Fresh flesh, please?

We all have participated in discussions mocking vegetarians and lusting for meat. This video and article are damn disturbing and make me consider never eating meat from an unknown source ever again.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/a...to-know-and-avoid-this-dangerous-process.aspx

We wonder why the human species keeps getting weaker...


Focus: What risks are you willing to take with your food? Does this sort of reporting impact your diet?

 

I am not going to read the article, nor am I going to read this thread, because I don't need to know whatever it says, or anything like it.

 

My sister read an article about the conditions and hygiene of pig farms a few years ago and has refused to eat pork again. She's now pretty much vegetarian.

I read the same article and cook bacon and eggs for breakfast whenever I have the time.

FOCUS: Huge risks, especially for bacon.

 

"As you may know, I recommend eating as much food raw as possible, including meat."

Wait, what?

 

Heh, I laughed. Although I'm surprised the tattoo artist didn't call her on it before doing it. Any artist worth their salt knows damn near everything about their work, and the products they're using. It's one of the things my wife asks when getting a new tat, being a vegetarian.

In other news, hot dogs are fuckin' vile. White paste? Ha! If by white you mean, a sludgy grey, then I think we're on the same page. Granted, if you bury them in chili and cheese, with a bit of sour cream, then they're passable, but if you've ever seen the production line for a hotdog company, you'll quickly back away.

FOCUS: This shit doesn't worry me, for a couple of reasons. First, I get the majority of my food from farmers and local companies, places where I've taken tours and know how they handle their products. Costs more, yes, but I can see the animal I'm buying before it's slaughtered, and most of the time I'll even know its name. Second, I don't know if I buy into this right off the bat. Seems like a very biased article, with some questionable info paired with a lack of sources*. Beyond that, I don't eat a lot of meat at all these days. I'm trying to adapt to a vegetarian lifestyle, although in my line of work that's near impossible.

I do have a weakness though, and it's smoked and cured meats. They aren't good for you regardless of whether nitrates were used or not. The old methods, like salt and saltpeter, used to cause frequent bouts of botulism, which is derived from the Latin term for sausage interestingly enough.

*the meat glue information is true, however. It's the cancer links I'm less convinced about.

 

I choose to remain ignorant about what goes into my meat.

Mmm, stuck together bacon.

 

I got Salmonella while in Egypt. I thought it was bad there, but then I flew to Switzerland, and caught an 8 hour train ride through the mountains. There were 2 toilets. An Indian family of approximately eight adults and eleventy billion children monopolized them the entire trip, despite my increasingly urgent pleas and then threats. I had 2 pairs of pants with me. Only 1 made it off the train. This doesn't even take into account the food poisoning I got in Vietnam, where a doctor attempted to rehydrate me using an I.V. drip held up by 2 coathangers and my Ipod charger. I say attempted because I'd lost so much fluid at that point they couldn't raise a vein, and the holes where they were digging the needle into my flesh weren't bleeding.

Now, you best fucking believe the hygiene in my kitchen sets a standard that Jesus himself couldn't replicate. There are 3 bottles of hand soap and 1 of dish soap on my sink at all times. Any utensil used to stir meat as it cooks gets washed before getting anywhere near the cooked meat. Anything left on a bench for over half an hour gets thrown out. And if you touch anything in my kitchen without washing your hands, I will stab you. And then clean the knife immediately.

Shockingly, I rarely eat food made by people out of my direct line of sight. And the idea of eating a hot dog, or buying processed meat, provokes roughly the same response for me that 'sounding' does. If you're into it, sure, be my guest, but... ewwww.

 

For the most part I'm all grass fed and organic meat, but I'll definitely slip on occassion and I like to remain blissfully unaware of how my food goes from live animal to my stomach.

Seriously, what the fuck is up with Indians doing this? I use to work at an antique store and an Indian family of 7 went into the cramped bathroom at the same time. When they left there was shit EVERYWHERE and I had to clean it up. I think that experience made me racist... still hasn't stopped me from loving Indian food though.

 

I'm sure I'm going to get an answer that narrows what I can eat even further, but as far as meat glue is concerned, is it generally safe to buy meat that is still on the bone, like pork chops or chicken thighs?

 

I work at a large Canadian grocery chain (and before you all point out I work in IT, I had to intern for six months at store level and was assistant meat manager for three of them) and part of the training was actually visiting our suppliers. Anything like a chop or a steak we sold was fine, either we'd cut it ourselves instore or the meat processing firm we hired would deal with it, but having been there they weren't gluing bits of steaks together that's for sure.

Can't speak for processed meat, but then again, there are enough problems with processed meat without meat glue.

 

I'm choosing to be ignorant about this because I know what my stomach can handle food-wise. I've eaten berries that I've picked from a bush in the middle of the woods, I'm not really concerned with whatever is in the meat I eat.

 

Am I the only one who is kind of upset that they haven't come out with flavored meat glue yet? I think I'd be much more forgiving if the substance holding my many pieces of meat together was a chipotle adhesive.

 

It never ceases to amaze me how people will denounce/demonize hogs because of their hygeine, then go out and eat chicken. If you want to see a disgustingly filthy animal, see how chickens live. And I'm not even talking about chickens in "factory farms" all crammed together. Even chickens in good conditions shit everywhere (like their own nests) and regularly eat their own shit, then preen themselves with those same shit-encrusted beaks.
I still eat chicken though.

FOCUS: For better or worse, I tend to play it fast and loose with my food safety, and it hasn't bitten me in the ass yet.

 

You guys know we're talking about dead animals, right? Like....decaying corpses. They're already pretty gross to begin with if you view them in that light, so it's going to take a lot to spook me.


More seriously, given the monumental amount of bacteria that we encounter and consume on a daily basis, I typically can't muster more than a shoulder shrug at the Terror Du Jour.

 

When I make burgers, I like to put a bit of chorizo into the meat for taste. That shit contains salivary ducts and lymph nodes. And its goddamn delicious.

 

I am sure my eating habits would terrify the average eater. I am not concerned about cleanliness, the expiration date of the food, where it has been before coming to my house etc. I just eat. I've yet to develop some horrible disease, so I think I'll continue the way I've been going.

 

All of the meat that I eat comes from animals that were hand fed only the finest of ingredients, frollicked in lush fields with their animal friends, and died of natural causes after a long and happy life, to immediately be discovered, butchered and brought to MY grocery store. I refuse to believe anything differently.

Although I would probably rather eat a live bug then a hotdog, that is where I draw the line.