Using Meat Mainly for Flavor

[elleng]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/dining/16mini.html?hpw

[tishaLA]

1. Bourdain, incredibly, talked about this with Rachel last week

It's not his idea, obviously, because people like Pollan et al have been talking about this forever, but to hear Bourdain even mention it was somewhat astonishing to me.

[elleng]

2. Don 't know enough about Bourdain to comment

(have seen his show couple times,) but this is a common 'far eastern' approach; we 'uncivilized' westerners are the 'only' ones for whom meat is THE main course!

[MajorChode]

3. The reason being meat is prohibitively expensive for most

So their approach is borne out of necessity more so than being civilized or not. I happen to think that from a health and culinary perspective it's a great idea to practice. However, we live in a country where a Big Mac is cheaper than an avocado or a grapefruit or even a head of lettuce, which is pretty sad if you think about it much.

[elleng]

4. Correct.

UNFORTUNATELY health etc-wise, BigMac etc becoming SO popular, weight becoming problem in China etc.

[supernova]

5. My mother used to belong

to the Duke Center for Living

http://www.dukehealth.org/services/diet_and_fitness

At that time, in the mid-80s it was centered around the work of Dean Ornish. The very low fat, very low meat guy.

This was pretty much the approach the suggested. Use meat very sparinly,

The other way is to look at your plate as basically a peace sign. 1/3 meat. The other 2/3 veggies or grains. I leave out the grains and just do two or three veggies. :-)