“But I Just Don’t Like The Taste Of Meat”
How many times have you heard someone say I just don’t like the taste of meat?
They usually say this after I’ve told them that they need to eat some form of animal protein at pretty much every meal. Other variations of this utterance include “Red meat is just gross” and ” I just don’t like the texture”.
I have this conversations all the time… particularly with women. I think I’ve finally figured what lies at the source of this problem. For their entire lives, these women have been told over and over to memorize the following equation:
Red meat = Saturated Fat = Cholesterol = Early Death and/or Getting Fat
If you were bombarded by this message for 30 years, how would you respond? Certainly, one of the most common responses would be to convince yourself that you don’t even like the taste of meat. Logic being, if you just tell yourself “I don’t like meat, I don’t like meat” enough times, eventually you’re going to believe it. Right?
Here is the truth though. Meat is F$%KING delicious. Humans are evolutionarily designed to eat meat. We’ve been doing it for thousands of years. There is a reason cavemen weren’t vegetarians.
Whatever your mind may think, your body wants meat. You just need reprogram what society has been telling you (incorrectly) for most of your life.
We Paleo People need to be wary of falling into this same mental trap.
Here is a list of things that are absolutely delicious:
– Ice cream
–Beer
–Waffles
– Peanut Butter M and Ms
– Insert whatever your non- Paleo weakness is here
Oh My God! Did he just admit that waffles are delicious!?! Yes I did. But isn’t Robb Wolf going to appear out of a cloud of coconut flakes and beat him to death with a pound of grass fed meat?
Repeat after me. ” Some non- Paleo foods are delicious”. One more time “Some non – Paleo foods are delicious”. Does this mean you should eat them? No. Does this mean they don’t make you feel like crap after you’ve eaten them? No. But does this mean it’s ok to admit that they taste good? Yes.
Don’t lie to yourself and say these foods don’t taste good. Your brain is hardwired to like the taste of sugar. It’s OK to say that. Release the guilt. Believe me, it’ll be healthier in the long run.
Personally, I don’t trust the person who can’t recognize that there are some foods that are bad for you, that also happen to taste delicious. Just because they taste good, doesn’t mean I’m going to eat them though. Make sense?
Remember Erasmus’ Eighth Rule from last week:
If you have frequent temptations, do not worry.
Begin to worry when you do not have temptation, because that is a sure sign that you cannot distinguish good from evil.
16 comments
Absolutely love this. Even though the red meat is bad mantra was around when I was growing up, I just always LOVED steak (especially medium rare/rare), so I fortunately avoided that mind trap.
And yes, of course, those other things taste great. Food companies spend gazillions of dollars researching to find the perfect combination of sweet/salt/fat that lights up our taste buds like Christmas trees. But try eating some of the more processed foods after being paleo for awhile…all I taste now is artificial oils and chemicals. Ice cream is still delicious. But Twinkies? Hell no!
After this post, I know I’ve made the transition to a paleo mindset. The picture of all the meat looks way more appetizing than the waffles (though those look delicious too.)
I kind of eased in to eating paleo and never noticed processed foods tasting gross…they all still tasted delicious to me! Now that I’ve been eating a much more strict paleo diet for the last 4 months, I’m noticing more and more that I don’t like the way processed foods I used to love now taste. Some brands of ice cream completely taste like chemicals to me and leave a nasty taste in my mouth. Pure ice cream (sugar+cream+vanilla) tastes AMAZING.
I’m not trying to sound all high-fallutin’ or nothing, but I’d rather pick the strawberries and cream off the waffles and eat those… but only because I know now how bad waffles would make me feel.
There certainly was a time when all those grains & sugars would’ve hit the spot, but like Ellie, I’m not even able to really enjoy the chemical-laden monstrosities any more at all.
Ice cream, though, will always hold a special place in my heart, and a rightful place in the pantheon of all-time best cheats.
Adam-
I’m in total agreement! I can’t even remember the last time I ate a waffle. I don’t eat them because of the way they make me feel. With that being said, that doesn’t mean they don’t taste good going down.
For me, it’s only the first bite—or half of it—that tastes good, though. I’ve got kids, and sometimes they have foods that remind me of days past… so I try a nibble… and 9 times out of 10, I end up spitting it out into the garbage. (Sorry if that’s nasty.)
My memories are sweeter than the present-time food, so to speak.
“The average American eats meat as part of two or even three meals a day–and ALL THAT MEAT IS PUSHING PLANTS off the table.” (Michael Pollan) In bowing down to the protein God let us not forget our veggies…
I’m speaking mostly to upper-middle class white girls in this post. Pollan is talking about a different issue entirely.
——-
The question to always ask, as Mr. Wilson always likes to say is, “What is the one part of eating like this that scares the crap out of you”?. That is exactly what you need to do usually. It could be eating more meat, more veggies, no booze, or giving up diet coke. In your case, I know it is eating more meat, not adding more veggies.
Jon, you were too forgiving. Meat is not pushing plants of the table. Bad plants are pushing good plants off the table. We SHOULD eat meat with two or three meals a day. We should then push the processed dense plant material off the plate with fresh green plant material.
I will also take the “I don’t like the taste of meat” thing a bit further. For most women (girls really, since I think the genesis of this is middle school and high school) the not liking of meat is tied up into some insidious body image issues. It is a way to outwardly express control over your body. The important part about not liking meat was the ability to tell people that you did not like meat so people knew that you took your appearance seriously. This is not dissimlar to many people who belong to a gym more for the ability to say you have gone/belong than to achieve any level of health.
And not liking deliscious junk food is often the same thing. I fully recognize that the paleo evangilizing that comes from our community is sometimes that same desire to outwardly express your control over your diet and body. The people who say cake is gross now that they eat paleo are expressing the same tendancy as the people who say they don’t like meat.
I’ll also add that the idea that “meat is pushing veggies off the table” is a false choice. Our nutritional prescription includes both, they aren’t mutually exclusive.
Pollan might have well said “the average American eats meat as part of two or even three meals a day–and ALL THAT MEAT MADE IT RAIN IN NORTHERN ARIZONA YESTERDAY.”
The first clause has nothing to do with the second.
Unrelated to meat or rain forecasts in northern Arizona:
I had a dozen Georgetown Cupcakes in my possession for the last 24 hours and did not eat a single one. I was even in the store picking up my order — which they messed up, which caused me to be there longer, which caused them to offer me a free cupcake while they righted the situation — and I still didn’t have a cupcake.
Victory.
So proud of you. Gold star for the day.
I would have eaten it.
Only 2-3 times a day? Amateurs.
LeeAnn, I’m speechless. I would have crumbled.
LeAnn: I’m pretty sure that’s some kind of crime against nature. That said, congratulations to you and your will power.
I eat bacon or sausage for breakfast every.single.day, plus meat at lunch and dinner; I’ve lost 5 pounds in two weeks doing so.
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I honestly have never liked real meat. My mom used to give it to me as a baby and I would just spit it out. I thought I liked meat for a while because I could die for some McDonalds chicken nuggets or a hot dog, but then I learned that those types of things are barely, if at all made out of any real hardy meat. Steak, pork, grilled chicken, even most fish all make me want to gag.
Idk, maybe I just have some genetic mutation. My cousin is the same way.
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