The way it spozed to look!
Bob and I just returned from our annual pilgrimage to the Montana Festival of the Book in Missoula, where for three days we luxuriate in readings, signings, panel discussions, and an orgy of book-buying. Missoula has not yet gotten the word that the book is dead. Venues are packed with young and old, rich and poor. The Wilma is SRO for the Friday night gala reading; a poetry slam at Monk’s looks like the Tokyo subway at rush hour. The next day, Ivan Doig practically has to fight his way out of a noontime book signing.
And when it comes to food, Missoula really gets it. Walk down Higgins and you’ve entered another world. Restaurants here are about much more than meat and other fried substances. Gluten-free, vegan, free range, organic: you name it, they’ve got it, and a lot of it comes from the local area. Vegetables are real staples here. I discovered beet empanadas on this trip – my new comfort food. Across the Higgins Street bridge there’s a tempeh sandwich to die for. The deli at Good Food Store whipped me up a baked tofu wrap with hummus, and threw in half a pound of quinoa and black bean salad. We grazed on salads made with local greens and pears, and sipped curry soup with winter vegetables. And don’t even get me started on the ethnic food trucks, including one that serves East Indian dishes. In short, Missoula is big on what my grandfather called “poor people food,” by which he meant dishes short on meat and long on cheap vegetables and legumes. And a good thing, too, because in the future we will all be eating much more of these.
And yet, and yet….when it comes to oatmeal, the ultimate poor man’s dish, even Missoula restaurants are uneven. A popular Higgins Street eatery does a great job on theirs – it’s hot and creamy without being gluey, with the raisins warm and soft. But in the University district, at a spot that is otherwise my favorite breakfast place in the whole world, they simply cannot seem to make a good bowl of oatmeal anymore. They used to do it so well, too, smooth yet flaky, and nice and hot.
I think the problem is that now they try to microwave it, where before they cooked it on top of the stove in an actual saucepan. Because rolled oats are still cheap, they are generous, but they don’t want the bowl to overflow in the nuker, so they add an insufficient amount of water. The result is a small container of Redi-Mix. However, if you can get past the cold middle and eat the whole thing, you’re set for the day.
That is, if you can get enough soymilk out of the waitperson. Why do all restaurants believe that white liquids are a controlled substance? They hand you that teensy container, and when you ask her to please bring you a FULL GLASS, her eyes narrow. Is the manager taking it out of her wages? I’ll bet these people never eat cereal at home without a quart of the stuff sitting beside them. Give me liberty or give me death, but give me soymilk!
My point – and I do have one – is that twenty years ago the Missoula eating experience would have been exotic, as it still would be in many towns in the West. But it’s not only our future, it’s our necessity — a diet based on grains, beans, vegetables, local fruits, and foods that can be manufactured locally, like bread and beer and honey and tofu. What does all this have to do with native wildlife and fish? Only that, if we want to preserve what we have and start to bring back what we have lost, an American diet that substitutes beans for beef is absolutely essential. Cows on our Western public lands destroy native plants and pollute streams, and the beef industry prevents native species like bison from reclaiming their ancient migration routes. Raising alfalfa to get cows through the winter dewaters entire drainages that once harbored native trout and salmon.
Want wildlife? Eat like a Missoulian.
louise wagenknecht
Louise Wagenknecht worked for the Forest Service for 31 years and has written two books about her life in the Klamath Mountains of northern California. She writes from the wilds of eastern Idaho.
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Kudos Louise
if you want wildlife and health, I would add….
Louise, do you really believe that bison could reclaim their ancient migration routes? Most of those routes are interrupted by striped parking lots, elementary schools, airports, interstates and shopping malls. It is not just the cattle rancher that doomed the bison and eating soy will not bring them back to their glory. Not to mention that the jury is still out on the long term health impacts of 100% replacement of cow milk and meat protein with soy.
Sure they could, especially to the east, down the Yellowstone River — most counties in the Great Plains have been losing population for generations. Get rid of cows and replace crops grown for cow feed with native grasses, and there would be an awful lot of room for them. Bison can take care of themselves and could provide a much healthier form of meat for people.
Doesn’t necessarily have to be soy — almond milk, hemp milk, rice milk — they all taste good on cereal. And tofu and tempeh have been eaten safely in the Orient for many centuries.
Goat’s milk is actually healthier than cow’s milk…if you like the ‘different’ taste. DOesn’t some soy have estrogen? (no thanks)
Goats’ milk is easier to digest than cows’ milk because the fat globules are smaller, and the proteins are different — fewer people are allergic to goats’ milk. Which tastes fine, incidentally, altho some goats do produce strong-tasting milk. I used to have dairy goats and made cheese for years.
