Enjoy Meat—Sparingly
The quick answer: In the end, our care of animals will say everything about what kind of humans we have become.
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The Devil’s Herd
I love the old West . . . the ranches and barns . . . cattle in the fields . . . the smell of the tackroom . . . even the aroma of corrals . . . all those cowboy values and traditions. My late Uncle Fred was as good a cowboy as you might meet. He cussed a little and got to church late but was good to the core. The picture above is his daughter Peggy—who I got in plenty of mischief with as a child—sitting pretty on a handsome cutting horse.
I love western music too. A favorite song is Johnny Cash singing Ghost Riders in the Sky. The song, I think, could be a warning for the exploitation of animals by the food corporations. It tells of a group of ghost cowboys who had fallen short in their lives and were doomed to endlessly ride the skies, chasing the devil’s stampeding herd. It closes with this cowboy call to repentance (it helps if you sing):
As the riders loped on by him he heard one call his name
If you want to save your soul from Hell a-riding on our range
Then cowboy change your ways today or with us you will ride
Trying to catch the Devil's herd, across these endless skies
The good Lord gave man dominion over the animals but with that power came a duty of care. This post is a call to reconsider our relationship with the animals of the world, lest we too wind up chasing the devil’s herd. Yippie yi yaaaaay.
Fanny Farmer
Fanny Farmer (1837-1915) was a remarkable American woman. At age 16 she suffered a crippling stroke, sometimes had to use a wheelchair, but gained fame and comfortable wealth by writing the Fanny Farmer 1896 Cook Book, a bestseller still in print. Ms. Farmer introduced careful measurement (tsp, tbsp, cup) to recipes. She also taught diet at Harvard Medical School and was director of the Boston Cooking School.
So Ms. Farmer can be considered a guide to proper dining in the early 1900s. Her cookbook provided a month of dinner recipes and each recipe started with meat and potatoes. In America, as the 19th Century opened, meat was in the center of the plate at every meal. Though not all that healthy, a meat-based diet was possible then. It would be catastrophic today, which brings us to our modern problem of chronic disease.
Chronic Disease
Meat is good for us—it’s the only natural source of vitamin B-12 that is essential to our health—but too much meat is problematic. In the modern American diet (MAD) we eat three or four times more meat than needed. An Oxford University study of the English diet found that reducing meat intake to three servings weekly—the amount a person might consider “sparing”—would reduce mortality from chronic diseases. Specifically, they projected these benefits for England:
- 31,000 fewer heart disease deaths each year.
- 9000 fewer deaths from cancer.
- 5000 fewer deaths from stroke.
As America is a much larger country than England, we can expect commensurately bigger benefits.
A Family Council
I like meat. We enjoy fish, poultry, and red meat. We’ve found a local source of good pastured beef and enjoy a roast if we have guests for Sunday dinner. But, following the Word of Wisdom, we eat meat sparingly. Each person gets to decide what “sparing” means for them but as a rule, guys will want more than women.
So meat is a family issue, one that is best addressed in thoughtful and respectful conversation. Many homes have the practice of using “family councils” to address important decisions. Diet issues like the ratio of meat to vegetables qualify as such a decision. As women tend to outlive men, if you wish to be together for more of those last golden years, it’s really important that guys get serious about healthy eating when they’re young.
Healthy Change
Please comment: Share the ways you feature meat in your diet. Where do you find healthy meat? How do you use it as a condiment, rather than the main course? What do you do to show reverence for the Creation of animals?
Monday, March 4, 2013 at 10:56AM | by Skip Hellewell | 9 Comments | 1 Reference | Share Article | Email Article 
Reader Comments (9)
I liked this post. When I first started into my healthy eating journey, I was persuaded by all the vegan ideas I was reading. I tried eating vegan for about a month (while breastfeeding) and felt awful (tingling in my hands and feet, low energy...), despite including lots of vegan protein. I really do think meat is good for us, when eaten sparingly. Now that I'm pregnant again, I feel like my body really needs more meat, so I adjust my diet accordingly.
Meat isn't the "only natural source of Vitamin B-12". Bacteria is. And as such, if we don't eat a sterile diet, for example, and instead grow our own food and vegetables, the bacteria that is left over from the soil is enough for a vegan. The problem isn't eating or not eating enough meat. Its about having enough healthy bacteria in our diet
Hi Daria I've heard that comment before but have never seen the proof—a citation of a study that confirms this would be helpful to other readers.
As our budget has been restricted, so has our meat intake. Ten years ago I would probably have mourned that, but now I see it as an opportunity to turn up the amount of vegetables in our meals.
I do find it difficult not to fall back on the traditional meal extenders: pasta, rice or potatoes.
I would love to have more plant based meals but I'm having a hard time coming up with ideas. Especially for things my kids will eat. Do you have any ideas? By the way, I recently found your blog and I love it. Thank you.
Thank you for this post. This topic finally hit home and now I truly have a desire to care for the animals of this world. Thank you for putting it in a way that would help it sink in.
One of the things we've changed recently has been to eat less meat, but better meat. It does cost more for pastured/free range meat, but because we buy less of it, our overall grocery bill hasn't changed much. We've also been more careful about the kind of milk, eggs, butter, etc. we eat. I do think animals were placed here for our benefit, and even for our consumption, but I'd like to allow them at least a pleasant life first! And then of course, as you've addressed before, pastured animals and animal products are healthier for us as well.
I recently stumbled onto your blog and I've loved reading it! So thank you! I have struggled with this "eat meat sparingly" part of the WOW. I'm always impressed when studying that section by how it mentions it more than once. I think that means it's particularly important and I think for the reasons that you've mentioned. To me, it means eat as little as you can get away with, but, alas, my husband is a meat and potatoes kind of guy. We're working on finding that balance between us and our young children. I've even considered vegetarianism but my integrative Dr. advised it would not be healthy for my child bearing years. :) Which I feel is likely true. I like how you say it is a family decision and the idea of a family council on it is appealing because it shows some effort as far as figuring out what "sparingly" means for you, even if it's 6 days a week instead of 7. We do buy our meat local, humane, and grass fed and I try to buy "cage free" eggs but we all know that can be misleading. I also struggle with buying milk after seeing videos of baby calves being torn from their mothers' sides only hours after birth, there just isn't anything natural about it. It can seem overwhelming when you think of how many food staples potentially include mistreatment of animals. I suppose we just all do the best we can and keep trying to improve!
I loved growing up on a ranch, hunting, fishing, milking cows, raising beef, and country life. I am grateful for a change of heart and nature that has led me to trust what God has said about diet and our relationship with animals. (see JST Gen 9:11 and D&C 89:15}. I'm grateful for the patience, love, and kindness he has extended to me during my conversion to the doctrine of his peaceable kingdom. I am also grateful to be free from the bondage of sore illness that accompanied my former dietary relationship with animals, and I hope to help do for others what he has done for me, as I go about seeking to repair the many wrongs, injustices, and murders that I have committed against animals.