Is Meat Wrong? I'm Starting To Feel That Maybe It Is

[Diabeticliberty]

I accept that this is rather an emotive question to ask anybody. The thing is though my wife stopped eating meat about 20 years ago. At the time, partly out of fear for her wellbeing and partly out of ignorance I gave her quite a hard time about the issue. She stopped after watching a documentary on BBC 2 detailing some pretty horrific treatment to farm animals that turned her right off meat. During our last few years together before we split whenever we went out for food I invariably found that I would order steak, lamb or chicken and she would order fish or a full vegetarian option. I also invariably found that I would look at the contents of her plate and always felt it looked far more appealing than what was on mine. I now find myself spending increasing amounts of my spare time wandering through farm land on route to a particular piece of water to catch a salmon or some sea trout. I also meet lots of farm animals and am finding myself more and more at odds with the concept of eating them. This may sound a bit airy fairy but it is increasingly becoming an issue for me. I would hasten to add that my wife was also diabetic and did not appear to suffer any major ill effect to her condition from not eating meat. She was however not type 1. If I do actually adopt the stance to not eat meat it will be on purely ethical grounds. The thing is though I don't know if I'm strong enough. Any type 1 veggies out there who can offer me a leg up in terns of advice would meet with my eternal gratitude.​

 

[AJLang]

I stopped eating meat 18 months ago for ethical reasons and it was the best decision I made. Mark was also "encouraged" to stop eating meat the same time🙂 The original plan was for us to stop eating meat at least three times a week but almost straightaway we stopped eating it at all...however with the caveat that there will be the occasional meal when Mark would prefer meat, particularly chorizo, when we will both eat it. I'm more than happy for him to have the meat option when we go out but at least half the time he will have a veggie or fish option. It hasn't had any negative effect on our health and I feel much better for us doing it. Plus, I often now find that the veggie and fish options are much nicer.

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Having lived and worked on farms for many years I can assure you the majority of farm animals are treated very well. Very simply if the animals were not looked after then they would not thrive thus no profit for the farmer. If no one ate meat then no one would keep livestock what a very poor world we would live in.

 

[Diabeticliberty]

My main concern is the fact that I am restricting my options as to what I eat to the point that I get bored in 3 months and cannot stick to it. I think however that I do feel it's worth giving it a punt. I am less and less comfortable with animals being raised and slaughtered to fill my plate. I no longer eat meat in my curry dishes, instead electing king prawns and salmon and I must confess I have always been a real curry pig but now enjoy them much more as the removal of meat from them makes them far lighter and easier to digest.

 

[Diabeticliberty]

Having lived and worked on farms for many years I can assure you the majority of farm animals are treated very well. Very simply if the animals were not looked after then they would not thrive thus no profit for the farmer. If no one ate meat then no one would keep livestock what a very poor world we would live in.

I am of course very mindful of the excellent point you make. I personally know a few farmers and their animals are treated like family to them for the most part. The thing is though more and more meat is starting to feel wrong to me.

 

[AJLang]

The way that I approached it was to explore different meal options and I could change easily. For example, as you said, it's easy to have prawns in curry rather than meat. We've tested different veggie burgers and decided that we like the Linda McCartney burgers. Jamie Oliver has a wonderful Italian dish with tomatoes and aubergines layered with mozzarella and topped with parmesan and bread crumbs. Too much for us in one meal so we make it last two nights. Ditto with Spanish tortilla or risotto (with mushrooms one night and peas/asparagus the next night). We love Quorn fajita strips for fajitas or enchiladas. Quorn mince in chilli (yummy topped with sour cream and guacamole), shepherds pie, lasagne and spag bolognaise. Fish pie with prawns, mussels and scallops....now I'm feeling very hungry🙂

 

[AJLang]

Stuffed plaice (from Tesco) with petits pois and potato dauphoinois, Seabass with honey mustard dressing, Hasselback potatoes and roasted asparagus, stir fry...and the list continues

 

[Diabeticliberty]

Amanda pack it in please you are making me really hungry 🙂

 

[AJLang]

Ha ha and I'm the one on the diet

 

[Copepod]

Personally, I choose not to eat meat more than once or twice a week, mainly on environmental grounds - it's more efficient in land and water use for humans to eat meat instead of feeding crops to animals and then eating the animals. However, some land eg hills / uplands can only raise sheep, not crops. I also try to consider environmental issues eg sustainable marine fish, molluscs and crustaceans - rope farmed mussels are probably the most sustainable protein in / around UK. I'm relunctant to completely give up eating meat / fish, as I've seen friends who have been veggie for years really suffering when they ate meat on expeditions in Greenland and Costa Rica, to fit in with local community - their gut flora had completely changed and was unable to cope. When I kept ducks for many years, we killed and ate surplus males, and used their down to refill sleeping bags and jackets. Nothing was wasted. Never mind food miles, not even food metres - they were dispatched just outside back door. I try to consider Fair Trade and workers' rights, too - relevant with eg prawn farming in South East Asia.

