Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Beans?

by Erica Kenney

Leafing through the Sunday paper last weekend, I saw a piece in the New York Times about the tactics that Whole Foods is using to convince consumers that it is, in fact, possible to shop economically at a market that is so synonymous with high prices that its nickname is "Whole Paycheck." The piece described how an employee at one Whole Foods location was leading tours for shoppers to show them what can be bought at the store to fit within a reasonable budget. As the article described this employee promoting frozen fish, beans, and tofu, I thought, "Good for him!"....and then got to the end of the piece, where one of the shoppers on the tour said that the tour was not so relevant for her because "[i]t was only cheap if you were a vegetarian and willing to eat beans and tofu."

This got me to thinking about another news item that had popped up several weeks ago, about how sales of Spam, the canned-in-goo lunch meat-cum-Monty Python prop, had gone up as the brewing food crisis, coupled with a weak economy, approached. It's a good reality check for those of us who are idealistic about changing the world's diet. At first it would seem that the spike in food prices could have a silver lining of sorts. The rising price of meat, one might think, would spur consumers to reduce their meat consumption, which would be a pretty great thing for both our health and the environment. Replacing the meat in a few meals with beans, eggs, nuts, and/or soy would decrease consumption of saturated fats and carcinogenic compounds while increasing consumption of unsaturated fats and fiber, doing less damage to our arteries, reducing the risk of cancer, and diminishing greenhouse gases and pollution from livestock production. One might think it's not too far fetched, either--we were not always a nation of meat guzzlers. Our obsession with eating huge portions of meat is a relatively recent phenomenon, mostly from the last 50 years or so. A diet with less meat would more closely resemble the frugal diet that the majority of Americans were eating before subsidies and cost-cutting meat production practices pushed prices down, re-setting the norms of how much of one’s diet should consist of meat.

But instead of moving back towards this diet pattern, we're doing the exact opposite from a health/environment perspective, and switching to Spam so that we can still eat meat, just more affordably. Wondering why, I thought again of the woman at the Whole Foods, speaking about eating beans and tofu as something that only vegetarians did. It seems as though meat is an all-or-nothing food in many people's minds, that a meal isn't a meal unless it's got some meat on the plate, and that the only other alternative is to become a vegetarian. This, of course, isn't true, but I wonder what is scarier to carnivores: the idea of being a vegetarian or the idea of not tasting meat every lunch and dinner of the week? Vegetarians seem to disturb a lot of people, perhaps because, in the grand scheme of things, they really are a very small minority in this country and as such can be regarded as a fringe movement, closely associated with caricatures of barefooted hippies protesting outside of a steakhouse. But the irony is that no one is asking Americans to all become vegetarians--the idea is just to reduce meat consumption. Why is reducing meat automatically equated with eliminating meat, full stop? What could we do to convince Americans that it is all right to have a bean stew or a burrito or an omelet a few nights a week instead of a hamburger? If prices aren't having an effect, what will? It's kind of a stretch, but I wonder whether having chefs and cooking personalities on TV cook more meatless recipes might normalize the meat-less meal. Or perhaps there needs to be a National Beangrowers Association to start an ad campaign entitled “Beans: They’re What’s for Dinner.”

Comments

[Noah]

Below is an excerpt from my possibly forthcoming manifesto, "Your Time To Eat, Your Food Is Meat".

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You eat meat, don't you? People are raising more meat than ever before, so now's the time to eat it. It's gratifying to eat meat, so eat lots of meat, preferably lots of red meat.

It is true that people want to stop you from eating meat. Don't let them. Meat is your food, and no one has the right to control what you eat.

Take self-gratification seriously. It's evidence of your personal power and success. Sure there are reasons to eat less red meat. So what? Don't let people put you down by telling you to eat a wimpy diet.

Be discriminating, be cautious, and be smart.

Don't stop eating meat just to save the environment or to let other people eat meat. You have the same right as everyone else to use the environment and eat meat. Sacrificing your food for other people means losing everything you worked for. You don't want to hurt the environment or starve anyone by eating meat, but you don't want to starve yourself either. You can't or you'll die.

Eat meat like you need to, like you have to, and like you must.

Stop the goody-goody's from attacking your lifestyle. They probably want you to do something pathetic like eat an omelet once in a while instead of a steak. If contempt won't turn away a goody-goody, show them how strong you are. Ignore them while you let them watch you fork tender-cooked veal into your mouth.

Eat meat without remorse, without guilt, and without concern.

Join up with other independent carnivores like you. Talk with them about why meat-eating is the right choice for you all. Keep adding people to your group of carnivores. Go to steak houses and have dinner together at least 4 times a week. If you get bored of beef, go to restaurant like Ted's Montana Grill and have some bison meat. If you have any hunter friends, invite them to every dinner that you host. Ask your hunter friends to tell everyone at the table how great it is to hunt and kill animals for food.

