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A Matter of Meat
Throughout history, animal meats and animal organs have been used as an important part of quality-conscious approaches to food energetics. People have eaten animal flesh in varying proportions throughout the world for ages, and though there are large populations of both agrarian and hunter-gather peoples who have subsisted on high percentages of plant foods, when animal protein is in short supply many suffer from some form of malnutrition.
Whether you eat meats wild, free-range, factory-farmed (or none at all) is a choice you must make for yourself—a choice I trust you will make based on numerous considerations, and not by sentiment alone.
Historically, animal meats were prepared through the mediation of fire, dried, smoked, fermented, or consumed raw, among other traditional ways.
The most compliant of these methods are marinating, raw, steaming, and boiling. These methods served to impart a mild flavor to meats. On the other hand, the more dominant methods, often preferred because they bring out the strong flavors of meats, are grilling, broiling, frying, and roasting.
White meats, including pork, fish, and poultry, were thought to have activating qualities and were often suggested for those recovering from illness. On the other hand, red meats (beef, lamb, venison) were considered masculine and fit for robust heroes and warriors. In some chapters of history, they were considered one of the few foods fit for the gods.
While the most commonly consumed meat animals are cattle, chicken, turkey, goat, duck, pig, lamb, and fish, traditional cultures throughout the world also consume as staple foods alpaca, guinea pig, monkey, and many other animals that might seem exotic to those uninitiated to such traditional practices.
The actual meat, or muscle tissue, of animals serves two major functions for the animal: to move various parts of the animal’s body, and to supply it with bulk.
Structural Variety
Meats of all types, compared to plant foods, are highly concentrated foods that pack their nutrition into small volumes. The three basic material substances of meat are water, protein, and fat, all of which vary in content depending on the cut, type, and animal. Contrary to popular belief, the protein and fat components from different animals are not all alike, nor do they act alike when absorbed and assimilated in the human body. A protein is not simply a protein—each animal has its own unique character, and this uniqueness permeates every part of the animal, including the quality of its protein and fat.
The structure of meat consists of long, thin cells of muscle tissue that are grouped in bundles and bound by thin, tough sheets of connective tissue that serve to hold them together.
Muscle fibers contain actin and myosin, two proteins called the “proteins of motion.” When these two proteins receive the appropriate message from an animal’s nervous system, they cause constriction or expansion in the muscles of the moving animal.
The textures of different meats—tough, flaky, chewy, etc.—are determined both by the length of fibers contained in the muscle tissue and by the thickness of the connective tissue. Mammals have muscles composed of very long fibers arranged in longitudinal bundles with thick connective tissue. These qualities make mammals’ muscle fibers and connective tissue both longer and thicker than those of fish or chicken. Fish muscle has shorter fibers, separated by sheets of very thin connective tissue. This is why fish meat is more delicate than cow or chicken meat, and why chicken meat has a more delicate texture than cow meat but not as delicate as fish. Chicken muscle has medium length tissue relative to cow and fish.
The different textures of meats determine how a particular type of meat will energetically affect your muscular tissue when consumed. Beef will contribute to hotter, fuller, harder, and denser tissue in your body than the meat of chicken. Chicken, however, contributes to a tight, dry, warm, and spastic effect on your body tissue. Fish meat contributes to a weak, flaccid, and cool tissue condition compared to that produced by meat or chicken. However, red-fleshed fish, tuna, salmon, etc. have a warming and full effect on human tissue and muscle.
Color Variety
Animals have white meat, dark meat, or both, and the lightness or darkness affects the circulation of blood and body fluids in our muscles. As with humans, the blood of animals contains oxygen-carrying hemoglobin, the substance that gives blood its red color. Muscle cells also contain a substance called myoglobin. Unlike hemoglobin, which carries oxygen, myoglobin stores oxygen brought to it by the blood, and then supplies cells with oxygen when needed.
Meats with different colors vary with their concentrations of oxygen-carrying myoglobin. Animals whose muscles need a large quantity of oxygen have a greater storage capacity of oxygen than animals whose muscles need little. Therefore, animals with a greater storage capacity of oxygen (myoglobin) in their muscles have darker meat.
Muscles that are exercised regularly and strenuously need more oxygen than less active muscles. Chickens and turkeys use their legs more than their wings (some cannot even fly) and, as a result, their leg meat is dark and their breast meat, being less active muscle with less oxygen-storing myoglobin, is white. On the other hand, duck, pheasant, quail, and other more active birds generally have darker meat. Lamb and cow, both naturally grazing animals that tend to roam, have more oxygen-rich dark meat.
