From: tara@starburst.umd.edu (Tara McDermott)
Newsgroups: rec.food.veg
Subject: Re: Novice Vegetarian stuff...
Date: 23 Nov 92 21:50:03 GMT

saarinen@sp1.csrd.uiuc.edu (Sirpa Saarinen) writes:

>BTW: why talk about "meat-replacement"? I am not asking you specifically
>but everyone: has meat been such an integral part of the meal that one has
>to start discussing "meat-replacement"? I have never heard of vegetarians
>talking about "broccoli" replacements or "potato" replacements.

>Do some people really eat *only* meat, and *nothing* else? How do they
>survive?

Well Sirpa, Americans (and unfortunately many other countries) are
notorious for having a very meat centered diet.  It's kind of
sickening actually the amount of meat that people can consume.  Before
I was vegetarian, this is how I usually ate: 

Breakfast: Any cereal (sugar coated usually, or several tsps. added
sugar if not) with milk, or scrambled or fried eggs.  Cheese included
sometimes.  Bacon, or grilled ham on occasion, etc... Pancakes or
french toast (using eggs) were common on weekends.  While I was going
to High School I ate a very unscrupulous meal of chocolate milk, or
some gross hostess "cake" if I could afford it. 

Lunch:  Could be anything, vegetarian (not intentionally, mind you) or
not.  One of my favorites (at the time, though I have to say I do miss
it on occasion, but not always) was a ham sandwich on toasted white
bread with mayonnaise, iceburg lettuce, american cheese.  Hamburgers,
or chicken (in sandwiches, salads, or just baked or fried) sometimes,
but usually it was a type of sandwich - ham, roast beef, chicken,
turkey, sometimes with cheese.  Grilled cheese sandwiches with added
sliced meat was common when I was home from school on the weekends, or
as a snack (sometimes).  French fries, chocolate milk, and funny bones
(chocolate "cake" stuffed with fake peanut butter (meaning it was more
like frosting) was my normal meal at school.  

Dinner: Usually consisted of some meat centerpiece.  Many americans
have a hard time imagining a meal with no meat base, thus this thread
(ie - I'm looking for good meat-replacements to become more
vegetarian).  Hamburger meat (either hamburgers, or meatloaf, or
sloppy joes, or stroganoff, or packaged mixes added to this, etc),
chicken, steak, pork chops... fish (which I never ate) are your usual
mainstays.  When fending for myself, I would either make a tv dinner
(again, meat centered), or some other meat frozen meal, maybe even
some shrimp rolls or breaded chicken pieces baked in the oven.  A
vegetable on the side, salad with dressing, a hot potato dish, or even
a rice-a-roni type of side dish are common side dishes for the main
meat part.  

Add on top of this the normal several cans/glasses of sugar/corn syrup
soda, or several glasses of milk (always thought I was preventing
osteoporosis growing up, and being very proud of how much milk I drank
- much more than the average person!) as a beverage, and candy bars,
fast food (one of my favorite meals was going to MacDonalds, can you
believe it?), sugary desert confections that have absolutely NO
nutritional value, and you have the Standard American Diet.  Oh, it
varies from person to person, but it's a rough approximation of what
most americans eat, including the former me. 

I don't know how americans stay alive as long as they do, missing out
on such elimentary nutrition... I'm sure in the coming years we'll see
the average age of heart attacks becoming much younger, as the fast
food generation gets older. 

>Sirpa Saarinen
>saarinen@csrd.uiuc.edu

Happy eating... 
--
Tara McDermott                                  tara@starburst.umd.edu

Sweet and sweet is their poisoned note, the little snakes' of silver throat,
in mossy skulls that nest and lie, ever singing "die, oh! die."