The meat of the matter

Jun 09, 2019 Letters

Dear Editor,

The secret is out. The news is surprising. A shame – really after so much discipline, sacrifice, and effort by many. I am pained. US News and World Report was the messenger on June 4, 2109 with “White Meat Increases Cholesterol Levels Similar to Red Meat.”
For years it was red meat and eggs; now chicken makes crossing the meat street dangerous.
As stated in the article, “the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition debunked previous assumptions that only red meat has an impact on cholesterol.”
To quote Dr. Ronald Krauss, the study’s author and director of atherosclerosis research at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, “when we planned this study, we expected red meat to have a more adverse effect on cholesterol levels than white meat but we were surprised that this was not the case -their effects on cholesterol are identical when saturated fats are equivalent.”
The report continued, “Researchers concluded that restricting white meat in addition to red meat is recommended for lowering cholesterol.”
More studies are needed, and a possible change to dietary guidelines be introduced. For ages, red meat lovers cut back to starvation levels.
The clever, like me, literally cut corners: trim edges -marble (fat). Cheating and failing grade. Hence, the force-feeding of quantity and frequency cuts; lots of cutting: beef, pork, mutton; and byproducts: bacon and sausage, down the drain. Shame.
Then eggs joined the bad guys. Whites were in; yolks were the folks locked out. So, it was down to bread and water. Butter also came in for its share of licks.
At least, for the purists and the people who take these things to heart. Now that is the core of the matter: this latest report soberly points to impacts on the heart. More expansively, as in heart health, cardiovascular disease, clogged arteries, hardened arteries, and that alphabet swamp of abbreviations, such as the dreaded AMI (not French nor friendly but heart attack or event), HCM (not arithmetic), and MVP (nothing sporty about that one), among a bundle of other hair-raising distresses.
There were the recommended safe harbours of fish and fowl. Now the latter is gone. Though not a chicken lover, I detect a medical conspiracy against meat, with this development about white meat. The day had to come. There is only fish left. I guess it is back to the growing monopoly of Neptune, through such gastronomic delights as banga, and the aptly named kurass and hardhead; serves smartasses like me right.
Salmon and omega-3 is for the big dogs.
Editor, in this near tearful takeoff on the dietary seesaws that come and go, a few serious points are embedded and must be re-emphasised.
First, eggs were bad; then, it was, well, could we have a quite conversation on the side, since they are not so bad. Really? Next, red meat is demonised, and white meat canonized; today, there are no saintly meaty presences in supermarket or domestic icebox.
None! Third, there is nothing new under the dietary sun (shades of Solomon through Ecclesiastes and Santayana). Because if all this bull (sorry, balm) is complied with, then it is back to Genesis and Abel and fruits of the field, and look where that got him. Put differently, in Guyana, that means reduction to grass eaters and rice eaters. Gone to the dogs.
The one subdued note I offer is moderation. Forget about 16-oz steaks, a leg of lamb, or a roasted pig (yes, a whole one). Eat with a scale, not a shovel. Last, think organic. No fun in the least; but readies hearts for CCJ.
GHK Lall

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