Confessions of a reformed pescatarian

Greetings, confidants.

As you know from reading about my juice cleanse epiphanies, I have been thinking about reintroducing meat into my diet. I’ve determined that beef is my gateway drug of choice: my metaphorical gut does not want chicken, and I won’t argue with my gut (and, interestingly, chicken is the meat I gave up first when I started quitting meat back in the day), and my psyche is not ready for pig.

I knew that if I was going to do it, I was going to do it right and make sure my beef was from a local, grass-fed, humanely-treated cow, so I visited JM Stock Provisions, a new local/organic/happy meat butcher in town, for an expert recommendation.

The butcher was a font of information about the benefits of eating grass-fed (including that grass-fed beef is the easiest meat for a vegetarian’s system to handle?) and talked me through a few different cuts before recommending a flat iron steak from Timbercreek Organics. I left with a lovely little 2-person steak and very specific cooking instructions to pass on to Mr HP, my trusty steak chef and staunch carnivore, who was not familiar with the cut. I was encouraged to see this article, titled “The Flat Iron Steak: Is it really the best cut of Beef?”

flat iron steak

meat-raw meat-pan

Cooking instructions were:

  • preheat oven to 200 degrees
  • salt and pepper both sides liberally
  • heat oil with a high smoke point (rapeseed oil was recommended; we used butter) in a pan to high heat
  • put meat in the hot pan for 3 minutes
  • flip over and put into the oven for a few minutes
  • remove meat to a plate with a foil tent to rest and reabsorb juices for 10 minutes
  • cut the meat against the grain and eat

meat-cut meat-cooked

I was in charge of the side, and tried a new recipe: Zucchini Noodles with Avocado Cream Sauce. I omitted the tallow/lard–baby steps here, people. It was SO good. Make it.

meat-zoodles meat-meal

The verdict: Steak tastes good. There were some chewy gristly bits–of course–that grossed me out, but the flavor and overall texture were pleasing enough to make me want to continue my beef experiment. I tried to keep tabs on my energy levels and athletic performance over the following couple days, and can’t really say I saw impressive physical effects from the protein punch, but I did feel happy and energized and healthy. I should make a graph.

Happy feelings chart

The above graph represents the increase in happy feelings toward steak, zoodles, and avocados I experienced following this meal. I’ve been making zoodles like mad and adding avocados to EVERYTHING.

Lessons learned: The best meat is local, humanely-treated, hormone- and antibiotic-free, grass-fed, free-range, etc, etc, etc, happy meat; everyone needs a julienne peeler for making zoodles; and avocado makes any dish better.

Pescatarian no more.

I voluntarily ate half a piece of this for dinner last night:
chicken - before

(after it was cooked)

I’ve been mulling it over for a while now: perhaps if I got more protein I’d see improvements athletically and in my daily energy levels. I am loath to add to the million eggs I eat per week, and for whatever reason I don’t cook fish very often. Experimenting with chicken seemed logical, if I could get past my meat-related issues.

Saturday morning at the City Market we stopped at the Tall Cotton Farm table, our attention caught by their heritage Thanksgiving turkey advertising (is it really October already??), and left with some pastured chicken breasts for the Grand Chicken Experiment.

chicken - after

It had been about ten years since I ate chicken. Since becoming a pescatarian, my thoughts on the ethics of eating meat have evolved to the point where I have no theoretical problems with the consumption of happy (humanely treated, pasture raised, drug free), local (the farmer is accountable to the customer, and the environmental impact is small) meat. But chicken was (oddly?) the first to go when I initially quit meat, and my memories of its taste and texture have not mellowed over time, so I was nervous.

To go with the chicken, I made a hearty rainy day soup based on a Curried Butternut and Red Lentil Soup recipe, adding a ripped up bunch of Red Russian Kale leaves (locally grown, purchased at Feast) and leaving the skin on the butternut.

butternut lentil soup

Coincidentally, I had just read about Red Russian Kale in this review of the Crazy for Kale cookbook when I was browsing the produce at Feast, so I HAD to add it to my soup, and it was a great addition. Even Mr HP, who usually doesn’t appreciate it when I go off-recipe, raved about the soup.

How was the chicken, you ask? It was… ok. The taste was nice (and not how I remembered it at all!), but the chewier-than-fish consistency will take some re-getting used to. I’ll keep at it. Energy and strength gains TBD.

Protein Powder Wars, Part II

In July, I wondered if, as essentially a non-meat eater, I needed extra protein. I just finished my first 18.6oz container of protein powder, and in the interest of Science, I am starting a comparison chart, below. Thanks to Eating Bird Food for an excellent post on her favorite protein powder, and a discussion of various protein powder uses; and Gabby’s Gluten-Free for educating me with a much more usable chart than the one below. As discussed in my July post, I’m only interested in plant-based, dairy/gluten/soy free, minimally processed, low/no sugar added powders.

Brand Price Protein Source Grams Protein Grams Sugar Comments
LifeTime Life’s Basics $17.43 for 18.6oz (Amazon) Pea, hemp, rice (with chia seeds) 22 2.67 (Vanilla) I ordered this little-discussed-online brand because it was a considerably cheaper intro to protein powder, and it had all three of the important plant protein sources. Also, I wanted something that would taste good when mixed with only water, and comments on Life’s Basics supported that. The flavor was fine–due to the large amount of stevia, no doubt. The consistency was thick from the chia seeds, but I didn’t mind. I think I felt stronger and less sore while recovering with this, but it’s hard to say for sure. I did like the new schedule of protein drink at 7:45, smaller-than-before breakfast at 10.
Sun Warrior $26.07 for 500g (Amazon) Brown rice 16 0 (Vanilla) Just purchased. This one is very popular on the internets.

