Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I was a vegetarian between the ages of 13 and 22. One night (about 2 months ago) I decided that I simply wanted a steak. Right there and then I went to a diner with my best friend and she watched me down a steak. It was incredible. Not only was that night amazing, but since then I have SO much more energy than I did before. For nine years I had issues with energy. It hit a climax last year when I literally could not stay awake at 2pm every day for months. That went away after I started to take insulin pills (I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes at that ime), but I was still kind of low on energy, moody, depressive...

I swear eating meat has been my savior! I feel like a new woman! I literally feel like a completely different person. I have energy now! And I'm not as moody or depressive... wow, things are different! Plus I feel more like "me"... I never saw myself as the girl who'd eat a salad at a steakhouse while her date had a rare one. I saw myself as the down-to-earth-red-meat-eating chick even when I didn't eat meat for 9 years.

I love steak! I can't ever be a vegetarian again!

i read way too much about the meat industry, was the first thing. if you start to think about what it is you're eating, and how it was raised, and how it got to your plate... yuck. i love reading the pioneer woman's blog, but i can't think too much about how her family earns their living.

then i decided that if i couldn't kill it myself i shouldn't eat it either. it just started to feel wrong. and why should i share my home with an animal, encourage it to sleep in my bed with me, and yet perpetrate such harm and suffering on its brethren by buying commercially raised meat and dairy?

even the politically correct meat sellers at the greenmarket who give their livestock better lives than that in the end have to kill their animals.

and the kosher meat industry! don't get me started. such hypocrisy! they don't treat their animals well, which is one of the whole points of being kosher, and they treat their workers worse.

don't get me wrong, i LOVE meat. i can eat a whole ribeye steak in one sitting and lay waste to a sandwich at carnegie deli all by myself, no problem. it's sad for me to think about everything i'm turning my back on... brisket, chicken matzo ball soup, chopped liver, hangar steak, banh mi, pastrami on rye, boeuf bourgignon, duck gizzards... but i'll survive.

geez, i think i gave the term "serious eater" a whole new twist today!

my question is based on logic not the vegan carniviore thing.....
here goes
if an acre of land produces x amount of corn
how many humans will it feed vs. how much a cow eats of it and how many people will the cow feed

Personally, I'm almost 15lbs overweight at 145. The last 5 came on when I started dating chef BF. But damn, I am so freakin' happy. Totally worth it.

Not in my case, I love to cook more than I love to eat... I'm more like a picky 5 year old when it comes to eating.

@annien - well put. I only consider myself sort of a foodie and only for the past year and a half or so. The eating habits that keep me at the lower end of my weight range over the past five years? Cooking and eating more fresh/whole foods, paying attention to what I eat at every meal (for both the sake of making sure it's healthy *and* the sake of making sure it's delicious), and going out of my way to enjoy what I eat as much as possible. I do tend to eat a lot, I think, but I've learned to cook healthy things in a delicious way, so my little transition to being a foodie hasn't resulted in turning into a fattie.

@BangieB - you're right, there is no moral triumph to being thin. However, with the obesity problem being what it is, I think we all owe it to ourselves to try to be healthier (which usually results in being thinner, though being thin doesn't automatically mean being healthy).

BangieB +5432319. Bravo.

There's a difference between a foodie and a glutton. People comment to my DH all the time that he ought to weigh 400 pounds because of the way I cook. But if you're eating good food every day, I think you're less apt to eat like a starving dog, because you know there will be good food tomorrow, too. Someone else who dines with us might get a little carried away, because they're just eating this one meal with us.

And I also think that part of being a foodie who cooks is that I look into more than just the flavors. I look at things like nutrition.

And good food isn't necessarily fattening food. A perfectly cooked vegetable can be a delight. A fresh raw tomato is wonderful.

@bobcatsteph: "God forbid you have to pee at a restaurant" I understand COMPLETELY.

Foodies are fatties is a big misconception. I have been very thin my whole life and have always been a foodie. I hate how people say that Giada Di Laurentis "must be anorexic" or that "she can't possibly eat the food she cooks" because she's so skinny. I get the same thing. People can be naturally thin just as people can be naturally plump.

Whether it is true or not, the stereo-type exists. I became a foodie, and I gained 20 pounds. Now, I also started grad school, went off a medication and well I got older, I'm not 20 anymore. But my family blamed it on the foodie aspect, never mind that I went from a college student eating pizza and ramen everyday to basically a mostly vegetarian diet. In their minds I was fatter because I enjoyed my food, despite the fact that I eat a lot healthier now. I think it sucks that many foodies have to deal with stereo type. I think we need to change people's perceptions and show that you can enjoy your food and be healthy.

Brava and Bravo to all those who workout so they don't have to live on sprouts. I count myself among them.

I love being a foodie. I love taking way too much pleasure in creating, serving and eating great food. To paraphrase Alaina - I work out so I can eat. What a miserable existence it would be to a) abstain from tasty, rich foods all the time and/or b) feel terribly unhealthy because I took in too many calories without expending enough.

It takes time every day but working out is well worth it. The idea of living on sprouts... ((Shudder)).

I think the days of the fat chef or fat foodie are behind us. Being a foodie does not automatically tie you to being a fatty. And definitely not vice versa, remember the stats from Super Size Me?

Just from the comments here, it's clear that people understand more about their relationship with food and their health than they did in the past. Even in the dysfuntional world of restaurants (crazy hours, going out when most of the world is going home, eating when others are sleeping, sleeping when others are waking, working when others are at happy hour) I see chefs and managers trying to strike a balance with their lifestyle and their health. Eat a salad, quit smoking, drink less, cut back on the espresso, get some exercise, spend some time with the fam.

I don't know, but even the workaholic celebrity chefs of today seem fitter/leaner than the celebrity chefs of the past.