Dark and light meat also differ in the characteristics of their cellular makeup. This is largely due to the many forms of myosin, one of the basic muscle proteins existing in meat. Rather than get into a lengthy discussion about amino acids, proteins, and so on, suffice it is to say that the quantities and varieties of myosin, along with levels of hemoglobin found in different meats, determines the red or white of meat.
The basic characteristics of red and white cells found in dark and light meat are as follows:
Red Cells /Dark or Red Meat
Red cells are designed to meet the need for slower and more regulated muscle activity and are referred to as slow-twitch fibers. They specialize in burning fat as fuel, a process that requires large quantities of oxygen. These cells also contain more myoglobin and are well supplied with circulating blood.
Beef, lamb, venison, duck, goose, and the legs and wings of chicken are examples of dark meat.
Grass-fed beef ordinarily is a dark red color. However, due to the inactivity of many domesticated cattle through factory farming, their meat is typically quite pale in comparison to their more active natural counterparts. Consequently, commercial beef is often tainted with chemical dyes to give it a deeper color. Veal’s meat is light pink to white, because veal calves are usually bred to be anemic.
White Cells/Light or White Meat
White cells are designed for quick, intermittent bursts of activity with long periods of rest. They are often called fast-twitch fibers. They specialize in burning carbohydrates and are capable of doing this in the absence of oxygen. They therefore contain less myoglobin than red cells and have a reduced supply of circulating blood, as compared to red cells.
Pork, domestic rabbit, frogs, chicken breasts, and turkey breasts are examples of white meat. However, natural free-ranging chickens and turkeys, as well as wild rabbit, have darker meat overall and are more active than their domestic counterparts. Modern pork is a good example of how factory farming has affected the quality of meat. Wild boar, the ancestor of the modern pig, is a very active animal and the meat of the boar is darker than its commercial counterpart, the pig.
Though white cells tend to burn the carbohydrate glycogen (often without the assistance of oxygen) as opposed to fat, this process often produces a residue of lactic acid. Lactic acid is a waste product that can accumulate and limit a cell’s endurance. This is why white cells tend to work only in short and quick spurts. Animals that function in short spurts tend to have paler white meat.
Among fishes, the bottom feeders, along with less continuously active fish, have whiter meat and function with sudden, intermittent bursts of speed. On the other hand, aggressive and continuously active fish have darker meat.
Since white meats tend to burn and utilize carbohydrate (sugar) as fuel when metabolized, an excessive consumption of white meat can lead to strong sugar cravings in the person who eats it. On the other hand, an excessive consumption of fat-burning red meats can lead to strong fat cravings.
Light or Dark?
Many people still believe it is better to eat white meats rather than dark meats because of the proliferation of nutritional propaganda claiming that consuming saturated animal fats is harmful. Eating one and not the other because of fat content is not the issue; rather, you need to consider the energetic effects of different types of meat and how they will affect you.
Perhaps a more relevant matter, in terms of physical health, is the fact that consuming meats of any type is an issue of some qualitative concern, especially when considering the health of most commercially raised animals. Most food animals today are raised with their flesh drenched in obscene quantities of chemicals and preservatives. Nearly half the antibiotics manufactured in this country are poured into factory-farmed animals. Among mammals, especially beef and lamb, grass-fed and not grain-fed (grain is not a natural food for ruminants) are the best, along with free-range poultry, and have long proven to be healthy for humans.
Darker meats tend to have more fat and to utilize and store more oxygen. This gives dark meat the energetic properties of being more heat-producing and to generate a more consistent quality of energy than white meats as they metabolize in the human body. For a hot-natured personality, dark meat is obviously not a wise choice of meats to eat in large quantities.
Light meats, while lacking in oxygen, can yield a sudden spurt of energy—yet this sudden spurt may occur when you least expect it. When that spurt of energy does occur, respiration increases and the heart beats faster. This can lead to nervousness and strong or overly reactive impulses, as well as an increased need for oxygen intake.
Neither type of meat is “better” than the other; they produce different effects, including benefits and drawbacks, depending on one’s individual temperament. The matter of meat, what kind, and how much is a matter of choice—yours.
| EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT ANIMAL FOODS ON HUMAN BODY TISSUE AND MUSCLE | |||
| Mammals | Poultry | Fish | |
| Tissue Structure | long | medium | short |
| Temperament | hot | warm | cool |
| Excess condition | full and firm | tight and inflexible | delicate and flaccid |
| Red meat | White meat | |
| Blood cells | more red blood cells | more white blood cells |
| Oxygen content | more oxygen | less oxygen |
| Type of Motion | slow-twitch fibers | fast-twitch fibers |
| Fuel | burns fat as fuel | burns carbohydrates as fuel |
The Essence of Protein
Protein is the essential building material for the body. It is needed for growth, for tissue repair, to help heal wounds and fight infections, and for muscle definition.
