Annie I noticed your post on CS about the fat content of lean beef. What I do is take off as much fat from the meat as I can by hand then boil it for about 45 min, then when it cools skim off all the fat that surfaces. I then cut it up into little cubes and brown it with veg broth. I put the little cubes in sandwitch bags and stick em in the freezer to mix on occasion with my rice and steamed veggies.

My question is am I still kidding myself that this is almost fat free meat or not? I like a little meat once in a while but I don't want the fat.

Other folks. How do you get fat out of meat or do you?.....Kirk

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001

Answers

I'm sure that further reduces the fat content even more Kirk! Good idea about boiling it to "float" the fat out of it!

Good for you for being concerned about reducong the amount of fat in your diet. Most folks can eat a little meat once in awhile and do jst fine, I sure haven't totally given up Ben and Jerry's ice cream, but have it once in awhile in rationed 1/2 cup servings, not the entire carton like most folks eat it!!!

Sensible moderation is the key to a heart healthy diet, that and following the indicators that yearly blood work results are telling you, as long as your total cholesterol is 150 or below, heart disease will be essentially non-existent. If your cholesterols levels allow it, you can indulge in more frequent "goodies", if not, you really have to make some more cuts, or increase your aerobic exercise amounts, whatever it takes to get that level below or at 150. Totally avoiding hydrogenated oils and fats works wonders too, reading labels like a fanatic is required to reduce and eliminate these "bad boys"!!!

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001

Well, Annie, here we go again, eh? :) [ Annie and I are in TOTAL disagreement about this topic]

Since natural food, natural farming,and nature-based healing and nutrition are my passions, this is a subject I have spent years on. Annie has found a program that has apparently worked well for her,and of course no one argues with success. However, to me, it is the standard line of thought from our government and the corporations it serves.

This is the eating program we have been told is good for us for the past 35 years or so, about when my dad has his first heart attack. This is just anecdotal,of course, but its one of the reasons I became interested in alternatives: he is still alive, although has little quality of life anymore, has always done everything his myriad doctors have told him, while they've cut him up countless times, bypasses, balloons, stints, kidneys surgeries, pacemakers,prostate,ad nauseum. He eats his margarine, drinks skim milk, everything low fat, takes all the freaking meds they hand him, EVERYTHING the American Heart Assn recommends, like a trooper, a trooper with out a brain, IMO. Course troopers aren't supposed to think for themselves, are they? He and my mother walk religiously every day, (when he's not recovering from surgery). Its helped a lot.... NOT

I think its interesting that you mentioned Ben and Jerry's , cuz I absolutely believe that sugar, and high carbs in general, are the biggest culprits in heart disease, and most probably implicated in cancer, high blood pressure, CFS, and certainly diabetes, crohn's, the epidemic of gluten intolerance and other digestive disturbances,and obesity. I DO NOT believe that for most people, clean, grass-fed animal fat is a bad thing. Quite the contrary, I think its essential to the good health of most people, with variances according to ethnic ancestral background. I have many reference books on this subject, and love to talk about it, cuz it gets my juices flowing, especially when I hear this stuff STILL coming from physicians who have, IMO, done irrepairable damage to more than one generation's health with this line of thought.

If you are interested in a good volume about the benefits of animal fat in the human diet, contact me. One of em is a cookbook a textbook, and so much more.,We sell it on our website cuz its essential that we share this knowledge. Its loaded with quotes, anecdotes, studies, history, examples from other cultures and their diets and how it relates to their health.We are NOT a healthy country, and we are spreading our disgusting manufactured "food" all over the globe.

