Will You Pay For Higher Standards In Food Production?

[BecciMac1987]

If there was a drive through that sold healthier, free range food then fine, but as far as I know the only drive throughs round here are Maccy D, BK and KFC. And sometimes when you need a quick junk fix they are fab. Much quicker than cooking at home, and you havnt even got to wash up!
The rest of the time I munch pasta, yummy!

 

[geo7x]

You have a family (daughter at least I gather), do you feed them McDs as well? Wouldn't you rather they had a more wholesome meal?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

If there was a drive through that sold healthier, free range food then fine, but as far as I know the only drive throughs round here are Maccy D, BK and KFC. And sometimes when you need a quick junk fix they are fab. Much quicker than cooking at home, and you havnt even got to wash up!
The rest of the time I munch pasta, yummy!

So basically, unless free range food is sold at your convenience, you're not ethically/morally bothered at all about where your food comes from or how it is produced?

Free range food products are only becoming more common because more and more people are becoming aware of the issues surrounding factory farming and are opting for free range food options- and this increase in free range food popularity is decreasing the price costs of producing free range food products as they become more economically viable businesses to do. If you want to ever have free range food at your convenience, then you've got to support the cause to make this a possibility. edit: The less factory farm products you buy and the more free range products you buy, the more you are actually doing to help things for the better (and help get that free range product convenience fast food shop) .

 

[BecciMac1987]

Nope my daughter isnt allowed it cuz of the high salt content, she eats a lot of veg (fresh, prepered, steamed, then frozen in kiddy portions, defrosted as needed), potatos and chicken (supermarket own, frozen then defrosted and grilled as needed). But the chicken is probably farmed, so morally no better than maccyD (except obv nutritionally). Oh, I also work in a big chain resturant and we use eggs from caged hens and farmed meat.

 

[andywg]

You don't need to eat lots of animal products to put on weight/muscle/have energy etc- my fiance is a vegetarian and he spends 2 hours working out at the gym every other day, he has a musclely physique and weighs just under 14 stone- he fuels his work with meals that contain lots of carbohydrates and cheese and cream and stuff, like pizza, pasta and sandwich dishes etc.
So basically, its not really a valid excuse to say that you have to eat meat if you want to be built like a brick or do high energy consuming work etc.

Muscles come from protein, energy comes from carbs. 14 stone is not large at all. Lots of carbs sounds like someone doing more cardio work. You want more muscles and strength? Then you need protein, it's that simple. If I was to replace the protein in my diet with carbs I would watch my lifts go down and my waist expand.

I could in theory cut meat from my food intake, but that would mean having to up my protein shake intake. Without my protein shakes I would be on huge amounts of meat. Take Johnny Wilkinson, he used to eat up to 13 chicken breasts in a day to maintain his international strength and power levels.

Want strong muscles? Need protein.

Cooking doesn't need to be a stressful energy consuming experience, it is very possible to chill out and relax while cooking (because you have to concentrate at the task at hand, it takes your mind off any other stresses or worries you have in life, and allows you to relax and happily work on something that is achievable and rewarding etc). Time-wise, there are thousands of good recipes that take as little as 20-30mins and there are hundreds of books devoted to such recipes. You don't need to cook every day to reap the benefits, even home cooking twice a week can save money and ensure there is plenty of cooked stuff in the fridge ready to be heated up and eaten at any moment in the following days etc.

As Nina pointed out, that would have me eating dinner at an extremely late time. Also, for me cooking is not a relaxing thing. Spending time cooking for a living put paid to that. All I can think about is how long it will take to cook, clean up after the cooking and then eat.

Remember what I said about the art teacher; something that is fun and easy for you is not necessarily so for others. There would be nothing worse for me than to start driving home and then realise after the drive I have to spend 20-30 minutes cooking before I can finally sit down and relax.

I understand what you are saying. The thing is though, i just can't stand people that have no concern whatsoever for the welfare of animals, don't such people bug you too?

Not greatly, everyone has different priorities. Evolution will favour the genes of one who prefers to think of themselves and their offspring above all others.