Soy does have estrogen; but will just repeat that Japanese women, who have consumed soy milk, tofu, and miso for centuries, have a much lower breast cancer rate than American women.
Goat’s milk is actually healthier than cow’s milk…if you like the ‘different’ taste. DOesn’t some soy milk have estrogen? (no thanks)
mikepost
read the china study or the food revolution to see just how healthy cow’s milk is for you. if that doesn’t make you blanch every time you see one of those misleading cutesy got milk ads, I don’t know what will. Just ask yourself this question, now what other species on earth drinks another animals milk, and what species drinks their mother’s milk their entire life? if you don’t want to drink soy there is almond, rice, oat and even hemp. Humans did evolve to eat plant based diets and plants their entire lives.
People evolved to eat what was available locally. People diets on the equator are 90% plants and 10% meat. People living in the high arctic the diet is 90% meat and 10% plants. I have spent two winters in the arctic working outside every day in 40 and 50 below weather. A plant based diet will not work.
After, I read this last night I went out and bought a 17 oz New York steak started the coals grilling it rare, sliced an avocado and baked three baby reds washing it down with two 1554 New Belgium Brewing beers.
Why is that carnivores become all pompous and proud whenever oatmeal is mentioned?
I love oatmeal, I used to have it everyday at my now out-of business coffee shop. One would have to look harder and longer to find better oat meal than what was serve at the Home Page and a section of the best world teas. What would I give to have that “oat meal” and my tea properly brew and served.
I didn’t think Elk’s response was pompous? However, a 90/10 ratio of meat to plant matter ain’t too healthy…unless you’re an Eskimo?
17 oz? Are you in training for The Big Texan?
http://www.bigtexan.com/free72.html
Oatmeal does not agree with me at all. Makes me want to go back to bed. I’ll get my fiber in other ways.
All that said, I agree with Michael Pollan’s advice: Eat Food (nothing your great-grandma wouldn’t recognize as food); Mostly Plants (and mostly plant leaves if available); Not Too Much. With the high Arctic and/or working a cross-cut saw at 9,000′ caveat that certain situations demand bacon.
I heard! Your supermarket wants to give me a kickback…:)
Interesting article. I think a diet with less meat is lots healthier. I’m not a complete vegetarian (I gave up red meat and pork for ethical reasons about 9 years ago) as I still eat some dairy and eggs, chicken and seafood. But I do like to go meatless and even vegan a lot of the time because I believe it is healthier. I love to cook, and some of the vegetarian/vegan recipes look wonderful, and even the sweet desserts look just as yummy as any made with milk/dairy.
Just had my annual physical, got a clean bill of health, strong heart, no diabetes, blood pressure in a very good range, no problems at all detected for a person of my age, and the trauma I experienced while in the service. The doctor asked me about my diet, it consists of meat every day, a green salad, a small desert, and a couple of beers each day. Now of course, my meat intake is normally wild meat, deer and elk, got a bonus the other day, sent a turkey to the freezer, going to be a nice T-Day treat.
You don’t have to be a vegetation to be healthy, you just need to maintain diligence when making your choices when it comes to meals..
“You don’t have to be a vegetation to be healthy, you just need to maintain diligence when making your choices when it comes to meals”
And checking in with the FDA, often, also helps when it comes to one’s health and food choices, for those less fortunate these days to be able to grow or hunt their own food locally:
http://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls/default.htm
…”a couple of beers every day”?
surly,LT, that is an average
LT should be Col.
so much for my average….
“….Humans did evolve to eat plant based diets and plants their entire lives.”
Horseshit
Humans..regardless of an individuals view of origin…. were and are omnivores and have been throughout the span of history. The ratio of flora vs fauna depends on:
1. Culture
2. Environment
and
3.personal preference
(some climates 1 and 2 switch places)
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/07/23/human-ancestors-were-nearly-all-vegetarians/
Jeff before you go calling horseshit you might want to try reading about the evolution of humans and their diet. While there is some debate about it, the evidence I find most compelling supports a plant and grain based evolutionary tract. And its not because I have never eater or don’t eat any meat ever. The shape of our teeth, the fact that we don’t have the proper equipment to hunt and kill as part of our bodies and our physiological internal organs all seem good evidence that we evolved on a plant based diet. I’ve posted a very good guest blog in Scientific American that is in line with a great deal of research and written literature on the subject, except I think this one is particularly well written. While humans did eat meat, it was quite occasional and certainly not the regular and impressively over the top 17 oz steak every night that the livestock industry has convinced us we need to eat. The livestock and dairy industries starting back in the 50s began serious campaigns as Americans became more wealthy to dupe the public into thinking they could not get the right nutrients without milk and meat, The livestock and dairy industries pushed very effectively to ensure that these foods became part of the mainstream diet. AS meat and milk consumption and the proteins associated with these foods rose, there has also been a coincidental rise in autoimmune disorders, cancers, obesity and diseases like diabetes. So I go back to my original claim that humans evolved to eat a plant based diet, all their lives. Its not that they can’t eat meat or did not but that the primary diet was plant based. Needing to eat meat and drink milk is a myth. There are many vegetables and grains that contain more calcium and protein than the beef and milk per oz then the livestock and dairy industries have convinced the American public that they need.
