You should eat your way to good health, especially with some meat

By FRANK WATSON

Contributor

I read an article in a medical journal the other day that said people who eat faux-burgers made from peas or beans eat 12 percent fewer calories at their next meal. I was astonished. Have you ever eaten that stuff? A couple veggie burgers can ruin your appetite for days.

I studied at a Seventh Day Adventist School in Spain one semester. The Adventists are vegetarians and had a plant on campus that made imitation beef patties, weenies and chicken nuggets. I could never figure out why they had to disguise these meals as meat until I ate a few. They tried to make it pleasing to the eye because they sure aren’t pleasing to the palate. I soon joined some young Adventist students who ate off campus every chance they got.

My granddaughter went through a vegetarian phase when she went off to college. She was fairly strict about it until she was hungry. Then she would relapse into bacon burgers and fried onion rings.

I grew up on a small dirt farm. We were too poor to be finicky about what we ate. We raised our own beef, poultry and pork. I can testify that we used every part of the hog except the squeal.

We also ate game meat that would cause most modern affluent folks to turn up their noses. In addition to rabbit and quail, we were fond of squirrel and found that raccoon made better dumplings than some of our old hens. We weren’t picky.

If we brought it home, Grandma cooked it, and we ate it. We supplemented our red meat diet with fish. Carp was plentiful, and I grew fat on them until I found out they weren’t good to eat.

I understand some city dwellers are shocked to discover that meat isn’t manufactured in the backroom of the supermarket. I sympathize with those who get squeamish because their breakfast used to grunt and say oink. I reject the theory, however, that claims red meat is less healthy then an all celery diet.

Both my grandparents relished the lump of fat in canned pork and beans. Lard sandwiches were fine and dandy, especially if you added a few cracklings. Grandpa died of emphysema shortly before he turned 900. Grandma outlived him by almost 10 years.

Historians tell us that American soldiers in the Revolutionary War averaged three inches taller than their British counterparts because the Americans grew up eating meat. The Japanese have only recently added red meat to their regular diet, and the current generation is almost a head taller than the older folks who were raised on raw fish and tofu.

The Japanese also have a traditional holiday favorite called mochi. It looks like a hockey puck and was used as mortar to build the Great Wall of China. The Japanese newspapers keep track of the number of people who choke to death on the stuff during New Year’s celebrations. When possible, modern Japanese eat beef with a little sugar added.

I have come to the conclusion that the advantages of a vegetarian diet are more politically correct than actual. No one who was raised on a farm or has been hungry for any length of time would intentionally avoid meat.

I salute the ranchers and farmers who provide me with my breakfast. Pass the bacon. I recommend the veal parmesan for lunch.

Frank Watson is a retired Air Force Colonel and long-time resident of Eastern Washington. He has been a free-lance columnist for over 19 years.