Beef Burger

Being a World War II baby, I spent the first fifteen years of my life on food rations. It is said that we are the "lucky" generation: Many unhealthy foods like sugar, bacon, pork, beef, milk, butter, fat, cakes, and even bread were strictly rationed. Meanwhile, we could eat as much as we liked of cabbage, onions, and turnips!

The Cretans ate frugally; they ate fish but virtually no meat (just the occasional goat's meat, as beef was nonexistent); they ate plenty of plant food, notably a salad-green called purslane; and they consumed very little dairy, pastries, or sugars. Unlike the Okinawans, they ate bread— a rough-ground, whole-wheat variety— and they had a moderate fat consumption through the sparing use of olive oil in the kitchen. They also had an extraordinary custom: For the Cretan, traditional breakfast often consisted of a small amount of olive oil downed in one gulp, and that was it until lunch time. Wine was also commonly drunk, but in moderation.

With the Industrial Revolution going full-swing during the 19th century, cities grew to sizes never before seen in history. Chicago's population increased 17-fold from 30,000 in 1850 to 500,000 in 1870. New York City grew 25 times bigger, from 60,000 in 1800 to 1.5 million in 1870. In contrast, Babylon at the time of the Biblical exodus (1447 B .C .) was only about 60,000 total. Feeding populations in these enormous agglomerations required novel methods. It was quite impossible to get most fresh foods to them in the normal way. Food had to be "preserved,"— that is, processed in a way that stopped it from going bad. Meat and fish were a particular problem but there were tried-and-true methods to con­ serve it: salting and smoking. Salt beef, bacon, cured ham, kippered herring, and bologna were just a few examples that took over the diet of city dwellers, replacing their fresh equivalent.

At the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), meat is the term applied to the flesh of domesticated mammals, such as cattle, pig, and sheep. More conventionally, this is known as "red meat," which is the designation used here. Similarly, "game" refers to the flesh of any wild land animal, such as wild boar or pheasant. "White meat" refers to flesh taken from domesticated birds, such as chickens, and "seafood" refers to fish and shellfish. We will look at both wild and domesticated sources of animal products. The USDA does not include certain classes of animal foods that were common in our ancestors' diet— the "exotic" categories of reptiles, worms, insects, and gastropods (snails and slugs).

Beef, fish, and eggs have a normal insulin-raising ability.

Common farm meats, such as beef, pork, and lamb, have become problem foods. The difficulty is their high fat content and the harmful nature of the fat. Stockbreeders are beginning to work on improving the nutritional nature of their herds, but for now we are better off avoiding these meats and everything that is made from them. In contrast, an uncommon farm animal, the goat, is acceptable.