Vegheads in meat world

[mcark]

It's difficult being a vegetarian here in southern United States. I have the will power to refrain from eating meat but I have to constantly read labels for sneaky things that I hadn't expected like my beloved cornbread mix. I thought I would be able to have white beans (no ham) and cornbread because that's a staple recipe here that I was raised on (it's a popular meal because one bag of beans can feed a whole family). I looked on the box and lard is included and I've seen similar things on tortilla packaging ( I like to make a markadilla, a quesadilla that I perfected and I'm waiting for Mexico City to give me the honorary keys to the city but I'd settle for a nobel peace prize in culinary classics (like that exists). I haven't been to Espana but it seems the love for pork is very similar to the region where I am from, so my question is why do we need to throw animal fat into everything? I'd love to hear people from Spain address this, too.

[Edith]

so my question is why do we need to throw animal fat into everything?

True, olive oil is much better than using animal fat, which clogs up your arteries. I'm not a real vegetarian but I don't eat meat every day, and I never use things like lard.

[Legazpi]

I think lard was used in the UK because it is cheap, especially considering there was a couple of decades of food rationing in the UK during and after WW2 (which also must have killed off a lot of British cuisine in general). Olive oil was (and to an extent still is) regarded as something exotic there.

[greytop]

I'd say that they should be made to put a label on foodstuffs saying "vegetarian/vegan friendly" or clearly state exactly what is in them - but don't take away the rights of the majority of us who like eating meat, lard etc.
It's just one of those things we have to agree to disagree about.
With things like salt, sugar you can at least add more if they reduce levels in foods, but trying to get the taste of meat products back into things that have had them removed is not so easy.
Give consumers more choice - don't restrict what they already have.

[Edith]

Give consumers more choice - don't restrict what they already have.

I agree, that's my opinion too. But personally I settle for olive oil whenever possible, for health reasons.

@ Legazpi,

In Holland, olive oil has become quite popular over the past few years, and it's now a standard food item in our supermarkets. Many people buy extra virgen.

[Edith]

P.s.: I have read somewhere that eating pork was actually encouraged after the Reconquista, almost as an act of defiance after centuries of Muslim rule (Muslims eschew pork). Thus, eating pork became some sort of a cultural statement, a form of nativism so to speak. I don't know whether this story is really true, but perhaps it helps to explain Spain's historical fondness of pork.

The ancient Jewish taboo on eating pork may have similar origins: their enemies were pork-eaters, which may have prompted them to stop eating it. Food, history, and culture are often closely connected.

[ValenciaSon]

I wonder if anyone thought of using Pata Negra lard.

[Edith]

I wonder if anyone thought of using Pata Negra lard.

But it's almost all muscle! ;D

[O_Fortuna]

It's difficult being a vegetarian here in southern United States. I have the will power to refrain from eating meat but I have to constantly read labels for sneaky things that I hadn't expected like my beloved cornbread mix.
Yeah, it would surprise most people what they put into packaged foods, most of which is not even necessary!

so my question is why do we need to throw animal fat into everything? I'd love to hear people from Spain address this, too.
Perhaps it stems from a tradition of wanting to use up every part of the animal.

[ValenciaSon]

so my question is why do we need to throw animal fat into everything? Because it was quick calories in a time when every hunted and grew their food

[mcark]

I'd say that they should be made to put a label on foodstuffs saying "vegetarian/vegan friendly" or clearly state exactly what is in them - but don't take away the rights of the majority of us who like eating meat, lard etc.

I completely agree and wasn't saying that we should restrict the use of lard. I just don't understand why it is used in cornbread. It shouldn't be rocket science to read a nutritional chart and the list of ingredients, either. I noticed that tortilla packages are starting to say "not made with lard" which is good because I make the world's greatest quesadilla!

[greytop]

... because I make the world's greatest quesadilla!
We're all coming round for dinner!

[O_Fortuna]

It shouldn't be rocket science to read a nutritional chart and the list of ingredients, either.

But it is, due to the lack of nutrition education.

I heard how they found that most kids' foods at restaurants contain about 1/3 of their daily calories, and a spokesperson on behalf of the restaurants said that parents should monitor what their kids eat.. Well, many of these parents have unhealthy eating habits themselves and dont have sufficient knowledge when it comes to nutrition, so they of course they are not capable of steering their kids in the right direction...

[Xavier]

I do not want to intrude, but having had a few problems of my own, and not getting any answers from doctors, I did a fair amount of reading over a period of about three years. A book I absolutely recommend is "The China Study" by professor T. Colin Campbell, now retired from Cornell University. While I am not in a position to scientifically debate his arguments, he presents over 900 scientific references, and gives extremely convincing arguments as a scientist, why it is a bad idea to eat more than a certain percentage of animal proteins.
Another one along the same lines, written by an American surgeon, Caldwell Esselstyn "Treating and preventing heart disease" gives an excellent presentation on the leading cause of cardio-vascular disease, which is the number one killer in the Western world, namely cholesterol. And how does one get the bad cholesterol? By eating animal, not vegetable, protein. The list of books goes on and on, but I will spare you the pain. I will finish by saying that what most people get in the form of nutritional information are the commercials sent out by the big ag and food firms.

[O_Fortuna]

I will finish by saying that what most people get in the form of nutritional information are the commercials sent out by the big ag and food firms.

I couldnt agree more.
Fast food restaurants and "healthy options" is a hoax. They dont care about the health of the consumers, they just want your money, so they do whatever they can to get you to buy their food, including marketing their "salads" as healthy.. Ok, so maybe a salad of iceberg lettuce isnt necessarily unhealthy, but one can do much better. And let's not even talk about the quality of ingredients used..