RyanHarne.com

When I first discovered that my favorite, on-campus, Indian-curry-like chicken dinner had lost its effect on my palette, I realized that the days until I became a vegetarian were numbered. That was many years ago. A typical dinner for me, today, looks something like: bread (enough to replenish the many lost carbs from cycling), small amount of cheese, handheld vegetables (carrots or celery), and lots of steamed or otherwise cooked vegetables (mainly broccoli, sweet potatoes, lima beans, or peas). The instant reaction from any passerby or family member, upon first hearing that I am a vegetarian, is a shocked response of, “Where do you get your protein?!”

Frankly, I’ve never really known. But, what I do know, is that, with the exception of some super cyclists I know who eat meat, I generally am far fitter and far healthier than the interrogator—an interesting sign that protein isn’t the key to a healthy lifestyle. In my vegetarian days before I began cycling with vigor and my overall exercise was minimal to moderate, I was still in great health and could win any spontaneous running sprint across the drillfield that was thrown at me. It’s not a matter or protein or no-protein, it’s a matter of plants.

Thanks to the recommendation of my roommate, I came across this wonderful presentation done by Mark Bittman, the New York Times food writer and author.

Finally, someone with some facts about how America overeats protein! It’s common knowledge that most Americans are overeating but the truth of the matter is that Americans switched from overeating meats to overeating fruits and vegetables practically all of the heart disease wards in our nation’s hospitals will be shockingly vacant. To be healthy, you don’t need to be a vegetarian or some new-wave eater—you simply need to eat less meat.

How much less meat? Bittman provides the fact that Americans eat 7 times the recommended amount of meat per week, that the typical American will meet his or her weekly protein balance over the course of a single day. This is good news for me after having suffered years of the great protein question from people skeptical of the legitimacy of a vegetarian’s diet.

I don’t get any pleasure out of scoffing at omnivores. Eating meat is entrenched in our culture and all sectors of my friends and family may one day suffer the terrible consequences of heart disease—it’s not something I would scoff at in the emergency room and it’s not something I care to scoff at now. A diet rich—really rich—in fruits & vegetables is a delicious cure to so many health and environmental problems (have you not watched Bittman’s talk yet? I’m practically repeating him… so, watch his talk).

With the summer rolling along, cookouts and bar-b-ques will set an atypically high standard for meat consumption. A single burger from the grill will satisfy three day’s worth of recommended protein. I’d rather fill up on a 4th of July watermelon than stuff myself with a dense slab of the ground-up innards of some soy & corn-fed cow. It’s something to consider. Your health isn’t simply yours—it’s tied to every friend and family member who cares about you and wants you along for another summertime.