Meat meals an iron-clad rule, says O’Connor
In spite of our resolve most of us eat more than we need to and drink more than is good for us during Christmas and New Year gatherings. That is probably because there is much more to food and drink than merely refuelling the body. We like to combine good food and beverages with the companionship of friends and family in a tradition that goes back a very long way in our history and folklore.
Most of us of an advanced vintage can recall huge roast dinners for Christmas Day followed by steamed puddings covered with hot custard and, if we were lucky, a sherry-soaked trifle with ice cream. It was a winter tradition brought to these shores from England but in the middle of a usually blistering hot day in the New Zealand mid-summer the aftereffects were debilitating at best and potentially fatal at worst.
A generation later and Christmas dinners are far more suited to this part of the world with cold ham or chicken with salads and cold desserts to follow.
With such a tradition of gastronomic over-indulgence at Christmas, and it seems for many people, throughout the rest of the year as well we were not really surprised to be told that we eat far more red meat than is good for us or the environment. But do we?
We were recently advised by the earnest and concerned members of one of our political parties that by eating less red meat we would need fewer animals for slaughter and that in turn would mean fewer animals on our farms and less impact on an already over exploited and damaged environment. Such advice clearly comes from the heart and some of it has an undeniable logic.
In the push to wean us off red meat however it has been illogically suggested we should turn to artificial substitute meat made from vegetable matter and goodness knows what else. How much land it would take to grow the ingredients for the substitute compared to growing sheep and cattle has so far not been assessed.
One unfortunate result from the move away from red meat is a growing number of people with serious health issues because they don’t eat enough of it. That is not necessarily related to poverty but more to do with a lifestyle choice.
We have always had vegetarians but their numbers are growing here and there are some negative side effects.
It seems that as we eat less red meat, for whatever reason, too many of us are developing iron deficiency anaemia and a growing number are ending up in hospital. There can be many causes of this unhappy situation but a lack of iron-rich foods such as red meat, seafood or leafy greens is one of the biggest risks of low iron.
People choose a vegetarian diet for many reasons. Apart from those with allergies the majority seem to make a decision on ethics. Without dietary knowledge the cost to the rest of the community can be significant with hospitalisations for iron deficiency anaemia increasing from $3.2 million to $6.7m a year over the past 10 years.
With such conflicting advice about what food choices we should make and predicted dire consequences for the environment or ourselves if we get it wrong, it is difficult for those of us who were reared on meat and three vegies most nights of the week to decide. The one-time staple of roast mutton and spuds now appears no longer good for us or the environment and, after all these years of feeding healthy kids, is to be thrown out and replaced with what? . . . artificial meat, celery stalks and chick peas?
There comes a time for all of us to take a stand on a matter of high principle and I have drawn my line in the sand. Memories of our large family sitting around the dinner table while Mum served up roast mutton with gravy, mashed spuds and peas from the garden will not give way to a new food fad which is already creating health problems for the unwary. Admittedly mutton was poor mans’ meat in those far off days but we also had other cheap alternatives like mince, sausages or corned beef. We also caught lots of fish and hunted game birds, rabbits and anything else cheap, legal or otherwise. They had to be cheap with a family of nine permanently hungry kids but a dinner without meat or fish was unheard of and would have created a more than minor rebellion on the home front.
The two things I would change perhaps would be to take out most of the fat and sugar but the rest of our unsophisticated wholesome if humble fare built sturdy kids who grew into robust teenagers and long-lived adults . . . pass the gravy please.