Letter to the Editor

Meat addiction is real; look it up

Sunday, April 4, 2010

To the Editor:

During the snows of February, one of the TV stations did a story about people stocking up on groceries and showed a person coming out of the store exclaiming, "There's no more meat."

It made me wonder what is it about meat that is so compelling? Many people believe that you need meat for a balanced diet, but that's not true because you can get all the vitamins and minerals, including protein, you need from fruits, nuts and veggies. The only thing meat provides is saturated fat and cholesterol.

I believe that people like meat because of the fat. Of course, you need some fat, the unsaturated fat that's available in a vegetarian diet. Scientific evidence is showing us that excessive consumption of saturated fats are a leading cause of heart disease, obesity and some cancers.

But when advised of this, people act like they don't want to hear it and I've heard some say things like, "how can you not eat meat?" or "I will gladly give up a few years of my life in order to eat what I like."

I believe this is a sign of addiction.

An Internet search for "meat addiction," reveals several websites about this subject.

So it's possible this condition exists. A good way to test to see if you might be addicted would be to try and go three days without it.

Ray Wilson,

New Middletown, Ind.