Eating Red Meat Will Never Be Hip

To all my Hindu friends, it’s time to take down the cow from the pedestal and put it on your plate.

This is a public service announcement. I’m breaking religious chains impeding people from experiencing the mouth-watering taste of fat marble melting in your mouth.

The same goes for my Jewish and Muslim friends. Eat bacon! You’ll thank me for it. There is no need to send me gifts unless you are thinking of a bouquet of bacon flowers. Those I’ll gladly accept.

Red Meat Will Never Be Hip

The paleolithic diet remains in our attention because every time a pundit or celebrity we don’t like gets attacked, what they eat also comes to light, “You will not believe what Jordan Peterson or Joe Rogan did. Oh, and by the way, they also eat meat!!!!”

“But Carlos, the research supporting grain is so much more extensive?”

If one were to look at the history of the Food Pyramid, we would see the origins of a scientific discipline founded on evidence-less opinions.

Modern agriculture solved the problem of limited staples that, up until that point, humanity always struggled with.

The findings that came after that were first promoted by the marketing arms of food manufacturers looking to change the way we eat. There were no three meals and two snacks a day in the past. But then, they had a problem themselves, what to do with the surplus, how to increase profit, and how to get people to eat more.

These nutritional guidelines were not the only thing developed by special interests but also the related agricultural and governmental policies.

It is rich to hear people say that the meat industry backs studies showing that a paleolithic diet could be healthy for some people. Really? Because our modern understanding of nutrition was developed by the funding of special interest groups pushing corn, soy, and wheat.

Non-Controversial Paleo Advocates

I can’t speak to whether or not the meat industry has founded some studies. I haven’t read all studies, but typically, I read the analysis provided by Mark Sisson, Robb Wolf, Gary Taubes, Mark Hyman, and Peter Attia.

Only Sisson and Taubes do not have a research background from this cluster of commentators, whereas Attia and Hyman are both MDs, and Wolf is a former research biochemist. That’s not to say that Taubes and Sisson are not impressive in their own right, but I’m trying to get ahead of disqualifying comments people will make about their credentials.

These “talking heads” have no invested interest in the meat industry or the advancement of a hidden political agenda. They are people who felt that the research available in defense of a grain-based diet was sound.

Peter Attia specifically caught my attention early on in my dietary journey because of this heartfelt TED talk.

https://garbiras.me/media/11d7f6b6ea8198bb3bfa66bc9d9e4250TED Talk: Peter Attia: What if we’re wrong about diabetes?

An Experiment of One

There are implications from science outside ordinary people’s realm of expertise or influence. What you think about suborbital acceleration to launch satellites into space is irrelevant if you are not part of SpinLaunch’s research team.

Advice pertaining to your body should be different; it should be taken with a grain of salt, especially when it can have an impact (positive or negative) on your life.

If the paleo diet only works for ten percent of the population, why can’t that be you? Why shouldn’t you try something different if you have struggled under a traditional diet that relies heavily on European staples like wheat, milk, and potatoes?

Tentatively Biting a Chicken

I was forced to explore these ideas when my wife, who had been a vegetarian for fifteen years, kept struggling with a mysterious stomach ache every night.

She would bend over her stomach after dinner just to get some sleep (if you can call it that) and soothe her intestinal distress. Only after tentatively and hesitantly trying a very mild no-carbs diet was she able to find some gastric peace.

The funny thing was that I also experienced benefits from this diet.

After years of struggling with weight, working out two hours every day to keep a decent, not my goal but a decent weight, I realized that it wasn’t so hard to stay healthy without all the extra cardio workout.

I also had more energy and mental clarity. I struggled with anxiety and depression whenever I was on a vegetarian diet. This might not be true for every vegetarian person. It was true for me.

Because of the knowledge I’ve accumulated with my life’s journey, I was able to tell my mom to get tested when I saw her experiencing severe gastric distress. She found out she has strong allergies to wheat and dairy.

There are subject matters we can’t have an opinion on because our background or lack of credentials, but when it comes to our bodies, we should be able to be active participants in the dialogue.

We should experiment beyond the dogma of the day and of what is approved by inflexible theorists.

The point is that people need to do what makes them feel better regardless of what the research says.

After years of experimenting with my diet, I have found that keto doesn’t work for me, seven years of vegetarianism didn’t work for me either, and paleo is the only diet so far that has worked for me.

But don’t look for that in the science.

You won’t find it there.

And instead, let’s go eat some steaks.