Hi Bj–

MRE

Most fryer chickens are kept 12 to a cage for their entire (6-8week) life often enduring mutilation and sometimes death due to their confinement prior to death.

Young cattle sold as veal suffer a similar fate- caged for months in a pen they can’t turn around in, waiting to fatten for slaughter.

If we are sympathetic to the plight of some of the most brutally abused animal food, then either we dramatically increase the production of grass fed, free-range kind of animals who are treated better or we live in shame for the acknowledged cruelty we condone.

Jeff

Thanks, and keep up with the great blog!

Hi Freddy–

Nah, the veggie eggs are fine.  If you like them better, stick with them.

Cheers–

MRE

Dr. Mike, I might add that your books Low Carb Comfort Food Cookbook, and Cookbook Worx have wonderful recipes for vegetarians.

And since I love to bake I also own a book by one of your co-authors, called the Low Carb Baking and Dessert Cookbook.

I also have on order the new Carb Wars cookbook coming out (as you can see, I am a collector of low carb cookbooks and have them all, even dating back to the 1970′s!).

Please, can we expect another cookbook coming out of your creative kitchens?

Hi Devotee–

Thanks for the kind words about the books and show.  We have no plans right now for another low-carb cookbook, but MD is coming up recipes right and left.  She often puts them up on her blog, so you might want to check there if you haven’t already.

Cheers–

MRE 

I might like to add that it is perfectly easy to follow a low carb diet and still be a vegetarian. I am lacto ovo and follow the principles in the book Life Without Bread. Granted, this book is not an Atkins induction diet and allows for a more generous carb allowance than Protein Power or the majority of low carb diets, but compared to the public at large my carbs are much lower, I feel great and I plan to live this way until the good Lord takes me!

Not all of us are “vegan wackos”. I just felt a compulsion toward eating meat since I was a kid, and I have finally followed my instincts. I won’t get into the spiritual side of it or the health side of it; frankly I DON’T feel a vegetarian diet is really healthier; it’s just something I feel right doing.

I honestly feel the low carb community would benefit by welcoming us vegetarians – more lambs in the fold, so to speak – and so many vegetarians eat a diet extremely high in carbs and would benefit greatly by lowering them. It is very possible to eat low carb and be a vegetarian. Now being a vegan while lowcarbing – that’s another story.

Thanks for a great blog.

Hi Devotee–

I don’t mean to bash all vegetarians; just the wacko ones with a political agenda based primarily on stupidity.

I have friends who are vegetarians, although not many, and MD and I have had a considerable number of vegetarian patients over the years who have done well on the program.   As I’m sure you’ve discovered, it takes a little more effort to be a vegetarian on a low-carb diet, but it can be done, and done successfully.  Just make sure to take a vitamin B-12 supplement along with some sort of methylating supplement (many are available) or eat a lot of sesame seeds to get the necessary methionine.

Just ignore me when I go on a vegetarian rant, and understand that it’s not meant for your or anyone else who had chosen that way of life for spiritual or taste bud reasons.

Cheers–

MRE 

200 gr protein

This is my animal part of my daily diet – although I consider the herbs I eat as coming first in importance -

2- tsp cinnamon
2- tsp parsley-fennel-dill-cumin-mint
and a bunch of others

I mention this for suggesting somewhat of what mindset I come from -

I grew up on a dairy farm also for the most part – a few of the good memories were my grandma’s chicken coop – she really loved her chickens -

there was a 30×50 roofed shed with about thirty wooden boxes sort-of against the wall in rows above one another -

and they had this long trough of well water they drank out of – and we fed them this chicken mash from gunny sacks -

I could never figure out why they kept laying eggs – because we stole them from every day -

I remember when I was 18 or so and it was real cold outside -

I thought the chicken’s must be cold – so I put a three feet deep layer of straw in their pen -

I thought they would burrow underneath and stay warm – like a blanket -

well – they – the chickens – got pretty pissed off – and just stayed on top of it-

My uncle and grandma and grandpa though this was pretty funny that anyone would be so dumb -

Their was one aspect of farm life I never felt right about – the castration of pigs or bulls -

and refused to participate in – in what I considered a sick practice -

The animals probably don’t care that much – but I do or did -

And these castrated steers is pretty much what people eat – that or sick or old dairy cows -

I remember one morning my grandpa decided it was time to get some meat -

So he finds this one dairy cow and shoots it in the forehead – with a single shot .22 – it just stood there as if nothing had happened – so he shoots it again – and again – and again – it took twenty or more shots before the animal fell – and then he had too slit it’s throat while it was still dying -

