Really enjoyed looking at the "healthy plate" and can agree with you, I have trouble maintaining my iron levels as I don't eat red meat, not because I'm vegetarian but purely because I don't like the taste. My doctor have advised me to get my iron from veg, spinach, kale, to be honest there as quite a few things that have iron if you look. Also I don't agree with the plates carb-y section, surly to loose weight you need to be cutting back on carbs, well I know I do.
I think it's very possible to follow this food plate, and still end up with a very unhealthy diet, so I know what you mean. I'm not a fan either.
I'm pretty sure I heard a doctor on the radio recently saying spinach isn't a great source of iron, because although it has a high iron content, it also has some other compound that means you don't absorb the iron? Might need to look into it. But there are other non-red-meat sources you can use instead.
We regularly see a dietician in the Coeliac clinic and as we don't eat fortified cereals or red meat, I explained our iron mainly comes from spinach and kale, which is a tad healthier.
A lot of what this “dietician” was saying made me sit there biting my lip.
I’m not really any good at speaking out in a group.
One of the members of the group mentioned refined sugar and then I had to blurt something out so I said to this person “Well done for not eating so much refined sugar now as it is bad for you”.
The dietician disagreed with me.
If I had more time at the group I would have explained my background and experience with refined sugar. I wonder what the dietician would have said then.
Well done for saying something as I'm sure others would agree and I'm the same I wouldn't speak out in a crowd. I had the same thing with my son. I had really drummed into him about making healthy choices and I told the rheumatologist this. To let him know we were doing everything our end to make him better and he laughed out loud and told my son to ignore me and eat whatever he wants as it will make no difference to his health! Luckily my son knows sugar makes his situation worse.
The rheumatologist laughed out loud at what you said!
God it makes me angry to hear how some “professionals” can be so uneducated.
It’s kind of like with my brother in some ways. All my life I have seen him as the smart one as he is much more educated than me but some of the things he has done makes me think that he is so smart at being dumb.
Just like with these “professionals”.
What they have learnt is etched into there brains for years and when they hear otherwise they say it’s wrong info.
I'm going to 'Throw A Spanner', in your Works a bit here...Please don't Bite too hard but....What Is wrong with the Meat? We are, by our very Nature, Omnivores- meaning that we CAN eat Both Meat, and Vegetables. If you had a Car that could Run On either Gas, or Petrol, and you only used Petrol aren't you Missing Out.
All that said I DO Understand the Vegetarian/ Vegan position, all to well, but I DON'T happen to agree particularly Personally. We all make choices, and live with/ by them and I have done so. Do I 'Like' animals, YES of course I do, Do I Mean Them Harm, again No I don't, Do I consider killing Animals- that have been Raised as Food- Wrong? So long as they are Ethically, and Painlessly, Killed then NO. I Object, VERY strongly, to animal cruelty, and that DOES included Barbaric Murdering of animals. (Incidentally the 'Ha Hal' method, employed by Muslims, is NOT Barbaric....If carried out Correctly- a Clean cut, to the neck, of an inverted animal.)
I hope that I have set the Record Straight, without offending anyone. I apologise if I have 'Upset' you, it wasn't my intention- maybe we are just on Opposite Sides, of the Meat Eating Debate.
I wouldn’t really say you threw a spanner in the works at all, you just voiced your opinion.
What is wrong with meat?
To put it bluntly, they lead to diseases. That’s one of the reasons why people fo vegan or veggie.
I’m not completely vegan or veggie but consider myself more of a rubbish vegan or a flexitarian that leans to much more plant based foods cos it is much better for your health.
Yes, we are by nature omnivores and we can eat meat and we can eat plants also but the question is, do we really want to be eating meat?
Our teeth shows that we are omnivores and if you look at the teeth of some animals like apes and chimps and so on they have teeth similar to us but these animals stick to a plant based diet as well as insects.
As for the car theory you mentioned, if I had a car that ran on both gas and petrol and I only used petrol, wouldn’t I be missing out?.... On what?... as long as the car got me from A to B that is all that really matters.
Like with the teeth thing, we are omnivores, we can eat both meat or veg but we decided to just eat veg. Wouldn’t we be missing out on meat? Not really, not when I know that eating more plants over meat make me look and feel much more healthier.
So you consider animals being raised as food as wrong ONLY if they were ethically and painlessly killed.
It doesn’t really matter if the animal was raised to be brutally killed for food or if it was ethically and painlessly killed, at the end of the day, the animal has been killed.
It’s like ordering meat off the menu at a restaurant but before the order was made you ask the waiter if the animal was killed ethically and painlessly. They tell you that the animal was killed ethically and painlessly but really the animal could have had a bullet put in it’s head for all you really know.
There is so much in the world that goes on behind closed doors that nobody has really got a clue about. You can ask these things but it doesn’t mean your going to get given the truth.
You have not upset me or offended me in any way and thank you for your kind words :).
I know a what I have said makes me sound like I am vegan but as I say I am not but I understand veganism so much more now. I’m probably considered a hypocrite for contributing to the ethical killing and brutal killing of animals.
Yes basically, you right about me except I said' that I wanted the Animals 'Humanely' Killed and NOT butchered.
Perhaps it's just me...but I'm afraid that I DON'T view 'Livestock' as Pets, they are Food. That Doesn't however mean that I want them to Suffer unduly either. I guess what I'm trying to say, VERY badly mind you, is that I'm NOT a Monster....but I AM a Meat Eater.
I know you would want the animals to be killed humanely and not butchered, I was not trying to say you want them butchered.
Sorry if I confused you.
“Livestock”, if you want to call them that, are not pets and should not be pets but should be able to live freely just like any other wild animal.
We only see them as livestock because that is what we have been told when growing up. When humanity first roamed the earth, whose decision was it to go and eat “livestock”? And saying that, why don’t we eat tigers, otters, beluga whales and so on?
I’m not a monster either but I am a hypocrite.
I understand veganism because it is a healthier option and that is why I eat more plants over meat.
Meats and processed foods laced with chemicals and additives just is not good for your health in my experience.
Actually, spinach doesn't have as much iron in it as you think so you are wrong.
The healthy eating plate is a guide to how much of what you should eat on a daily basis, it's actually the guide that personal trainers are taught to use in the UK.
Look into the myth about spinach and iron and please do some research before you post things onto here, just to make sure you are getting it right.
I’m not saying what I said is correct either but I would rather believe what I said, what I RESEARCHED, rather than follow the advice of a “professional”.
I am fully aware that there is less iron in a handful of spinach than there is in a T-bone steak for example.
You probably would have to eat quite a few handfuls of spinach (or other veg) to equal the amount of iron in red meat .
I would rather eat the veg than the meat as the veg is healthier.
As Dr. Milton Mills will say “The biggest, strongest animals on earth are herbivores”.
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