Order him the Dieter's Delight--a dry meat patty and cottage cheese with a tiny piece of toast. It's crazy as it sounds. There's too much protein
Is protein, then, more fattening than carbohydrate?
This is a possibility. The main difference researchers found in comparing the eating habits of overfat women and lean women was protein consumption: the overfat women ate more meat and milk. Carbohydrates cause more calorie burn-off after meals than do proteins, which may partly explain the consequences. Meat and dairy products are also major purveyors of hidden fat.
Since most protein fiends eat excess animal protein, it is possible that the vegetable protein, with its attendant dietary fiber, may not share the guilt equally. In fact, vegetarians do appear to be leaner. In one survey, vegetarian men weighed 30 pounds less and vegetarian women 24 pounds less—an average 143 and 121 pounds, respectively—than their meat-eating counterparts. Other inquiries find less spectacular differences between the veggies and the carnivores, but they usually do reveal a gap. Considering the number of Living Lean students who attribute some or all of their fat loss to a change in meat-eating habits, the subject warrants more investigation.
“But wouldn’t it be risky to do without the hearty protein staple?” Not if you eat a variety of foods with protein from the Good Food Guide along with sufficient calories (i.e., no crash diets—they cause protein loss regardless of the amount of protein eaten). Even the shy foods on your plate—vegetables, salad, bread, cereal, rice, dried beans, nuts, and seeds—are willing contributors to your daily protein quota. Plus 9 out of 10 vegetarians eat high-protein cheese, milk, and eggs. Only fruits and fats are truly protein-poor.
You can figure the approximate protein offering from these various foods, and your typical intake, by checking with the Good Food Guide
Although it’s not essential, you can elect to combine nonmeat proteins to create dishes that approximate the protein quality of meat. Bean-plus-grain favorites include red beans and rice, pinto beans and tortillas, black-eyed peas and corn bread, lentils and rice, and peanut butter and crackers. Even a small amount of high-quality of any plant protein you eat with it. Chicken noodle soup, macaroni and cheese, corn flakes in milk, and tofu with brown rice are just a few ways to stretch your food dollar and your protein-calorie investment as well.
There remains only one legitimate drawback to totally scratching meat from the menu; its nutritional value. Poultry and seafood contribute vitamin B6, pork is a rich source of thiamin, and beef contains highly absorbable iron, zinc, and manganese—trace minerals in short supply even for meat eaters. Dairy products won’t take up the slack for iron; in fact, the dairy-loving “dieter” is especially susceptible to “yogurt anemia” as calories shrink. Luckily, vitamin C foods can boost iron absorption from dried beans, whole grains, seeds, and vegetables, while brewer’s yeast, cheese, and tofu are fairly reliable sources of zinc. Getting enough manganese is more of a challenge without red meat, however.
Still, much of the world’s population eats little meat. Where food is abundant, their health statistics are enviable. The typical dairy-vegetarian diet has twice as much dietary fiber as the usual macho-meat diet. As a group, nonmeat eaters have lower blood pressure and blood cholesterol, a reduced risk of colon cancer, and half the risk of diabetes; they are leaner and they live longer. The men have three times less heart disease, and women have less osteoporosis and breast cancer.
If you’re a confirmed carnivore, however, don’t despair. Cutting down on meat could be healthier than cutting it out, especially if you fill in the gaps with plant foods that are typically low in calories, fat, and saturated fat. The switch can be pretty simple, too—just eat one piece of chicken instead of two, or chill with beans instead of ground beef, or more pasta and tomato sauce meals and fewer eat-and-run burgers.