat diet he encountered while living with the Eskimos, if you haven’t already.
It is a fact that Eskimos can eat meat for a long time without anything else and yet perfectly healthy.
I think, it is okay to sometimes eat healthy greens and grains alone. Then, go back to your normal meat and veggies again.
Just to be calibrated with the discussion, vegetarians are people who eats vegetables but they can also eat sea foods and eggs (or sometimes meat with the fats removed).
Vegans are those who will eat nothing except vegetables.
Actually vegetarians eat a plant and grain based diet with the addition of dairy, pescatarians eat the same with the addition of seafood. Those who eat this plus meat with the fat removed are just eating a regular omnivorous diet with some fat removed.
Vegan is great! Oh sorry… Vigan pala.. wrong vowel for the right longanisa.
Well-written article, as always, Ms. Connie
Re food, anything gustatory I will try. Especially when I’m hungry lol. When I am in other countries I take the opportunity to partake of their cuisine
One of the best ways to get introduced to a culture is through the cuisine.
does that mean that if i want to be smarter, i should eat more meat?
my mom and three sisters have pesco- vegetarian diet just because they can’t take the smell of pork, beef and chicken ( those are the only meat we eat in our house other than fish and other seafoods) and they all have better health than the rest of us in the house who love eating those meats. can’t tell the same though for the others with the same diet.
re vegan: i met a guy who’s vegan and i think his diet is not fun. he can’t even eat vegetable salad here ’cause they normally put yogurt for salad dressing
still, i think a fruitarian diet is worst 