Eat meat for taste, for companionship, and for good times.

Some people are so weak emotionally that they cry over how animals suffer to make our food. If you and your carnivorous friends can gang up on a hypocritical complainer who is like that, make that complainer regret their attack on your lifestyle. Beforehand, though, be sure they aren't actually an anxious carnivore who is suffering from political correctness. If the complainer is just an anxious carnivore, why not invite them to dinner? They'll pay. But if the complainer really does feel bad about our food suffering so we can eat it, then the complainer is attacking your way of life, and you must strike back.

Protect your independence, your self, and your free will.

Call a complainer a hypocrite for not eating completely vegetarian. Make them upset. Weaken their resolve. Once they're weak, be nice to them. Tell them everyone has the right to eat however they like, and that you didn't appreciate their trying to control you, but that you forgive them. Then make them feel popular. Make them feel like having fun. Invite them to a free steak dinner with a bunch of your carnivorous friends. This might get a little expensive, but just $30 spent on one dinner will add another dedicated carnivore to your group.

Making people into carnivores takes effort, takes time, and takes money.

Think of vegetarian goody-goody's and hypocrites as running for office. If they want to eat less red meat, they better realize that we live in a democracy. The public wants to eat meat, and politicians represent the public. And don't forget that the United States really is a democracy. One more meat eater means one less vegetarian trying to outlaw meat-eating.

Work hard for your lifestyle, your country, and your higher purpose.

Sometimes the spirit of meat-eating might weaken among your group of carnivores. At that time, if you know a lot of reasons to avoid fun things to do, use them in conversation! For example, if a fellow carnivore gets doubtful about eating red meat, tell the doubter every reason you know to avoid everything that the doubter enjoys. Tell them how bad it is to drive fast, to drink coffee and bottled water, to fly in airplanes, and to wear Nike shoes. Then, once the doubter is self-conscious, act like you really feel hopeless about changing your lifestyle too, and invite the doubter to a meal to cheer you both up. Help the doubter order a burger and fries at TGI Fridays, and let them get drunk if they want. Bring along another friend, though, preferably a converted goody-goody, and let the converted goody-goody pick up the tab and drive the drunken doubting carnivore home.

Carnivores must stand together, must stand fast, and must stand strong.

You and your fellow carnivores are spreading an independent way of thinking. Eating meat is never gluttony. Be proud of eating meat. Your strength in standing up for our way of life stands out, and people notice. As more and more people become carnivores with you, you will all become closer as people. Meat eating builds community. You are a community-builder, but you are independent, too. And high-minded. You care about America and our way of life. Meat-eating has always been part of being American. You don't want weak-willed, simpering, control-freaks to turn our carnivorous democracy into a vegetarian dictatorship.

You help everyone eat as well as you do. This is your time to eat, your food is meat. You eat it now. You will eat it as long as humankind is alive.

[Darin]

Erica, it sounds like you have been exposed to proper nutrition enlightment. You have a deep knowledge and understanding of saturated fats, i.e. that eggs contain little saturated fats, that cheese is not an ideal replacement for meat, etc.

In educating people or groups or populations in the future though, may I recommend also discussing emphatically and implicitly that cheese or dairy items are not a good replacement to meat and explain eloquently why cheese actually has more saturated fat than beef, gram for gram.

Meatless meals are quite common in the U.S., even on the food network. Emeril, Moulton, Rachel Ray, frequently cook dairy based dishes. As I mentioned this is not a good replacement because of the saturated fat. I say this because while meat indeed is a huge problem, I would posit that dairy/cheese is actually the larger problem.

Pizza, whether picked up at the local mom and pop shop in Brooklyn, delivered to your door from Dominos or served brick oven gourmet style in a posh Italian eatery in SOHO or Hollywood will often times be meatless but almost always be high in saturated, low in fiber, and low in vegetables (hardly any tomato sauce goes onto a pizza)

Macaroni and Cheese dishes are consumed millions of times a day around the U.S. in high schools, colleges, soul food restaurants, diners, fried chicken joints, and unfortunately by moms at home made easy by Kraft.

I could provide many more examples (Grilled Cheese sandwiches, Quiches, Eggplant, Chicken and Veal Parmiagana, Mozz/Tomato sandwiches, etc)

Red meat consumption, while increasing since the late 1990s, has actually decreased significantly since the 1970s. What took its place? Unfortunately, cheese and dairy based recipes.