I would encourage anyone with an interest in this to actually do some useful reading – not reading of a blog with no scientific utility or peer review. Written by someone, frankly, not qualified to comment on the comparative morphology, physiology, or pathology of alimentary systems of animals (including humans). The bottom line you will find is we have no special ability (and truthfully, a pretty poor ability compared to many other species) to deal with a plant/forage based diet and we truly are built to be omnivores. Eat well, eat for taste/pleasure and nutrition, eat local foods as possible, eat foods that fit into your own personal ethic and world-view, and maintain balance in your life. Oatmeal rocks, but so does bacon, especially when you raised the pig yourself.
TC you wrote “I would encourage anyone with an interest in this to actually do some useful reading – not reading of a blog with no scientific utility or peer review.”
You are correct in that this is not a peer reviewed article but that’s a rather elitist position that only peer review literature should be taken seriously. And The person who wrote this particular blog did have qualifications that were relevant to the discussion… as follows “About the Author: Rob Dunn is a science writer and biologist in the Department of Biology at North Carolina State University. His first book, Every Living Thing, told the stories of the sometimes obsessive, occasionally mad, and always determined, biologists who have sought to discover the limits of the living world. His new book, The Wild Life of Our Bodies, explores how changes in our interactions with other species, be they the bacteria on our skin, forehead mites or tigers, have affected our health and well being”. You then write, “The bottom line you will find is we have no special ability (and truthfully, a pretty poor ability compared to many other species) to deal with a plant/forage based diet and we truly are built to be omnivores.” Where is your peer reviewed data and how are you more qualified then the biologist and science writer that posted on the journal? I believe the topic is hotly debated and your opinion is just as subjective as the next. And while I agree with some of what you wrote “Eat well, eat for taste/pleasure and nutrition, eat local foods as possible, eat foods that fit into your own personal ethic and world-view, and maintain balance in your life. Oatmeal rocks, but so does bacon, especially when you raised the pig yourself.” This statement completely ignores the ethical and health related issues about eating excessive meat protein, which are documented in many peer review journals. That bacon that you say rocks will also harden your arteries harder than a rock – scientific fact
Louise, my education and training and the letters behind my name allow me to make that “elitist” statement about the author and his ability to support his statements – it’s not his field, he’s never done research or published in it, from what I can find he’s never been trained in it, and yes, I am allowed to be skeptical of so-called authorities that cherry-pick a selected bibliography of the work of others and proclaim themselves experts – if you don’t, your scientific literacy should be called into question. The same factors also prevent me from making appropriate comments about a host of other issues on this site – I don’t know the fields, I don’t know the facts, I don’t know and have not contributed to the literature – I have opinions, and mostly I don’t share them because they’re just that, my opinions to enjoy or lament. I work in a profession where opinions matter little, data and appropriate analysis and conclusions matter a lot – doing the actual work in the trenches (or laboratories) matters. I forget that many other people operate differently; it’s nice to be reminded. It’d be even better to be reminded nicely.
As to the bacon “hardening my arteries” – I assume you’re making reference to arteriosclerosis, although you could mean atherosclerosis, but who really knows. And I’ll have you know my cardiovascular system is in fine mettle, thanks for the concern. You must realize you have no idea how much “meat protein” I consume, nor do you know the sources of said “meat protein”. I’m liable to outlive a lot of people that forgot how to find joy in life, including eating the occasional “meat protein”. Bacon still rocks. Bacon rocks in epic proportions. Bacon is heavenly. Life without bacon must be a sad thing indeed.
“….Life without bacon must be a sad thing indeed.”
Amen
TC there are an awful lot of people here with letters behind their names, you are just one of many.
For someone who has argued “I don’t know the fields, I don’t know the facts, I don’t know and have not contributed to the literature – I have opinions, and mostly I don’t share them because they’re just that, my opinions to enjoy or lament.”
you have some pretty strong opinions yourself, on this subject.
“The bottom line you will find is we have no special ability (and truthfully, a pretty poor ability compared to many other species) to deal with a plant/forage based diet and we truly are built to be omnivores.”
try not to be so pedantic and maybe a little more tolerant of those that don’t believe in the life without bacon is sad philosophy.
