Vegetarians gateway drug: Bacon

Status
Not open for further replies.
R

Ripclawe

Banned
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/01/29/133304206/why-bacon-is-a-gateway-to-meat-for-vegetarians


Recently, an old friend who's been a vegetarian for more than 15 years shocked us with a story: Last weekend, she ate bacon. Several strips. Straight out of the frying pan where her boyfriend was cooking it.

This wasn't the first time she'd encountered it sizzling there, in all its glistening glory. But for some reason, this time it overpowered her. She was guilty yet gleeful when she told us that she'd allowed bacon back into her life.

But she's not alone. We've heard this story before from many people. It seems that bacon has a way of awakening carnivorous desires within even some of the preachiest of vegetarians. And we set out to find out why.


We asked some scientists who study how food tantalizes the brain, and sociologists who've looked closely at vegetarianism, about bacon's seductive powers.

Our story was familiar to Johan Lundstrom. He's a scientist who runs a lab at the Monell Chemical Senses Center. He studies how the brain processes sensory information, like smell, for a living. He also told us he had an ex-girlfriend who became an ex-vegetarian once she tasted bacon.

Because bacon is one- to two-thirds fat and also has lots of protein, it speaks to our evolutionary quest for calories, Lundstrom says. And since 90 percent of what we taste is really odor, bacon's aggressive smell delivers a powerful hit to our sense of how good it will taste.

"There's an intimate connection between odor and emotion, and odor and memory," Lundstrom says. "When you pair that with the social atmosphere of weekend breakfast and hunger, bacon is in the perfect position to take advantage of how the brain is wired."

Indeed, the social experience of eating bacon also seems very important, says Donna Maurer, author of Vegetarianism: Movement or Moment? Opportunities to try new foods, like chocolate-covered bacon, with friends might push some vegetarians over the edge.

Bacon has special status in foodie circles, and that too seems to have enhanced its power over wavering vegetarians. Some have dubbed 2011 as the Year of Meat. BaconToday.com is a veritable daily bacon news source. And in New York you can find Bacon-Palooza, an event NPR covered on All Things Considered last year.

We even talked to a vegetarian, Gwen Sharp, about this, who said, "I have long thought if for some reason I ever started eating meat again, I would start with bacon." We also discovered a chapter — from a scholarly food book — titled "'Bacon sandwiches got the better of me:' Meat-eating and vegetarianism in South-East London."

Still, bacon has plenty of thoughtful opponents, among them Jonathan Safran Foer, author of the recent bestselling vegetarian treatise Eating Animals. Even Stephen Colbert was unable to convince Foer to eat bacon.

Sure, it's loaded with fat and salt, and Americans eat far more of it than what's good for the planet. But in the immortal words of Homer (Simpson, not the other one), "Mmmmm. Bacon."
Click to expand...
 
EpicMealTime are bacon lovers and a lot of comments are posted on their videos saying they were vegetarians converted to meat cuz of their lust for bacon

Not sure how true that is but yeah...bacon ftw
 
I eat meat all the time, but rarely bacon.But if I hadn't had meat in 15 years, I would be eating it too.

Damn, I really need to slow down my meat consumption.
 
i was a vegetarian for like 8 years, and bacon was probably the least tempting of all meats back then. it tastes good, sure, but it looks gross with all the fat hanging off and basically embodies everything bad about the meat-eating lifestyle.

i mean, i like it now of course, but i'd think a nice organic steak or something would work better as a gateway drug.
 
Bacon is really good for you too, as long as it's not heavily processed.

<3 bacon


345triangle said:
it looks gross with all the fat hanging off and ... embodies everything bad about the meat-eating lifestyle.
Click to expand...

Fat is what's bad about eating meat now? hwo come? and btw meat eating is not a lifestyle, just because vegetarianism is
 
I'll admit, when I was a kid, the one kind of meat I could eat was bacon. Eventually it became gross to me though and I couldn't eat it any more. Maybe I should give it another try some day...
 