Your examples, "bean stew, burrito and omelet" are not the best for the following reasons: Bean stew without the ham hock is a good example but a burrito, even when vegetarian contains a significant amount of cheddar cheese and sour cream. Most omeletes, either served out in diners or restaurants or even within one's home, will contain cheese. So when using these examples, be sure to specify cheeseless burrito (the fat can be supplie by avocado or gaucomole) and omelets made without the use of milk and/or cheese, cream, cheese, cottage cheese, etc.
If anyone reading this thinks this would be tasteless, try the crispy tacos at Chipotle Mexican Grill....get the rice, beans, veggies, salsa, etc and ask for no cheese, no sour cream but add fresh gaucomole....then tell me this does not taste delicious.

So while meat is a large problem, most people, especially college educated women, are aware that red meat is unhealthy and most of these women avoid or have reduced the amount of red meat in their diet. Unfortunately, most of these same people consumed larger amounts of dairy than average.

Your ideas of a commercial campaign are great, as well as the idea for chefs to create meatless meals. This would all require tens of millions of dollars. This would still only benefit the college educated, middle to upper class crowd.

The true way to bring down the consumption of meat and/or dairy products is to remove the 15 to 18 billion in govt. subsidies to these industries. This will automatically increase the price to the point where the poor in society would essentialy be forced to consume less meat products, the way it was in the 1970s.

Almost any other method utilized to get the poor in the U.S. to eat healthier on any significant population level is a waste of time and money.

Don't listen to the "built environment advocates" or the research that says people will eat healthy food if it is in close proximity to them.....poor people, as a whole, on average, will eat fast food and junk food and unhealthy school food until the day subsidies end. Period.

[Noah]

Darin, here is a table provided by the USDA.

http://www.usda.gov/factbook/tables/ch2table21.jpg

It lists total meat consumption from the 1950's to 2000 having grown by 40%, or 57 pounds more meat per year, and egg consumption to have dropped by a third. It also shows red meat consumption in 2000 to be 88% of 1970's levels, more than made up for a tripling in poultry consumption.

Eaten with dark meat and skins, poultry is fatty enough for concern.

Why don't you think built environment plays an important role in meat consumption? You seem to think higher cost will motivate a decline in meat consumption. Do you have historical data to back that up?

[Darin]

The chart you showed backs up what I said. Red meat consumption has dropped significantly from 1970s to 1990s. Fish consumption and poultry consumption has gone up because people replaced part of their red meat consumption with these foods.

Poultry has far less saturated fat than red meats or cheese. This is a fact. Fried chicken is far healthier than a steak or macaroni and cheese (Sorry to all you vegetarians!)

You can put a vegan restaurant or a health food store in the ghetto (yes, there are some in Oakland, the Bronx, Harlem, Queens, Brooklyn, etc) but the poor walk right past these and patronize the soul food, fast food, fried chicken outlets. You can also put a supermarket inside the ghetto and most people still buy white bread, red meat, dairy, frozen pizzas, bologna, chips, cheetos, soda, diet soda, pop tarts, etc. If you don't believe spend one hour in any supermarket in the ghetto.

[Darin]

It is well documented and well known that meat consumption plummets during war time or during severe recessions. It happened in the U.S. during the great depression as well as World War II.

It does not happen now because meat is so cheap. Sales of prime rib, filet mignon will drop this year and next but as Erica mentioned sales of spam and other low cost meats increase. In the context of no government subsidies, hard economic times inevitabily results in decreased consumption of high priced foods - this use to be meat but meat is now inexpensive due to the subsidies.

Unfortunately the consumption of fish will drop because of its price.

[Darin]

I'm not afraid of the bean....here is a dish I make frequently...

Beans and Barley Salad

Cannelini Beans
Barley
Diced onions
Diced tomatoes
Diced green pepper
Olive oil (lots of it)
Fresh garlic
Chopped basil
A little lemon juice
A little red wine vinegar
Salt
Pepper

[Mara]

I've often make something quite similar to Darin's bean recipe. (I sometimes add in crumbled, herbed feta cheese and/or tofu. It makes the meal very tasty and more filling).
The fact is: millions of people love meat, cheese, fish and chicken, as well as vegetables, grains and pasta. Non-Vegetarians are often much more nuanced in their eating preferences than Erica Kenney seems to give them credit for. But, as Ms Moore (the woman quoted from the NYtimes article) implies, being a total Vegetarian is Not the desired option for most people. Even if being one is less expensive.

[Darin]

Mara, thats not really the discussion about the Whole Foods article or the blog. Being a total vegetarian is not the desired option nor is it the goal of Whole Foods. (Whole Foods makes hundreds of millions on cheese, dairy, and meats)

Whole Foods is simply saying that beans and tofu are great food options in addition to meats and/or dairy, if you choose to not be a vegetarian.

