When asked if I am a vegetarian, I used to answer that it was beyond pointless for our species to get to the top of the food chain so that we could go back to eating only plants.
Needless to say, I like meat.
One of my favorite meals is a traditional Brazilian Churrasco. If you have never been to one, let me enlighten you on this unique experience of carnivorous excess. You start with a salad bar bigger than you have ever seen. And after loading your plate with rice, beans, sushi, hearts of palm, and your choice of a dozen or more salad options and side dishes the real eating begins.
Next to your plate is a coaster that is red on one side, and green on the other. This is your traffic light for meat. Turn the coaster to green, and waiters circulating around the room begin stopping at your table to offer you warm cuts of meat straight from the skewer they were roasting on. There is roasted chicken, pork, chicken hearts, beef ribs, filet mignon, beef medallions, flank steak, garlic beef … the list goes on and on. And the meat keeps coming as fast as you can eat it, and usually faster – one eager waiter after the next offering yet another delight. You will be stuffed, but then when offered yet another sizzling, juicy slab of steak, you tell yourself you can eat just one more bite. A few sips of a stiff caipirinha (distilled sugar cane mixed with lime and sugar) helps ease the pain. Only when your stomach feels like it is about to explode do you finally admit defeat and turn the coaster to red. I can almost taste it now.
So imagine my disappointment when Lifestyle 180 nutritionist Kristen Kirkpatrick asked us all to give up red meat. I had not anticipated this. Reduce my consumption of red meat – sure. But give it up entirely? The weather in Cleveland had suddenly turned unseasonably warm, and I was already dreaming about the steaks I was going to grill and eat on my deck. Delicious, dripping, marinated steaks. I would eat them with vegetables. Lots and lots of healthy nutritious vegetables. And a glass of red wine. That’s heart healthy right? Wasn’t that enough?
There were practical considerations as well. There were three pounds of organic, grass-fed, ground beef and a leg of lamb in my freezer. Just the other day, in a fit of inspiration that followed the movie Julie and Julia, I had considered buying Julia Child’s classic , “The Art of French Cooking,” and making, among other things, Beef Bourguignon, a dish that contains not only beef, but a big chunk of bacon, and a lot of butter. I sighed. My culinary comfort foods were going up in smoke.
"Not even just a little bit?" I asked. “Too much saturated fat!” Kristen protested , undoubtedly seeing the pouty look on my face. “Try it for six weeks,” she bargained. “And by the end of it, I guarantee you won’t want it anymore.” I glanced over at my classmate who had bravely admitted she loved cheeseburgers. I felt an immediate kinship with my fellow meat-a-holic, and wondered if she was thinking the same thing I was: this lady is crazeeeee if she thinks I am going to lose my taste for beef.
I tried to look at the bright side, unlike some of the others in the room, I really like fish. And chicken. And I already had at least one recipe in my regular repertoire with ground turkey. Plus, I am not afraid of vegetables like squash and beets and rutabaga. Maybe I could suck it up for six weeks … and just see.