Why Eat Meat? - ERIC KIM

Why eat meat? Some thoughts:

What are we meant to eat?

Technically, we ain’t ‘meant’ to eat anything. Humans are about:

Try to consume anything which is evolutionarily beneficial to our muscular growth, strength augmentation, and ability to pro-create.

What is meat?

Meat— the proto-indo-european word for meat is ‘to drip, ooze, grease, fat’.

So meat is any sort of animal flesh which oozes fat and grease.

Fatty meat pork belly

Will eating meat cause you to get a heart attack and die?

The false notion:

Eating saturated fat causes your arteries to clog, and makes you more prone to get a heart attack.

Also:

Cholesterol is bad for you. That having more cholesterol (either HDL “good” or LDL “bad”) will cause you to have a higher likelihood of dying of a heart attack.

Will eating fat make me fat?

Another myth:

Eating lots of fat or saturated fat will make me fat.

This is false. All I eat is fatty cuts of meat (fatty cuts of pork, fatty cuts of steak/beef, fatty cuts of chicken) and I have a relatively low body fat percentage (around 10-15%).

What’s the secret of lowering your body fat or keeping your body fat percentage low?

Not sure, but for me it has been to not eat any carbs (the complex or the simple ones), no starchy foods, no sugars, no fruits, no sweet things, no sweeteners (artificial or ‘real’). Only meat, eggs, leafy greens (kale, collard greens) and cabbage (kimchi, sauerkraut).

Thoughts on Veganism/Vegetarianism/Plant-Based Diets

First of all, what is a ‘vegetable‘? It seems to come from the latin ‘vegetabilis‘ which means “to grow”. So the basic notion can be:

A vegetable is anything you can grow (and eat).

First of all– not all vegetables are created alike.

Broccoli and collard greens are both considered “vegetables”, but their chemical composition is insanely different. Broccoli is far more starchy and actually quite sweet, whereas collard greens are more bitter, watery, and leafy. This is why I prefer to eat bitter “leafy greens” than to eat “vegetables”. Even carrots, which are considered vegetables and are considered to be “healthy” are quite high in starch, sugar, and are very sweet. My theory — eating a lot of modern carrots will probably cause you to gain adipose tissue (body fat).

But anyways taking it back to the thought on vegetarianism/veganism/plant-based diet, or whatever you wanna call it:

If you wanna do it for ethical reasons, 100% cool. But to think that eating only veggies (and no meat) is “healthier” seems misguided.

‘Moderation’ in eating meat?

“Moderate” comes from the proto-indo-european “med-” which means “to measure”.

Thus it seems to ‘moderate’ oneself means to measure the amount of x, y, or z you consume, and to set some sort of upper-limit or bound to that consumption.

But what does it mean to eat meat “moderately”? This makes no sense; it is all subjective.

What is “moderate” meat eating? One piece of chicken a day? Two pieces of chicken a day? Three pieces of chicken a day? A pound of chicken a day? Two pounds of chicken a day? Three pounds of chicken a day?

Generally when it comes to “moderation”, we listen to the ‘experts’. But from what “scientific” measures are the “experts” measuring?

It is all subjective. To me– moderation is a sucker notion. Better to treat it binary:

All or nothing.

Nassim Taleb has a funny notion in ‘Skin in the Game’ (book):

If you are halal, you cannot eat “just a little” pork, or pork in “moderation”.

Also,

You cannot fondle the breast of a weight lifter, just a “little” without getting your ass kicked.

Environmental concerns

I cannot argue for environmental/ethical reasons regarding eating meat. But for argument sake, let us think purely about the dietary/nutritional/physiological aspects of eating meat.

Is eating beef bad?

Another sucker notion:

Thinking that eating chicken is “better” than eating red meat (pork, beef).

Or thinking that eating chicken breast, or any boring type of low-fat meat is “healthier” for you.

Why do we think eating beef, pork, lamb, or red meats is bad? The notion that saturated fat is bad. But once again, if saturated fat and dietary cholesterol is not bad for you, then eating red meat (pork/beef) ain’t “bad” for you.

And who is to differentiate “red” meat from other types of meat? All animals are different. Their flesh is different.

So the question then comes:

What is the most nutritionally dense meat or animal product — which will maximally give us physical, muscular, and physiological vigor and strength?

What did the ancient greeks prefer to eat?

Hecatcombs– 100 oxen sacrificed for the gods.

It seemed that the ancient greeks preferred to eat oxen, especially the really fatty cuts. It seems back then eating fish and shellfish were only “last resort” foods. Even in the Odyssey — Odysseus’ crew only resorted to fishing after eating all the mythical cattle on the island of the goddess in order to prevent starving to death.

Cholesterol is a steroid?

My theory: cholesterol is a steroid. The more cholesterol we eat in meat, the more we will promote human growth hormones in our body to augment our muscles and strength. Thus, the more really fatty (high cholesterol) meat you eat, the better.

This then probably means:

The most fatty cuts of meat are the most beneficial in maximizing your muscular growth.

What are the fattiest cuts of meat?

Picanha (number 8) is my favorite.

My personal favorite cut is ‘top sirloin cap’ (picanha in Brazilian BBQ).

Look at the beautiful marbling and the fat on top! Picanha.

Conclusion

Everyone should be allowed to eat however they want. I do not want to force a vegetarian/vegan to eat meat. But I also don’t want others to force me to NOT eat meat. There needs to be mutual respect on both sides. The problem:

Meat-eaters make fun of vegans, but vegans guilt meat-eaters about eating meat.

Both sides need mutual tolerance, and just leave one another alone.

ERIC