Have your steak and eat it to. Just not so damn much of it.
Mark Bittman doesn’t care why you want to cut down on meat. He just wants to show you how to do it.
In a recent New York Times article, Bittman offers some very practical suggestions for cutting down on meat. One suggestion in particular is worth emphasizing:
Buy more vegetables, and learn new ways to cook them. Cutting down on meat does not HAVE to be an effort or a chore. Learn how to make vegetables yummy and you will enjoy making them the centre of your meal.
Don’t know how to cook veggies? Mark’s article has a few recipes to get you started. Though they are not vegetarian, his recipes illustrate that you meat alone does not make a complete meal. And if that’s not enough, go to a recipe site like Recipezaar or Allrecipes and punch in whatever vegetable you want to cook with. Or let the veggie blogs inspire you.
Mark’s article has a few other useful tips: simply buy less meat, prepare beans and grains ahead of time so they’re easy to prepare, and start looking at the veggie options at restaurants. He also stresses that you don’t have to panic about protein. How will you get enough?
The answer is “by being omnivorous.” Plants have protein, too; in fact, per calorie, many plants have more protein than meat. (For example, a cheeseburger contains 14.57 grams of protein in 286 calories, or about .05 grams of protein per calorie; a serving of spinach has 2.97 grams of protein in 23 calories, or .12 grams of protein per calorie; lentils have .07 grams per calorie.) By eating a variety, you can get all essential amino acids.
You also don’t have to eat the national average of a half-pound of meat a day to get enough protein. On average, Americans eat about twice as much as the 56 grams of daily protein recommended by the United States Department of Agriculture (a guideline that some nutritionists think is too high). For anyone eating a well-balanced diet, protein is probably not an issue.
If you are trying to put on muscle, though, you will need to eat a lot more than 56 grams of protein per day. You want to eat as many grams of protein per day as your body weight in pounds; so if you weigh 160 pounds you will need to consume around 160 grams of protein per day to put on muscle mass. Of course, this is in addition to your other nutritional needs as well as a solid workout regimen.
I keep hearing conflicting things about protein as well–that we’re either getting too much, or particularly for carb-loving women, not enough.
I agree that the best approach is to eat mostly whole foods and get a lot of variety. I do eat meat, but like you suggest, not huge amounts of it. I do find that if I’m not conscious about getting at least some protein at every meal I’m hungry much quicker, so I’ve learned to always balance.
Well aside from this article by Mark Bittman in debate there is always the protein debate.
As far as Mark’s advice, his article was good but you have got to check out his TED.com video it is even better. Being a vegetarian, I was glad to see that someone who is not necessarily a vegetarian is promoting less meat, if not avoiding it all together. You can check out the video on TED.com or the direct link and my comments on it are here:http://evolvingwellness.com/posts/145/ecological-and-health-impacts-of-our-modern-diet/
As for the protein debate, I just will never understand why all these people who want to build muscle like crazy (for whatever reason) do not actually get their protein dosage straight from a credible medical professional, instead of hear say from one supplement, gym or muscle builder to another.
Large amounts of protein harm your body, they are hard to digest, and need to be deaminated by the liver, not to mention what your kidneys need to go through. That is just for starters. If you want bigger muscles, do the proper exercises and eat a proper, natural and wholesome diet. Not one that is infused with protein. People really need to get to know their 20 amino acids first and how our bodies work before they attempt to be healthy and fit. Unfortunately today’s protein supplement industry doesn’t want you to see it that way.
And check out some of the leanest and muscular animals out there – who are herbivores for clues…
I’m with Evita and Crabby on this one, but then again, I’m not looking to get HUGE. I used to do the high-protein thing when I was lifting weights, but it got too expensive and made me insane, so I stopped with the supplements and egg whites and just stuck to a well-rounded diet of whole foods and lots and lots of vegetables. I feel fine and I’m not wasting away. I think I’ve actually put on muscle since then (I thank swimming for this).
I don’t eat a whole lot of meat anymore, I just eat it now and then. I do drink a lot of milk though, and some nuts so I think I get enough protein.