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001

Interestingly enough...my cholesterol total has dropped in the last couple of years that we have been buying locally grown, pastured-raised beef! We usually eat beef in some form 2 or 3 times a week. I'm also drinking much more of my own goats milk (used to sell all of it!). Now I tell folks who come to buy milk that if I have enough for myself then they can buy what's left!! Aren't I good at P.R.!!?? My doctor had suggested a few years ago to drink soy milk and no red meat...too fatty. I think the store beef was too fatty. Even trimming as much as I could, I still could not make it lean enough! Now, whether it really was the fat in store meat that was a problem or something else in that meat...I don't know. My doc asked at my last checkup what I'd done to lower my cholesterol. I told her I was drinking MORE whole milk and probably eating MORE beef! Don't think she appreciated that answer :-)! Oh yeah...I'm also making sure to use more goats butter in my diet! Em...how do I get to your website?

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001

Hey EM, I'd be interested in your website...can you put in a link or address? I didn't realize you have one and it sounds interesting.

I am an omnivore. I eat meat, grains, vegetables, etc. I just do my best not to eat plastic foods. I was over at friends' for a potluck and we always put little signs on foods others might not know. That way no-one is surprised that the homemade salsa is hot. There was a little sign that said 'Wow!' by one bowl of chips. I ate some and thought it was cute that someone liked them enough to put a swell sign on them. I didn't care for them and after a few handfuls moved over to the other bowl. Needless to say I was sick as a dog later. They were the Wow brand fat-free nightmares. No thanks, I'll stick to the real chips.

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001

Anne...when I was in high school, I was told that a human being's digestive system was set up just like a pig's or a bear's. Guess that makes us all omnivores!! But I sure would not want to eat some of the "stuff" I feed our pigs :-)!

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001

Oogh, I knew that synthetic fat, Olestra or whatever it is, was bad news as soon as I heard about it. Refuse to try it. Geez, and way back in my dark ages, I was all excited when they came out with Equal! >:-[

Kirk, I buy organically raised beef, and I haven't been worrying about the fat. You guys might inspire me to do so . . . . Anyway, back in some other of my dark ages, when I belonged to Weight Watchers, we would broil our hamburger (usually bought the leanest ground beef I could find, ground round at that time) on a rack above a pan. The grease and juice would drip below. You have to be careful not to cook it too much that way or it is horribly dry. Meat continues to cook a little while after you take it off the heat, so plan accordingly. We usually would pour off the fat/juice into a bowl, chill it to harden the fat, pick off the fat, and then use the left over juice for various dishes, chili, etc.

It sure was interesting being on WW over the years. Their original guidelines only allowed WHITE bread (yuck, store bought, so they could be sure of what was in it). My mom ignored that and used whole- wheat. Several years later, whole wheat was suddenly allowed. There are lots of other examples like that from all the years various family members were on Weight Watchers. None of it "took" permanently in changing our habits, sad to say!

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001

Well, shucks, ok, since you asked!

WiseSpirit

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001

Ok, I'll try again......

WiseSpirit

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001

Hey, I found it! Is that a V.W. van?? Didn't know they still made them :-)!! Thanks Aunty Em.

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001

Yup, its a 1970 VW camper pop-top. We love it....

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001

Hi EM, great site! I'm recovering from back surgery so I can't get out much. The internet has been a life saver for me,I've spent more time on the internet this last week than I have in the three years we've had a computer. I love this forum. Daryll (mostly lurking)

-- Anonymous, October 19, 2001

Daryll..wow, back surgery! Hope everything is okay and you'll be back on your feet soon!!!

-- Anonymous, October 19, 2001

Actually EM, we agree more than we disagree on this subject, we both agree that a as natural as possible return to whole grains and fruits and vegetables is the best basis of a health diet, and as long as the portions are fairly small, like 4 ounces a day, organic grass fed beef, pork and chicken are fine. It is just that most folks cannot stop at 4 ounces, America is a gluttonous country!

Whatever works to keep your ateries running "free and clear" is what stops and reverses heart disease. And the ONLY way to judge and guage that is with a yearly cholesterol check, and have them run all the cholesterol checks, HDL's, LDL's, and triglycerides because the levels of all of them will tell you how to change your diet.