Thermogenesis is a process that occurs when body cells increase their activities to facilitate digestion and assimilation. It is also the process of the production of heat in a human or animal body by physiological processes.
Protein-rich foods increase thermogenesis and thus create an energizing, stimulating, and warming effect in the body. Of the many possible sources of protein, red meat has the strongest thermogenic properties. Fats, especially saturated fats, also have strong thermogenic properties. Animal sources of fat also contain fat-soluble vitamins A and D, which are essential for assisting in the digestion and assimilation process of animal protein.
Some important components of animal protein include: fat, omega-3 fatty acids, CoQ10, vitamin A, the entire B complex, B12, B6, zinc, iron, copper, and iodine.
Amino Acids
The building blocks of protein are called amino acids and are made up of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. There are twenty-two amino acids, twelve of which can be made by a healthy body; the other ten must be supplied by diet and therefore called essential. (They are actually all essential to health; strictly speaking, this term really means “essential to get in one’s diet” or “dietarily essential.”)
If one lacks a single essential amino acid, or if that essential amino acid is low in a particular food that is your only source for that amino acid, then your body will begin to break down its own muscle tissue, harvesting it to compensate for the deficiency. If it continues for extended periods, this compensation process can result in several deficiency problems, along with severe loss of muscle tone. This is why it is so important to be careful with diets low in complete sources of protein.
Amino acids also serve as a buffer for maintaining a normal pH of the intracellular fluid, so an imbalance in amino acids can easily lead to fatigue and overacidity.
Every source of protein has its own unique profile of amino acids that determines its nutritional value and individual identity. Many plant and animal sources contain all ten essential amino acids, but the precise ratios differ among plant and animal sources.
Unlike the amino acid profile of animal protein, which generally match or are fairly similar to human ratios, those occurring in plants are quite different from those in humans. Because of this, most plant proteins are considered “incomplete proteins” and need to be balanced with additional support from other plant protein sources having complementary amino acids or animal sources. One common traditional example of such complementing protein-source pairings is that of grains and beans. Animal protein, often considered “complete protein,” has also served as a traditional accompaniment to grains and beans. When consumed together, these three sources of food make up the ideal balance of amino acids.
Amino Acid Cycle
The amino acid cycle represents how our human body transforms an alien (nonhuman) identity, through digestion and assimilation, into human tissue.
For example, a chicken is a form of protein with a very specific identity based on its amino acid profile that differs from a cow or any other animal or plant protein source. It is also different from our human tissue, yet when we choose to eat the chicken, our biochemistry has to remove the foreign character of the chicken (substrate) and transform it into human tissue. This is accomplished through several stages, through which the animal tissue is broken down and transformed.
The following steps are meant to show the basic process of this breakdown. Naturally, it is far more complex than this, but this will suffice to get the point across.
Disassembling the Protein’s Identity
Configuring Stage
We humans must be able to disassemble the protein identity of a plant or animal and then reassemble it into our own tissue’s blueprint. This is done by the protein source giving up the form given it by nature.
For example, in the African savanna, when a lion hunts and consumes an antelope, the antelope is digested and assimilated into the lion. The lion does not become the antelope, because the lion instead transforms the identity of the antelope into that of the lion. Does the lion take on some of the essence and qualities of the antelope? Of course, just as the antelope has now become the lion’s flesh. The antelope is the essence of the lion’s flesh.
When you eat that free-range healthy chicken, it too becomes you—and to some degree, you become it: you take on qualities of that chicken. Like the lion’s antelope, your chicken is something the human digestive tract has been transforming into vital human tissue for thousands of years, and the same goes for other naturally raised or wild animal sources. However, when you eat that factory-farmed chicken that is riddled with bone disease and laden with antibiotics, hormones, and other toxic substances, you also transform that animal—and all that it is—into your flesh and blood. This foreign invader is not something that has been supporting the integrity of the human species for very long—and it will have a very different effect on your blood and tissue than a healthy version of the same animal.
Since proteins differ in nutritional value based on their amino acid composition and other factors, it is extremely important that you choose the best quality with which to nourish yourself. Also, the transformation of food into human tissue is largely dependent on your personal digestive fire. Therefore, both vital digestion and a healthy, varied diet help to remove a protein’s foreign character and assemble it into our likeness.
Because of a lack of adequate digestive fire, people really are becoming what they eat. Toxic chemicals, trans fats, and other nonfood substances have a way of putting out the fire of life.
The Wild and the Domestic
There are two categories of land animals humans have traditionally eaten: animals existing in their natural habitant (wild animals) and domesticated food animals.