That is precisely Erica's point. One need not be a vegetarian to consume beans, tofu, soy, nuts, etc. on a regular basis.
In the U.S., the data demonstrates it is in general all or nothing. Beans, tofu, soy, veggie burgers, seitan, etc is rarely consumed by meat eaters. The vast majority of these foods are sold to vegetarians, vegans, etc.

Meat eating people in the U.S., on average, eat far way too much meats, as the chart demonstrated.

While it is ultimately their choice, their choice needs to be put in context....most Americans are unaware of the incredible connection between meat, saturated fats, cheeses and heart disease.....most Americans are unaware the prostate cancer can be caused by meat...most Americans are unaware that colon cancer can be caused by meat......most Americans are unaware that gallstones are caused by meat consumption....most Americans are unaware that meat is incredibly bad for the environment.....most Americans are unaware that meat is subsidized by billions of dollars each year....most Americans are unaware that meat consumption can cause diabetes....etc, etc, etc.

[Noah Scales]

Hi, Erica.

So you know, my first "manifesto" post to this thread was satirical. I do currently eat vegan, not that it's relevant.

My apologies if you found the "manifesto" post offensive.

-Noah

[dave]

I agree about the beans - i eat them pretty much daily as part of my meat substitution. I love to sprinkle a mix of 5-6 types of beans over some barley with a little nutritional yeast.... A very solid meal that has a whole days' worth of fiber and proten along with some great healthy carbs and a few compliment of amino acids.

Click my name for an interactive food database that lets you view the top 100 foods in all nutrient categories.

[Eric Triffin, MPH]

Five Great Reasons to Go Vegan

Humans have been omnivores (able to eat almost anything), as a matter of necessity in the past, but not without consequences to our health, our morality and our environment. As we become more evolved human beings will see five top reasons to be vegan:

1. To be health smart, we will stop clogging our arteries with saturated animal fats or eating
cancer-causing grilled flesh.
2. For the sake of the animals, if not our own serenity, we will no longer choose animal
slavery, violence, and killing when we don’t need to in order to survive.
3. Animal food sources generally require damaging land use and especially when grain fed,
are clearly inefficient. A good analogy is that plant based foods are to animal based
foods, as renewable energy is to fossil fuels, so don’t make waste and pollute, go green!
4. As we make personal choices to reverse global warming, getting locally grown fresh foods
from farmers’ markets, community and home gardens will also add to our bio-security by
reducing the distance, time and number of middlemen it takes for food to reach us. Right
now, foods in a cafeteria line average 5 changes of hands (and opportunities for
tampering), and 1,500 miles to reach us. This problem is only repeated when you compare
eating plant foods directly as opposed to having to acquire feed grains from far away for the
animals first.
5. Which leads to the fifth reason: We can get at least five times more protein and nutrition by
feeding the grains and beans we now grow for animals, to people instead! Why deny food
to millions, when five times as many people could eat, if only we would stop eating meat!

Morally, and otherwise it is becoming common sense to make healthier, non-violent and greener food choices instead of killing animals and bringing on cancer or heart disease, much less denying food to starving children. As we evolve, everyone will improve their morale by acting in accordance with their higher principles and eating plant based foods instead of flesh.

FOOD SCALE
1. Sun (Vitamin D, a sunny disposition, etc.)
2. Fruits, Nuts and Seeds (includes vegetables whose seeds are inside: tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, etc)
3. Grains, Beans and Legumes (wheat, corn, peas, soy, lentils, etc.)
--------------------------------------------------
4. Vegetables (cauliflower, broccoli, celery, lettuce, etc.)
5. Roots and Tubers (potatoes, onions, carrots, yams, etc.)
6. Dairy and Poultry Products (eggs, milk, cheese)
7. Flesh (fish, fowl, red meat, etc.)
This scale is an accurate way to picture the efficiency of our food sources. The higher on the scale we choose, the closer to the sun, the better. By deciding to eat from above the vegetable line (the top three lines), we could stop the violence to animals, plants and the environment, eliminate famine, and lead healthier lives. All the foods above the line involve no harm to the plants involved. The grains and beans are harvested after their life cycle is over, and the fruits and vegetables (of tree, plant or vine), do not involve harm or cutting, and are more like a renewable fuel or resource since the plant or tree continues to bear fruit. With the vegetables below the line we interfere with the next year’s growth; dairy or poultry products involve animals to eat foods higher on the scale, and eating flesh means taking a life. We can eat any of these, but must appreciate the consequences or better yet, go vegan.

Written by Eric Triffin, MPH, who has been a varyingly strict vegetarian all his life and is now a flexitarian by philosophy but an ever more practicing vegan.

[fussball]

Gute Arbeit hier! Gute Inhalte.

[Jai-sen]

I would take a vegetarian dictatorship over your carnivorous democracy any day.