Thoughts on protein powders

I’m a pescatarian athlete. Being competitive, I want to be faster and stronger than my friends. Some of them swear by their post-workout protein drinks, and I was curious: do protein supplements improve athletic performance? As a pescatarian, do I need a protein supplement anyway, since I don’t eat many animal products? (I do eat a lot of eggs.) If I do need one, what are some options that are minimally processed, and based on protein from plants or humanely-treated animals?

First question: do protein supplements improve athletic performance?

Maybe: The idea is that ingesting protein within a half hour or so of a strenuous workout promotes muscle recovery. Protein drinks are a convenient way to get the protein quickly into your system. I usually eat a handful of almonds directly after a workout, followed by an egg-and-veggie breakfast a couple hours later. Livestrong.com suggests almonds are not the best choice for post-workout protein intake. Shoot.

Maybe not: Robb Wolf posits that unless you’re a competitive (I think meaning elite) athlete, you don’t need to worry about a post-workout meal at all. (See comments on this article; the permalink to the specific comment is broken.) Wolf’s site also says because liquid is absorbed faster than food, a protein drink could spike your insulin levels in a way that protein-rich food would not. Here are some real-food post-workout snack alternatives to liquids.

Answer: Unclear, leaning toward yes.

Second question: as a pescatarian, do I need a protein supplement?

Maybe: Precision Nutrition prescribes protein supplements and branched chain amino acids to vegetarian athletes.

Maybe not: According to this article, vegetarians who eat lots of dairy and soy probably get enough protein. I don’t eat much of either, but I do eat a lot of eggs. Precision Nutrition does not support heavy reliance on dairy for protein intake because lactose intolerance and milk protein allergies are so common.

Answer: Unclear, leaning toward no.

Third question: what are some protein supplement options that are minimally processed, and based on protein from plants or humanely-treated animals?

Many protein powders have some weird stuff in them—additives and fillers to make them palatable. Powders are, by definition, processed foods, so if you try to avoid processed foods, well, there you go. If you’re gluten-free, read the fine print as some protein powders contain glutamine peptides as a cheaper filler protein.

Protein powders generally come in two types: plant-based protein powders, and whey protein powder.

The most common plant-based proteins used in supplements are:

  • Hemp protein
  • Brown rice protein
  • Yellow pea protein

This article gives an overview of the three types above. In it, the author, who is a vegan, gives advice to an active reader curious about protein powders. She seems to rank them hemp, brown rice, yellow pea, from favorite to least, saying hemp protein powder has more fiber than the others, and brown rice protein is hypoallergenic.

Recommended (by people on the internets, not me) plant-based protein powders:

Whey is a byproduct of cheesemaking. If purchasing whey protein supplements, ensure the whey is from grass-fed cows. I read a comment on one site that said Mark Sisson’s Primal Fuel is grass-fed whey, but I could not find evidence of that anywhere on the Primal Fuel site, so I’m guessing it’s not true. A Google search came back with a bunch of grass-fed whey options.

Recommended (by people on the internets, not me) whey protein powder:

So I don’t have a solid answer: do I need a protein supplement or not? This calls for Science! I just ordered a powder and will report back.

Pumping iron supplements

As an active female pescatarian of child-bearing age, I possess several attributes that could put me at risk for iron deficiency. Looking for a explanation for recent low energy levels, I did some reading on iron supplements. Iron deficiency can cause fatigue, and an increasing iron intake may seem like an easy fix, but iron supplementing can be tricky: excess amounts of iron can cause gastrointestinal distress and even become toxic. It’s safest to get blood work and recommendations from your doctor, and take a daily multivitamin.

iron?

If you want to do some dietary tinkering of your own, though, there are good resources on the Interwebs. I found this National Institutes of Health’s Office of Dietary Supplements article and this Vegetarian Times article to give simple, basic overviews.

Non-meat eaters may consume the daily recommended amount of iron, but the iron is a type, called nonheme, that isn’t as readily absorbed by the body as iron from meat, called heme (as in, comes from hemoglobin, a component of red blood cells in animals). Nonheme iron isn’t as available for absorption by the digestive tract, and the NIH suggests that vegetarians consider consuming twice the recommended daily amount of iron in order for their bodies to store the appropriate amount. The Vegetarian Resource Group recommends an iron RDA of 14mg for vegetarian men and post-menopausal women, and 33mg for pre-menopausal women (the official RDA for those groups is 8mg and 18mg, respectively).

Iron supplements contain either ferric or ferrous salts, with ferrous being more easily absorbed. Look for ferrous fumarate, ferrous sulfate, or ferrous gluconate in your multivitamin. Mine gives me 18mg of iron from ferrous fumarate, which on top of the iron I get from a vegetable-rich diet, should be plenty.

iron?

The bottom line is that those who eat fewer animal products can keep iron stores up by eating plenty of greens and whole grains, and taking a daily multivitamin. It’s probably best not to take iron supplements without the oversight of a physician.

Good sources of nonheme iron:

  • iron-fortified cereals
  • beans
  • dark, leafy greens
  • soy (tofu, tempeh)
  • quinoa
  • blackstrap molasses (mentioned all over the place, but not a very versatile ingredient!)

Suggestions for improving absorption of nonheme iron:

  • Eat iron-rich food with vitamin C-rich foods (fruits and vegetables)
  • Avoid combining iron-rich foods with iron absorption blockers such as coffee, tea, cocoa, calcium, and fiber