Meat Every Day? (cost, environmental, charge, energy)
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We don't have meat at every meal and never have and we are not even close to vegetarian let alone vegan. I've never read anywhere that says after so much protein the body does not process it. Where is the documentation to back up that statement? Even when I was a child we did not have meat at every meal and I honestly do not know one person who does so I am really not sure where you are getting your information.
Your body can not store protein (muscles are not a "storehouse" and only get bigger if you actually lift weights). So once you have enough amino acids for current needs, your body takes the amine group off (that goes in your urine, not feces) and turns the remainder into carbohydrates or fat. Protein has 4 calories/gram just like carbohydrates. So extra protein is just like eating extra carbs.
Protein is good to have with every meal because it promotes the feeling of fullness and it helps prevent a blood sugar spike. It doesn't need to be animal based though.
So, my thought is that one or two meals a week should have no meat. .
One or two meatless meals per WEEK?
Jeez I am a happy, unashamed meat eater and and maybe eat meat 3-4 times per week. Meaning that 3-4 of my meals may contain meat but the other 18-20 or so are meatless. I seriously cannot imagine eating meat once a day, let alone every meal, without feeling and looking like an over-inflated beach ball. Come to think of it, the dedicated meat-eaters I know all look like over-inflated beach balls.
Normal to me; this is how I was raised - we farmed, fished and raised eggs, dairy and meat animals but animal protein was raised for sale, for income. Not for us to eat. We ate mostly hippie food LOL, back in the 1970s.
Most definitely I agree that Americans eat a crazy amount of protein as it is and daily meat is not a requirement. And usually comes with an added side of cholesterol and fat, and at the expense of fiber.
Yeh, all that excess amino acid just comes out in the stream? And one thing to remember. MAKING all that amino acid involves things like feeder lots, nitrate fertilizers, runoff into rivers, dangerous slaughterhouses, e. coli epidemics. The list goes on and on. What makes it necessary is the desire to put out cheap meat so people can bulk up on it. The "bulk" tends to be fatty because the same Americans exercise less than a generation ago. Watch Biggest Loser. Those are the feeder animals who consume all that cheap meat. If you ate one or two vegetarian meals, you could afford the high priced stuff with very little fat and no hormones or antibiotics.
It's said that Americans have the most expensive urine in the world. The average American eats more meat than is necessary and the kidneys filter out all the excess protein and it just goes down the toilet.
I laughed out loud when I read this. My Internal medicine Dr. that gave me my colonoscopy was talking with me, afterward, and we got on the subject of vitamins. He said he, and his colleagues, who are foreign doctors, laugh about the fact that Americans have the "richest urine on the planet." We are all obsessed with vitamins, and like missik999 said, it all goes down the toilet.
My "documentation" is that a body builder wanted advice on adding protein to bulk up and the coach said more wouldn't be better. You can always take the trouble to go find out things. The body only needs a given amount of ANY nutrient. Too much fat or carbohydrate and you accumulate fat. More protein than necessary for repair and other uses and what do you suppose the body will do with it? Seriously. Just think about it.
One final comment: Just because you happen to know nothing about something doesn't really tell much about whether it is so. Lots of people make no effort to find out things unless its an emergency. I do know that your kidneys suffer from too much protein. And your bones can demineralize.
In my experience when someone brings up information like you have posted without a link to an article, study, poll or other documentation I naturally suspect their source.
I know a lot about diet, nutrition, how to lose a lot of weight without surgery, pills or fads and I cook for a diabetic all the time. In all of the articles and books I've ever read I have never seen that particular item mentioned.
Perhaps next time you bring something like that into a post, provide a link for at least one source. Those who read your post may not question it so much.
While your body may not "store protein" it does use protein just like any other calorie. And let's be perfectly clear, your body only stores calories and some micronutrients -- 100 calories of meat and 100 calories of wheat and 100 calories of lard are still 100 calories that your body can use or store. So, if your body needs 1200 calories you can eat 1200 calories worth of animal proteins and fats; or you can eat 1200 calories of veggie proteins, carbs and fats... your body doesn't care as long as it gets the amount of calories and micronutrients it needs.
If you eat a surplus of any macronutrient, you body will either excrete it or store it. The only difference is how easily the body can break a food down to get the calories out... and it is more difficult for the body to digest proteins & fats, which is why you don't get blood sugar spikes and you feel full faster and longer. If you are eating a lot of carbs and you eat a surplus of protein, then your body is going to use up the easy carbs first, and probably "waste" the extra protein. If you are eating a surplus of carbs, your body is much more likely to store those easy calories as body fat since it's efficient... storing surplus protein & fat calories is much less efficient since they are harder to break down, so your body will store carb calories first if there is a surplus of calories in total.
Every body has different nutritional and caloric requirements, depending on basal metabolic rates and exertion levels. And every digestive system is slightly different, so each processes different foods with different efficiencies and different side effects. The FDA/USDA guidelines are... GUIDELINES.
Some days I do end up with 3+ meals that contain meat. Not often, but I've had bacon breakfasts with turkey sandwich lunches and steak dinners before. Of course, I have days where I don't eat meat at all, or only have meat in one meal, too. And having meat in a meal doesn't mean that you're serving up a big chunk of meat... it might only be a couple ounces of ground beef in your tomato sauce, or sausage crumbles in your rice & beans, or grilled chicken strips in a salad, or a few sardines on toast.
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