The wild varieties of fowl, deer, rabbit, and other creatures have a distinct advantage that sets them apart qualitatively from their domestic counterparts: they are free to choose and adapt to their environment, an environment naturally suited for them, where nature supplies all the raw materials for their survival.
Survival and the will to live are the strongest energetic factors available to humans through the embodiment of these particular animals. Adaptability to nature, instinct, and keen senses are additional energetic properties reinforced and imprinted on our nervous systems through our food relationships with wild animal foods.
Each wild animal embodies the total sum of its surroundings. When you eat a wild animal, you too embody the total sum essence of the animal’s character and environment. These qualities are recorded into your human nervous tissue and cells. If you choose to consume these animals, the natural law of balance requires active physical interaction with the natural environment through some form of exercise or work.
The second category of animals traditionally consumed for thousands of years is pastured, naturally raised animals. These animals are superior as a food source as compared to the toxin-laden flesh of factory-farmed animals, a class of animals that should be minimized or eliminated from any healthy diet. Just as your plant foods should ideally be organically or biodynamically grown, so too should your animal products be raised in a natural, traditional way.
These days, followers of exclusively plant diets often preach about the association of eating the flesh of animals with anger, irritability, and elevated sensual passions. However, among traditional peoples, meat has been associated with strength, courage, bravery, and a psychological sense of earthly realism.
Followers of meatless diets also unjustly claim superiority above meat eaters in their cleanliness, devotion, compassion, and spiritual idealism. But realistically, while a diet heavy in meat has its share of drawbacks, so, too, can a meatless diet. For many, a meatless diet can result in various forms of malnourishment as well as feelings of instability, fanaticism, and unrealistic idealism. (Not to put too fine a point on it, but Adolph Hitler was, after all, a vegetarian.)
While there may very well be a human predisposition toward consuming plant foods, animal flesh has historically been consumed throughout the world in moderate quantities. In modern times, many people following experimental nonanimal diets for any length of time have found they are unable to process their food completely without some form of animal protein.
Meat takes longer to digest and is digested more slowly than carbohydrates, yet contrary to the claims of some, it is not harder to digest than plant foods. If it is of good quality, meat can be digested completely, with a minimum of waste. Alone, meat is not a complete food, but then neither is any other food “complete,” in terms of fulfilling all of your nutritional requirements.
Like any other food, meat is complete only in the sense of what it is, which is simply a choice—yours—and one that requires the responsibility of making additional choices of foods and activities that will balance it.
By the Hand of Man
A third category of land-animal foods with a brief history includes those of the factory-farmed domesticated order: cows, chickens, turkeys, ducks, sheep, and pigs, etc.
The quality of these industrialized, often genetically manipulated creatures differs greatly from both their ancestors of wild descent and the original, naturally raised domesticated species of millennia past. Not only are these inactive creatures 20 to 30 percent higher in fat than their naturally raised counterparts, but these poor souls have also lost much of their survival instincts and will to live. Their environment is chosen and constructed by man for his own convenience and indulgence. The energetic properties of these mutants are but troubled ghosts of the animals that once were.
Another qualitative difference between naturally raised and factory-farmed animals can be found in the important nutritional component of omega-3 fatty acids. For example, grass-fed beef has a fatty acid profile similar to that of wild game. The body fat of an animal is a reflection of its food, just as it is with us. Grain is not a natural food for cattle; therefore, grain-fed cattle tend to be higher in fat and less active than pastured cattle. Some feedlot cattle have been found to have little to no omega-3 fatty acids. It is said that the ideal ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids is about 4:1. While pastured beef is close to this, factory-farmed cattle can be anywhere from 17:1 to 25:1.
Through overcrowding, deprivation of proper food, improper sanitation, inadequate ventilation, and drug dependency—all components of modern agribusiness—humans have produced mutated strains of livestock with energetic qualities that can only be compared to the insensitive people who created them and those who support the continuation of this madness.
The Cartesian principle, when applied to farm animals, implies that animals are not aware of their emotions and feelings, and therefore are not actual beings—only dumb nutrient sources. This attitude prevails in much of the livestock industry, and it is this very thinking that continues to inspire the distorted minds of the scientists and farmers who indulge in the tortuous and unspeakable acts of physical and genetic manipulation of modern livestock.
Most people tend to view animal foods as sources of protein and other nutritional factors. But there is much more to these creatures than meets the analytical mind’s eye. The hidden qualities of these creatures, which cannot be seen but can be known, include all the experiences of each animal in its environment. Every experience, from birth to slaughter, is recorded in each and every animal’s nervous system and cells to produce the quantity we see in domesticated chickens, cows, pigs, and the rest.
Support natural agriculture and pastured animals as our traditional food sources and avoid, as much as possible, the alternatives—for they truly are poor excuses for food.