I wanted to ask. I don't know if it's the right place but since there is no health/medicine section in this forum, I'll ask it here. I realized there is something wrong with me. It's my meat addiction. I never feel satiated without eating meat two or three times a day. My father often gets angry at me for eating so much meat. And when I eat other things like hazelnuts, peanuts and asparagus I almost immediately feel tired after that and get nausea and vomiting. What could be the reason for this? Could I have some sensitivity or allergy to asparagus and hazelnuts? Your help will be greatly appreciated.
Meat is basically good for us. The vegetarian fad is more about ethics and animal rights than it is about nutrition. (Not that I'm opposed to animal rights, I just like things to be presented honestly.)
Homo sapiens is the only species of primate that has evolved into a predator. You can see it in our intestines, our musculature and our body chemistry.
We are incapable of digesting raw cellulose, which is the staple food of all herbivores. Our intestines are much too short to support the bacteria culture necessary for breaking down sturdy plant cells. That's why we call that stuff "roughage." It goes right through.
Gorillas sit around gnawing on leaves and bark, and get a little bit of protein by scarfing up bugs and the occasional hapless small vertebrate. If you try eating that way you'll first lose a lot of weight due to insufficient calories, then come down with something like ricketts due to insufficient protein, and finally (if you live long enough) something like scurvy due to insufficient vitamins and minerals.
Face it dude, you are a carnivore. Welcome to the team. So naturally your taste buds, your teeth and your desires are those of a carnivore. You're not "addicted to meat." You're normal.
Of course you still need a balanced diet since meat doesn't have all the vitamins and minerals you need, but it's a lot easier to balance a carnivorous diet than a vegetarian diet. After mankind invented farming and it became common for people to subsist on grains with only a tiny bit of milk or cheese for the animal protein, the human life expectancy plunged from the low 50s in the Stone Age to the 20s in the Roman Empire.
Those people would have sold their children into slavery for one hamburger. Of course today we know about balancing amino acids and getting vitamins and minerals, but our bodies are still the bodies of hunters.
And you should not overeat on saturated fats, which are common in meat. But as long as you're not gaining weight and storing fat, you've got no problem. The only fats that can harm you without overeating are transfats, and they do not occur naturally; they are only found in highly processed substances like shortening, fast food and convenience food.
Eat all the meat you want (and can afford!), so long as you read up on nutrition and are certain you're getting all the magnesium, potassium, omega-3, vitamins, etc., that you need to be healthy. And make sure you take those in a form you can actually metabolize; many cheap vitamin/mineral supplements pass right through you.
For that matter, try to eat meals you cook, not in a restaurant or (worst of all) a fast food joint. Too much salt, lots of transfatty acids, and not enough vegetables even for a carnivore.
You don't have to eat asparagus but you should get some leafy greens and something with a little color like tomato, bell pepper, eggplant. I love nuts and they're good for you, but only vegans absolutely
require them in their diet because their amino acids balance the amino acids in grains so they get complete proteins to rebuild their bodies. You can live without nuts (and other seeds and beans too) if you want to.
Your great-great-grandchildren may live in a world in which it's socially unacceptable to eat meat, but the technology hasn't been invented yet to grow it in a laboratory. Think of them having to get by with nothing but fruits and vegetables (and maybe eggs and milk) and eat an extra steak for them.
And never forget: CHOCOLATE IS A VEGETABLE.
BTW, we most certainly do have a subforum on Health & Fitness. But you probably won't hear those jocks and health food junkies say stuff like this over there. They're all into pain and deprivation.