I could equally argue that you are even worse in this respect- you call my tabacco a drug for pleisure, but you forget that your fast food burgers and nuggets are purely for pleasure too (they are not necessary for healthy diet etc) and that animal ranching plays an even bigger part in forest deforestation;

While this has been covered somewhat earlier, Arfie eating junk food serves a true practical purpose: the need to eat to maintain a steady internal body temperature. There are absolutely no positives to smoking, but even a KFC or Maccy D can provide nutrition.

Well as said no one has to eat meat every day, and if you have no time to cook anything but ready meals for every day of the week then it's a bit worrying. There probably are free range products out there that are quick to prepare and cook even if they aren't complete "ready meals", but I don't know I don't eat meat.

You don't have to eat it every day, but getting enough protein in without resorting to liquid protein is pretty hard without it. The thought of having a protein shake with every single meal I eat every day does not appeal.

The time factor was a response to doing a full roast chicken on one day, and then using the left overs in various other meals the next days. Nice in principle, but for some it just doesn't work.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Muscles come from protein, energy comes from carbs. 14 stone is not large at all. Lots of carbs sounds like someone doing more cardio work. You want more muscles and strength? Then you need protein, it's that simple. If I was to replace the protein in my diet with carbs I would watch my lifts go down and my waist expand.

I could in theory cut meat from my food intake, but that would mean having to up my protein shake intake. Without my protein shakes I would be on huge amounts of meat. Take Johnny Wilkinson, he used to eat up to 13 chicken breasts in a day to maintain his international strength and power levels.

Want strong muscles? Need protein.

He is working for both muscle gain and weight loss in certain area's (and is progressing very well BTW)- 14 stone is certainly not skinny for his height (about 6ft tall). He gets the protein in his diet from stuff like cheese and cream based dishes. There's nothing wrong with eating meat, however i think there isn't really a moral/ethical excuse for eating battery farmed products unless you have no other choice too or something etc.

Not greatly, everyone has different priorities. Evolution will favour the genes of one who prefers to think of themselves and their offspring above all others.

Of course everyone has different priorities, however evolution isn't necessarily about ethics/morality. Lets phrase the question differently- how do you feel about fishkeepers who don't care about the welfare of their fish at all? Surely you must have some opinion about the compassion other people have towards animals?

While this has been covered somewhat earlier, Arfie eating junk food serves a true practical purpose: the need to eat to maintain a steady internal body temperature. There are absolutely no positives to smoking, but even a KFC or Maccy D can provide nutrition.

Morally/ethically that still doesn't make eating Arfie KFC meals any better considering that he doesn't need to eat KFC anymore than i need to smoke- he is not eating them for nutrition (who in their right mind would want to eat such food for nutrition anyway? KFC meals are some of the most nutritionally inferior meals out there on the countries menu). And while smoking isn't going to provide me with nutrition or anything (its ridiculous comparing it to food in this respect since tobacco is not a food- its like comparing chalk to cheese), it does provide some positives and that is that i find i very enjoyable and de-stressing, which is why i smoke.

 

[Splatter]

I could in theory cut meat from my food intake, but that would mean having to up my protein shake intake. Without my protein shakes I would be on huge amounts of meat. Take Johnny Wilkinson, he used to eat up to 13 chicken breasts in a day to maintain his international strength and power levels.

Want strong muscles? Need protein.

Disclaimer: I felt I had to get involved when I saw this make of it what you will.

Andy, you are wrong in saying that if you cut meat from your diet you need to take liquid protien; I am a vegan and on days I easilly average the 45g protien you're supposed to get, most days I usually eat 50g (without aiming to, I add) so I think to say that if you cut meat out you need liquid protien is an incredibly closed minded view - you can get a good source of protien from well...anything really. A slice of tesco wholemeal has 4.6g of protien Two slices of toast in the morning and you're already 20% of the way there ^^ That's not even counting the rest of the day when really your protien intake should increase due to more structured meals.