 

[Diabeticliberty]

Pod if we are ever on a passenger liner that gets struck by an iceberg please remind me to jump in your lifeboat.

 

[Marsbartoastie]

Given how you feel I'd say go for it. There's no reason to eat meat if it makes you unhappy.

 

[Diabeticliberty]

Given how you feel I'd say go for it. There's no reason to eat meat if it makes you unhappy.

I have given up drinking more times in my life than I can remember. I have given up indulging in some of my more unsavoury habits. Going out on 2 day benders and stuff. The trouble I have is that I'm intrinsically weak. I am very easily lead and if nobody takes the lead then am fairly comfortable taking the lead myself. I am going to make this work in progress I think 🙂.

 

[KookyCat]

I was vegetarian for 25 years, I had to start eating meat because of a B12 issue (I was having injections and taking supplements and had to eat as much as possible). Veggie again now (mostly) and I have no problem with variety at all. I make all my food from scratch, but I've never been a meat fan so I don't really eat like most folk. I became vegetarian because of ethical reasons, by which I still stand. It has no impact on my blood sugar at all, in fact my hba1c is 42 so I'd say it serves me well 🙂. I have no problem with people eating meat, but I don't need meat, I don't especially like it, and it's not the rearing I have issues with, it's commercial slaughter. If I were to eat meat I'd buy direct from the farm, just like I'd do with the copious amounts of veg I eat.

 

[Diabeticliberty]

I thought that farmers were no longer allowed to kill their own sheep,and cattle? I believe the legislation governing this was changed in fairly recent years. I am not completely sure so could be wrong but I think farmers now have to use commercial abattoirs. Some of the video footage around is pretty horrific in fairness. I am certainly leaning towards the thought of it.

 

[Copepod]

Pod if we are ever on a passenger liner that gets struck by an iceberg please remind me to jump in your lifeboat.

I ate seal once, having seen it shot by one of the crew of the boat taking us from base camp to airfield in East Greenland. Very humane kill - one minute it was swimming, next it was dead and body was hooked and pulled aboard.

 

[Marsbartoastie]

I have given up drinking more times in my life than I can remember. I have given up indulging in some of my more unsavoury habits. Going out on 2 day benders and stuff. The trouble I have is that I'm intrinsically weak. I am very easily lead and if nobody takes the lead then am fairly comfortable taking the lead myself. I am going to make this work in progress I think 🙂.

Sounds like a good plan.

 

[Matt Cycle]

I've been vegetarian now for about 25 years - meat and fish i.e. anything with a face, and four of those years I was vegan. (Had to compromise when I met Mrs C who was veggie and went back to being just vegetarian). This has been for purely ethical reasons and I still stand by my choice. I think only you can make the choice by researching it and coming to a decision based on your own conscience. In my younger more radical days I would probably have been more vocal about it but now I think it's up to each person to make the decision.

It's not really that much of a niche market anymore and there's usually a number of options when eating out (depending on where you go) and we make loads of things at home but of course you can get veggie ready meals or veggie equivalents as well. Can't say I've noticed it has done me any harm physically.

 

[Radders]

I've been veggie for longer than I've had diabetes and it has not caused me any health problems. I don't remember ever feeling tempted to eat meat but if I was, then as it's completely my choice, then I suppose I would!
My initial reasons were ethical (animal rights) then evolved over time to a similar viewpoint as Copepod, but now I really just find the whole idea of eating flesh very alien to me. I don't have a problem with others eating it. My digestive system definitely seemed to work better without meat.
My husband is not veggie and we share the cooking so he has decided to eat veggie with me most of the time. As a result we do eat quite a lot of quorn based meals. On my own I would rather use nuts and pulses more but he's not that keen.
It can be restrictive when eating out, since going lower carb, but I think if I ate fish I wouldn't have a problem.

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

I haven't eaten meat for 35 years, though I do eat fish, because otherwise I just wouldn't get enough protein. That's the only thing I'd warn you about as far as health is concerned - it's not good for you to give up meat if you're not going to replace it with alternative sources of protein, making sure you get all the amino acids/vitamins/minerals etc you should get, so you'd need to research it properly.

Also - if you're giving up meat because you don't like the idea of killing animals, will you also give up wearing leather shoes, belts, etc? I don't wear any leather, but some veggies do. On the other hand I do eat non-veggie cheese (which contains animal rennet) and most veggies don't (I do because R is buying it anyway and I eat so little it would be silly to buy veggie cheese just for me). So there are all sorts of things to think about rather than just not eating meat.

I gave up meat because I disapproved of big factory farms, and there just weren't a lot of alternatives back in the early 80s. Now that organic meat is widely available, I'd be willing to eat that (also things like roadkill) if it weren't for the issue Copepod mentions about gut flora etc - am now sure how well my body would cope with going back to meat now. I don't have a problem with other people eating meat, so long as they don't flaunt it at me. R eats meat 2 or 3 times a week, and we manage fine (he does the cooking though! And the washing up!).