345triangle said:
i was a vegetarian for like 8 years, and bacon was probably the least tempting of all meats back then. it tastes good, sure, but it looks gross with all the fat hanging off and basically embodies everything bad about the meat-eating lifestyle.

i mean, i like it now of course, but i'd think a nice organic steak or something would work better as a gateway drug.
Click to expand...

Bacon is bad for you?
 
Eteric Rice said:
We're carnivores, and lusting after things like bacon is pretty normal.
Click to expand...
Not carnivores since we are equipped to consume, digest and process vegetables, but certainly the body of a vegetarian is probably always craving for meat.
 
The smell of bacon cooking actually chokes me. I can't stand it. I don't mind bacon itself (though I only really enjoy it very crisp), but something about bacon cooking nearly makes me gag. It will even wake me up if I'm asleep, it's very strange.
 
345triangle said:
hell if i know, i'm not a nutritionist. sure doesn't look like something my gastric tract would thank me for, though.
Click to expand...

I don't about that. We've eaten fatty meat for millions of years. Chances are it's ideally what we're supposed to eat.
 
The_Inquisitor said:
Damn, I really need to slow down my meat consumption.
Click to expand...
AiyXx.gif
 
Halycon said:
Not carnivores since we are equipped to consume, digest and process vegetables, but certainly the body of a vegetarian is probably always craving for meat.
Click to expand...

Sorry, meant omnivores.

Emphasis on the Om.
 
I've gotta say that, as a vegan of over 2.5 years, bacon is one of the least appetizing meats. For a long time, chicken was my biggest temptation. It's hard to say what is now, because my cravings for meat at this point are greatly diminished in general. Eggs, on the other hand, are still a common craving.
 
Halycon said:
Not carnivores since we are equipped to consume, digest and process vegetables, but certainly the body of a vegetarian is probably always craving for meat.
Click to expand...
Our digestive system is much closer to that of a dog or lion than a horse or cow. The most "natural" diet for us is probably what the great apes eat (fruits, leaves, bark, lizards and insects, plus the occassional egg, rodent or bird.)
 
Is that part about the ape accurate? I'd assume after millenia of hunting-gathering followed by agriculture must've changed our diet needs no?
 
DonMigs85 said:
Our digestive system is much closer to that of a dog or lion than a horse or cow. The most "natural" diet for us is probably what the great apes eat (fruits, leaves, bark, lizards and insects, plus the occassional egg, rodent or bird.)
Click to expand...

Not really no

Halycon said:
Is that part about the ape accurate? I'd assume after millenia of hunting-gathering followed by agriculture must've changed our diet needs no?
Click to expand...

The homo sapiens genome stabilized about 50,000 years ago, from a start about 200,000 years ago. Agriculture was developed 10,000 years ago, with our ability to cheaply use grains only being present since at most 200 years ago.

Human hunter-gatherer culture IS the way the human evolved, and that included heavy meat consumption.
 
Halycon said:
Is that part about the ape accurate? I'd assume after millenia of hunting-gathering followed by agriculture must've changed our diet needs no?
Click to expand...
Agriculture just made it easy for the people who aren't doing the hard work to get fatter.
Also, animals fed manufactured grain-based diets have far more unhealthy saturated fat compared to a hunted wild beast.
 
I've never been big on bacon. Much prefer beef and chicken, although I'll usually order bacon in a burger if the option is available. Don't think I can ever go vegetarian either. My friend became a pescotarian due to his girlfriend and I taunted him for months whenever we went out to eat. He reverted back after a few years lol
 
DonMigs85 said:
Agriculture just made it easy for the people who aren't doing the hard work to get fatter.
Also, animals fed manufactured grain-based diets have far more unhealthy saturated fat compared to a hunted wild beast.
Click to expand...

Saturated fat is not unhealthy, the problem with grain-fed cattle is not due to saturated fat

DonMigs85 said:
The most "natural" diet for us is probably what the great apes eat (fruits, leaves, bark, lizards and insects, plus the occassional egg, rodent or bird.)
Click to expand...