And just for the final nail; if what you say is true in that meat is necessary for strong muscles (working from the wilkinson example, forgive me if I mis-interperet your argument) then technically elephants, giraffes, horses... Zebras... Cows... Pigs... etc simply could not attain the level of muscle they have elephants and giraffes especially!

 

[andywg]

Disclaimer: I felt I had to get involved when I saw this make of it what you will.

Andy, you are wrong in saying that if you cut meat from your diet you need to take liquid protien; I am a vegan and on days I easilly average the 45g protien you're supposed to get, most days I usually eat 50g (without aiming to, I add) so I think to say that if you cut meat out you need liquid protien is an incredibly closed minded view - you can get a good source of protien from well...anything really. A slice of tesco wholemeal has 4.6g of protien Two slices of toast in the morning and you're already 20% of the way there ^^ That's not even counting the rest of the day when really your protien intake should increase due to more structured meals.

That's good for you, though most estimates are 0.8g to 1.8g of protein per kg bodymass so that would have you weighing a maximum of 9 stone 10 to be good on that level of protein and to not be involved in musclar exercise. The rough plan for building weight for strength athletes is 1g of protein per 1lb of bodyweight (so around 2.2g per kg). That means to just maintain a body weight of 200lb in decent lifting shape I need 200g of protein per day. So I would need to eat four times the amount you are to get the protein my current diet requires.

Then you enter the area of exactly what proteins you want. Some are better for muscle than others.

And just for the final nail; if what you say is true in that meat is necessary for strong muscles (working from the wilkinson example, forgive me if I mis-interperet your argument) then technically elephants, giraffes, horses... Zebras... Cows... Pigs... etc simply could not attain the level of muscle they have elephants and giraffes especially!

I actually stated that we need protein for muscles and that unless you are going to chow down huge amounts of protein shake, the best way to get a decent amount of protein is through meat, but let's not split hairs on this one.

And you are claiming that those animals have an identical physiology to us? Do you suggest that since Cows live healthy lives on grass we can?

No, of course not. We lack the proper facilities to construct our body from their diets. Also, consider the eating patterns; giraffes and elephants spend a lot of their time grazing because the food they eat is so poor in what is needed to maintain the body. Think how long I would have to spend eating to consume four times as much as you do every day, just to get my protein requirements. It simply is not feasible for someone with a job to spend so long eating.

 

[Splatter]

That's good for you, though most estimates are 0.8g to 1.8g of protein per kg bodymass so that would have you weighing a maximum of 9 stone 10 to be good on that level of protein and to not be involved in musclar exercise. The rough plan for building weight for strength athletes is 1g of protein per 1lb of bodyweight (so around 2.2g per kg). That means to just maintain a body weight of 200lb in decent lifting shape I need 200g of protein per day. So I would need to eat four times the amount you are to get the protein my current diet requires.

Ah okay, I was unaware of how this whole average was calculated, working on what you've mentioned I should probably be getting a little bit more Ah well, thanks! I'll be keeping this thing in mind for future reference ^^

I actually stated that we need protein for muscles and that unless you are going to chow down huge amounts of protein shake, the best way to get a decent amount of protein is through meat, but let's not split hairs on this one.

Sorry, my mistake And I would have to agree meat is the best way to go for protien.

No, of course not. We lack the proper facilities to construct our body from their diets. Also, consider the eating patterns; giraffes and elephants spend a lot of their time grazing because the food they eat is so poor in what is needed to maintain the body. Think how long I would have to spend eating to consume four times as much as you do every day, just to get my protein requirements. It simply is not feasible for someone with a job to spend so long eating.

I see where you're coming from on this one and I'd have to agree, it seems fairly unreasonable to eat loads of food to substitute 'proper' protien. Ah well, protien shakes all round eh? ...Or meat, depending on what your views are on that

 

[andywg]

Ah well, protien shakes all round eh? ...Or meat, depending on what your views are on that

I prefer to include shakes. The downside to meat is that even the best (Turkey breast, high in protein and lowest in fat) will still have more fat and other unwanted nutrients than I want to take in when on a high protein diet.