This is the most sickening thing I have ever witnessed – it made me physically sick

I haven’t eaten beef or chicken for twenty years or so and never plan too again -

The cow being shot had nothing to do with it however – exactly

It was about thirty years later that I decided to get drunk drinking whiskey in a bar – when I normally I would drink only beer -

After the bar closed I went to this coffee shop and while drinking coffee I might have told some creeps in a spot next to me too f**8 off or something -

Anyway – we ended up outside where the guy I was fighting proceeded to cut my face up in a slight mess – I don’t think he bothered to take his rings off – and he had two friends who were helping also -

After he about killed me and the fight was over -I just got up and went back in the bar – where the the three creeps were – I would have killed all three of them if I had a way at the time -

For some reason I equated this experience with the eating of meat and haven’t eaten it since -

It doesn’t exactly make sense I suppose but for me – this was the turning point -

It also gave me viewpoint on the kind of human scum that walks the earth -

So for me – watching something else suffer wasn’t enough – but experiencing it myself seemed to do the trick

Of course that’s just me -

the ugly part of all this is the death part – the dying part -

the butchering itself is really quite clean and interersting -

it’s the dying part that gets me -

It’s a cows life to die by violence of course – a bear – a cougar – a wolf – an alligator – a lion -

cows are probably used to-it – sort of

As far as pigs go – you can’t milk em’ and they don’t lay egg’s -

So to me – there just cute pets

From a strictly dietary point of veiw I do wonder if the flesh of pigs – chickens – beef is warranted -

there has to be an immunne response of a negative kind in the process of eating these creatures -

So it’s not the fat or cholesterol I question but perhaps unknown substances and a possible immunne rejection response that concerns me -

In raising dairy or chickens for eggs the problem of bulls and roosters is present -

this amount of flesh if spread out among the earths inhabitants would probably be a more reasonable intake -

Of course the rich would get all of it – be cause it would be a scarce and pricey commidity -

So the average meat eater wouldn’t get any anyway – kind of a humourous prediciment

But don’t worry – McDonald’s has your beef and probably always will -

and in the process I get my eggs and dairy -

a win-win for me

To change the subject slightly -

I had the misfortune to work as a flagger one day -

and stopped a semi loaded with chickens on their way to a mink farm – where the mink farmer would toss the live chickens into a tree chopper or chipper – to make mink food -

is it any wonder a few people get upset about this sort of thing ?

Anyway while talking to the idiot driving the the semi – I couldn’t help notice the smell – the rotten smell of chicken poop from the truck -

a normal chicken coop smells nothing like this by the way -

I question anyone who has ever smelled this sort of thing first hand to ever eat chicken again -

But to each his own -

Working at another job – flagging again – I found this dead pheasant on the side of the road -

there are few smells on earth this rotten – the smell of rotting flesh has to be experienced to be truly appreciated

On the dairy farm – we buried the dead calves – I would have burned them – personally

Anyway I had to move the dirt around one day where they were buried for a building project – and uncovered some of them – they had been there for six months or so -

So one might have thought they would have turned into nice pleasant fertilizer or something -

Well – they didn’t turn into anything except the most revolting – wet – sickening mess I have ever seen or smelled – it made me vomit or try too -

So chicken poop in semi truck bad
Dead rotting pheasant worse
Dead buried dug up calves – something close too aromatic satanical hell

The only other smells I can equate with these – is a cows rotting estrus – after giving birth – I mean the rotting estrus within the cow -

Not having been married – I hope real human women smell better than this – after giving birth

The average person will never experience these aromatic horrors – I suppose

But it has given me some pleasure in pointing them out.

Does all animal dead stuff smell bad ? -

Well no – composted cow manure smells good enough to eat – seriously – it smells really good

and if you sprinkle just a little on fresh cow manure it instantly gets rid of the bad smell or fresh cow manure smell -

Compost good -

Thanks for all your input. 

I’m wholly on the side of humane treatment however.

And yeah, every time I see those cartons of eggs proclaiming the chickens are vegetarian/vegan raised, I have to laugh. Uncle G’s chickens sure spent a lot of time chasing down tasty insects.

You have to wonder what Einstein thought up “vegan raised” eggs? Isn’t that like a total waste of time since no vegan is going to eat eggs anyway?

Hi Regina–

An Einstein indeed!  Probably the same one who came up with the idea of as advertising plant products as being ‘cholesterol free.’

Cheers–

MRE