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/2012-releases/red-meat-cardiovascular-cancer-mortality.html
and here is a recent study of effects of eating red meat unless you find the Harvard School of Public Health lacking the correct credentials also.
and your point is?
as stated
Regardless, I like meat and I will continue to eat meat.
Yesterday for lunch I had a cup of miso soup, seaweed salad and brown rice. Is there hope? Seaweed salad is one of my favorite dishes along with a once a week steak.
elk a whole new image of you with your seaweed salad, miso soup, and brown rice emerges…
Louise,
Go to a mirror and look at yourself.
Notice the eyes on the front of your skull instead of the side?
Pull back your lips.
Notice those four pointy teath, Called K-9s.
your trying to connect the consumption of meat with the livestock industry in some fanciful way as if one has to do with the other.
pretty disingenuous
Jeff E – I eat meat; I suspect that I’m similar to several other omnivores on here who are pretty careful about the meat they eat (elk, deer, local grassfed beef).
But for the vast majority of Americans, the meat they eat is industrially produced. In most cases, the connection between meat consumption and the meat industry is far more than “fanciful.”
Just looked up the latest obesity stats: 35.7% of American adults are obese. Wow! http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html
Sure, there are other factors (sugary sodas, high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils)besides meat consumption leading to these outcomes. But, it seems like the standard burger in a sit-down restaurant now is 1/2 pound, growing from a quarter or third.
Elk275 sounds like he’s active enough to eat a 17oz steak now and again if he’d like. But most Americans are eating way too much of everything, and probably eating way too much unhealthy meat, made that way by feeding animals huge amounts of subsidized grain.
SAP,
I eat meat to. I just bought a half beef.
It was raised totally hormone ,and antibiotic free, and was finished for 60 days on organic wheat.
It cost me less than what is charged in the stores per pound, cut and wrapped.
The point is that if one “chooses” to eat meat from a commercial source that is, as I said before, personal preference, and has absolutely nothing to do with human physiology, which makes us omnivores.
Point taken, agreeably! I’ve tried to go vegetarian before, and it doesn’t work for me. My best diet is some healthy red meat (with 2-3 meat-free days per week), a good assortment of legumes, lots of greens (especially kale) as available, easy on the bread & pasta, and very limited dairy.
Quality, healthy red meat (like what you just bought) just feels good.
easy on he bread is unfortunately sometimes hard to do. We(my wife and family) grind our own wheat, and I bake our bread. (sigh.) For some reason it seems i never make enough, especially when I make my rice bread, which is a mixture of wheat and rice and nearly translucent, or my sour cream bread, which has to “cure” for aout 36hrs to even be successfully cut.
I am getting ready to break out a loaf or two of pumpkin bread
stats update: we’re approaching 70 percent adult overweight or obese in America.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/overwt.htm
Astonishing. It seems like we would have started to turn this around by now, but it keeps getting worse.
Our gut/digestive tract, I believe, is comparatively short, set up more alla the carnivore. Teeth for tearing/piercing,along with those incisors always good for stripping meat off bones. Then we have those molars curiously set up for, grinding.
Have gone relatively grain free, and feel much better, including 12-15 pound weight loss, for it.
and to add if health reasons were not enough reason to stop or alter a heavy dairy and meat based consumption then the wildlife destructive policies and inhumane farming (factory and other) by the livestock, dairy and giant agricultural businesses present excellent reasons for not eating these products or at least cutting down on them significantly.
Well said, Louise. Industrial animal production has grown exponentially in suffering for animals and unsustainability for the planet. Bird flu, swine flu, mad cow disease, and other dangerously-mutating pathogens are the legacies (not to mention our possible fate) of the animal industrial complex. In addition to heinous animal suffering (unseen, of course, because Big Ag doesn’t want us to know), taxpayer subsidies create unfair advantages that virtually shove cheap meat and misery milk (dairy milk) into consumers’ shopping carts and bodies. (Schools are *required* to serve misery milk if they take part in the National School Lunch Program.)
A plant-based diet will go much farther at reducing world hunger than will recycling protein through animals. It will certainly reduce a helluva lot of suffering for other sentient animals. Anyone interested in exploring this further…
“The animal industrial complex: The monster in our midst”
http://www.othernationsjustice.org/?p=4514
as well as info on factory farming, veganism, etc. elsewhere at the website.
Yep, bacon IS good stuff. Most (all?) of it comes from pigs that never get exercise and eat crappy food (literally?). I like my meat too, but I know that I am what I eat. JUst like stressed grapes make better wine, so animals that must strive to live make better meat. The sedentary animal is the problem, not the solution.