I thought of something I wanted to add. Years ago I remember reading of a study done with children who were given unlimited access to various foods. Some of the edibles were high in sugar and fat and others were more healthy.
IIRC at first the children binged on the treats but over time they began to eat a more balanced diet. Sorry I can no longer recall further details.
Seems counter to what we’ve learned now about the addictive qualities of sugar and other food items. But perhaps it takes a long time to develop that stubborn craving for things that are best eaten in moderation.
I like to think that adults who are in touch with body signals will recognize messages regarding when it’s time to eat more protein,
I crave a lot of the wrong foods and have since my childhood. I love pastry, all kinds of pastry. I will eat an entire box of cookies or an entire pie or cake within 24 hours easily if I don’t make a concious efort not to. My grandchildren have seldom been fed any sweets. For them dessert is fruit and yogurt. They seem to have no craving at all for sweets, gramma offered them cookies one day and they were more than happy just to eat one and the one they ate did not disappear all that fast.
I like pastries too! My grandmother baked in her home for people and her kitchen was paradise.
I’ve noticed that the less sugar and white flour I eat the less I crave it. But if I have a day or two of indulgence it triggers the cravings again.
My computer unexpectedly shut down while I was typing my last post. But the point I was making was that when I am eating healthy and listening to my body it seems to tell me what I need to eat. When I’m eating a lot of sugar it just tells me to eat more sugar. Heh.
And on the subject of addictive substances it’s also worth noting that, if you enjoy alcoholic beverages in abundance, eating red meat can put an extra strain on the liver.
Cats are obligate carnivores. They won’t live long without taurine, a very essential amino acid for them. Dry foods that don’t have an animal product as a main ingredient are no good. (The first ingredient in all wet foods is an animal product.)
Also, barbitu8 points out that cats need a nutrient found only in meat; well, so do humans, Vitamin B12, which is only found in animal-derived products (actually produced by bacteria in the gut, but many animals, including humans, can’t absorb it, and either need to eat animal products or their own feces); the daily amount required (2-3 ug) is equivalent to about 200-300 grams of beef, or 4-6 cups of milk (a few grams of beef liver is enough for en entire day). Of course, it is also common in fortified foods and vitamins, but those aren’t natural.
Yeah - I’ll BET you truly wonder about that. :rolleyes:
Given the OP, I chose not to go on about all of the respects in which my wife’s and my diets have evolved to feature primarily vegetable matter, less processed food, and less animal protein, sugar, salt and fat. But we have not (yet) reached the pont where we see fit to post snarky unwarranted comments directed at other folk on message boards.
Had a big old sloppy burger yesterday. Tasted good, but I think I still feel full from it. Wouldn’t be surprised if I do not have meat again until sometime next weekend at the earliest.
We find ourselves concocting more casserole type dishes that contain some meat as well as vegetables and pasta or other carb heavy nutrient. Beef by itself anymore just leaves me with this awful fullness I can’t describe easily.
I’ve always been a big carnivore, but now at 40… I want even more! I’m following a paleo diet and starting to exercise more.
Today I ate a pound of blended beef and pork, and yesterday I had about the same. Tomorrow I’ve got a pork tip roast to cook(perhaps as pulled pork), and the next day will be chicken. I round it out with salads and pico de gallo and other fresh veggies. I eat a lot, but I am down nearly 20 lbs since last november(and I havent been exercising that long).
I’m 53 and I’ve been vegetarian consistently since I was 36. Previously, I had also been vegetarian from the age of 17 to 25. During the interim meat-eating period, I was already tired of red meat (especially beef) before I turned 30 and preferred only chicken until I went vegetarian again. Guess I matured early.