A cholesterol level at or below 150 is needed to achieve a reversal of heart disease, how you get to that level is unimportant, but you gotta know it!

I also agree that the way too high sugar consumption is quickly killing us all with adult onset diabetes plus a whole lot of other diseases too, my rationed amount of Ben and Jerry's is a once a week treat that I measure out carefully.

Whole wheat and whole grain oat products are a big part of my diet, white flour is a poison no one should consume! But, for some they cause problems, we are all different in our bodies reaction to foods, it is a constant learning process that never ends.

For some folks, giving up animal protein and especially dairy products brings an immense relief of arthritis type symptoms. I am one of those people. If you want to see if it helps, try it for a week, and see if you see a difference in your joint pain, it will show up that quickly if you are sensitive to those products or not, but for some, it is nothing short of a miracle. It didn't matter if the animal protein and dairy was organic or not, it caused the same joint trouble for me.

-- Anonymous, October 19, 2001

Well I was really mostly concerned with weight gain. I didn't inherit money from my ancesters but they gave me some great fat cells!! If I over consume fat I gain right away. this leads me to the conclusion that at least for me that ..........

I am addicted and the craving does me in........

or I metabolize fat differently than other people.

Guess it up to each person to figure it out.....Kirk

-- Anonymous, October 20, 2001

Right, Kirk, it IS an individual thing. What drives me crazy is the way the government/media continually tells people that everyone should adhere to their low-fat, high carb program, which "surveys say" we try to do, all the while getting fatter as a nation every year. I also do NOT believe that cholesterol has much of any effect on overall heart disease rates, but monitoring it surely makes alot of companies rich. From cholesterol-lowering drugs to anti- depressants "needed" by those whose cholesterol is naturally "high" and cannot please their physicians, to selling gobs of phoney foods like low -cholesterol eggs, low-fat milk, and a litany of manufacturesd soy junk.

Thousands of us, like me, eat all the fatty animal foods we want, every day, just like our ancestors did, and have low-cholesterol, (for what its worth), good HDL andLDL and homocystein numbers, and just don't get sick. My grandparents lived this way, and all lived to a ripe old age.No arthritis, no cancer, no diabetes, depression, none of the common things that plague modern humankind. But the minute we start introducing the carbs (even whole grains in other than very small amounts), the weight comes on, the numbers go up, the joints start aching, edema sets in, depression arrives, brain fog and food cravings make an appearance.

Course these are just the physical manifestations of physical stimulii; most probably the spiritual/mental is even of more signifigance in our health, which is another fascinating subject. For instance, the connection between coronary artery disease and a closed, or at least, restricted, heart.

-- Anonymous, October 20, 2001

Isn't it amazing how different everyone's bodies are? My husband is slim, and can eat anything. When he had his yearly checkup, his tests came back at only a 2% chance for heart disease. He doesn't have any food sensitivities or allergies at all. Now me, I can't eat tomatoes, citrus, strawberries, cow's milk, sugar, beef, pork, wheat, soy,chocolate, coffee, and probably some other foods that I'm trying to track down because I've been bothered with eczema and stomach trouble lately. Oh, I hope it isn't eggs or corn. But I wouldn't be surprised if it was. I was one of those ADD kids, but I was zoned all the time on food. I can tell now that something is bothering me because I've been nervous lately and find myself pacing sometimes and I just can't concentrate. But I know I'll feel much better when I find out what it is. Have you ever noticed though, that you crave what isn't good for you. Oh, this week I would have loved a cinnamon roll or apple fritter, or something sweet, cinnamony, and baked!

-- Anonymous, October 20, 2001

Yeah, Vicki, its wonderfully true isnt it, that our cravings ususally indicate sensitivies/allergies. If you are interested in alternative medicine, and a way to treat these allergies, please investigate NAET. I cleared up every one of mine with this energy medicine; its incredible. If you don't believe ME, ask Dee on this forum, when she tried it I believe she called it a miracle.

-- Anonymous, October 20, 2001