Hi Becky!

> Wow Michael, I don't even know what to
> say--except great post!

Thank you.

> Now...I love that theory about why
> vegetables taste bad and fruit tastes good.
> It makes sense! Does this also apply to meat
> vs. something like milk? I know of one
> vegetarian who took a bite of some meat and
> felt sick to his stomach--is that just the
> shock of eating meat (after having not done
> so for a long time), or does it have
> something to do with having to kill the food
> source to get the food?

Killing the food source has nothing to do with why some people don't like the taste of meat. That involves other factors.

You see, I personally cannot stand the taste of lamb. It's that bad that if I try to chew and swallow lamb my abdomen starts to contract in spurts (as it does when vomiting). And it doesn't matter how much sauce or seasoning is used to mask its taste... I taste it and have to spit it out.

Why?

For me it's the fatty taste of lamb.

If your vegetarian friend doesn't cook with oil then they too will instantly taste the high fat content of our farmed meats. And they may also taste the odd flavor the meat has due to all the antibiotics and other such chemicals our farmed animals consume.

Or maybe, for them, it's the acrid smell of the burnt flesh, or the blood that's still present in bought steak.

Farmed meat is unnatural meat. Lazy meat. Fat meat.

Game meat (meat from wild animals), on the other hand, has the correct and natural amount of fat for the particular animal in question.

It may taste odd to a lot of people, but that's because they've never eaten it and are used to the farmed meat.

When wild game meat is compared to farmed meat you will find the game meat is more flavorsome and much much leaner. And, it's chemical free.

Also, the animals wild meat comes from eat the right food for them. And they aren't forced to eat meats and other unnatural food and end up getting things like scrappy or mad cow disease.

And of the wild animals, the only ones which are an option to be food are older males. The young and the female should be left alone. The older males, however, have often ceased to breed and thus outlived their usefulness to the "herd". They are often slower and weaker and the only ones we have any chance of catching any way - not counting our increased hunting ability thanks to firearms.

Besides the taste/smell/texture of meat being a turn off for some people, there's the thought of it. To know the thing in your mouth was once a living breathing creature.

Think of it... most people have no problem eating cow or chicken or pig or fish, yet the thought of eating dog or cat is repulsive even though it is still meat.

Somehow a dog or cat is more personal to us.

And then there's the disgusting meat.. like rat. Yuck, just the thought of eating rat puts you off.

Should we eat meat even though our bodies can process it?

Probably not. We can get all the vitamins and minerals we need from non-meat non-animal sources... regardless of what the meat industry would have you believe.

Milk...

Milk tastes all right because it's designed to be consumed. After all, it's what the young feed on first.

And let that be your clue as to whether it should be consumed by adults.

Once the young goes off milk (and this applies to humans as well) the mother's milk will dry up.

We are able to get milk from cows because we trick their bodies into producing it by contantly milking them. If left alone a dairy cow would eventually dry up until it had a calf.

And consider human breast milk. I've heard that it tastes quite horrid to an adult. A good sign it's not meant for adults, don't you think?

Some people can handle goat's milk and others can't stand it.

Here's another experiment you can try. Drink only bottled spring water for a month. After one month pour yourself a glass of water from the tap and see if you can bring yourself to swallow it.

I bet you can't. I bet you'll spit it out. After all, after one month of good water you'll be able to taste the unnaturalness of tap water.

As with the food experiment it's a real eye-opener.

Michael Ross.