Sorry I can't let this slide. If ape-diet is the natural for us, then big game hunting tools weren't needed. Why is it that all through history, we find ample evidence of big game hunting tools like spears, arrowheads and projectiles found?

Why is it that all pictograph evidence shows hunting as an exalted activity
 
DonMigs85 said:
Agriculture just made it easy for the people who aren't doing the hard work to get fatter.
Also, animals fed manufactured grain-based diets have far more unhealthy saturated fat compared to a hunted wild beast.
Click to expand...
I was thinking about earlier than that, 8000-2000 BC actually, not modern agriculture.
 
BronzeWolf said:
Saturated fat is not unhealthy, the problem with grain-fed cattle is not due to saturated fat
Click to expand...
Wha? That's the type of fat that clogs your arteries (basically any fat that re-solidifies after melting is very bad for you in the long run).
 
iirate said:
I've gotta say that, as a vegan of over 2.5 years, bacon is one of the least appetizing meats. For a long time, chicken was my biggest temptation. It's hard to say what is now, because my cravings for meat at this point are greatly diminished in general. Eggs, on the other hand, are still a common craving.
Click to expand...



you don't eat meat?
 
DonMigs85 said:
Wha? That's the type of fat that clogs your arteries (basically any fat that re-solidifies after melting is very bad for you in the long run).
Click to expand...

No, saturated fat DOES NOT clog your arteries.

Atherosclerosis is produced due to oxidation healing in the arteries, not due to some magical fat solidification.
 
Eteric Rice said:
I don't about that. We've eaten fatty meat for millions of years. Chances are it's ideally what we're supposed to eat.
Click to expand...

Homo sapiens haven't been around for millions of years. Not even a million years.
 
Also, reading about this I found something funny.

Homo Erectus controlled fire 400,000 ago, not the homo sapiens sapiens, which started branching out around 200,000 years ago

D:
 
Ulairi said:
you don't eat meat?
Click to expand...

No, a vegan doesn't consume any animal products, including meat, any dairy, eggs, and for some, honey (I don't consider it vegan). There is actually a lot more to be watchful of in addition to this, but meat, dairy and eggs make up the majority of what we abstain from.
 
BronzeWolf said:
Not really no



The homo sapiens genome stabilized about 50,000 years ago, from a start about 200,000 years ago. Agriculture was developed 10,000 years ago, with our ability to cheaply use grains only being present since at most 200 years ago.

Human hunter-gatherer culture IS the way the human evolved, and that included heavy meat consumption.
Click to expand...

Humans were scavengers for most of our evolutionary history, not skilled hunters. When did humans start cooking meat? If we ate raw meat for most of our evolutionary history, shouldn't raw meat be heathier for us than cooked meat, by your logic? Evolution clumsily cobbles organisms together, it doesn't perfectly "design' them.
 
In my personal experience of tempting vegetarians to eat meat, I've always found that Orange Chicken is one of the biggest temptations.
 
I have never been a vegetarian but I've always HATED bacon. Sometimes I just smell it and I begin to dry-heave. If I do eat it, it has to be small pieces in a lot of something else like a potato or in a sandwich.

Trent Strong said:
Homo sapiens haven't been around for millions of years. Not even a million years.
Click to expand...
Only about 250,000 years. Obviously a lot of people like the taste of bacon but I seriously doubt vegans feel a deficiency of some nutrient in bacon. I actually sat down and looked at this once and realized I could easily fulfill my protein needs simply from the amount of plant-derived food that I normally eat.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

  • Poll
Which is worse: Food or Drug Addiction?
2
74
3K
NuncaBob replied
Dealing with crazy drug addled neighbors | A Saga
2 3
115
10K
dave_d replied
Sonic has a new peanut butter bacon burger
2
50
3K
stn replied
YouTuber Twomad Dies Of A Suspected Drug Overdose At 23
News 
37
10K
TDiddyLive replied
anyone take fat lose drugs??
Social Business Science  2 3
104
6K
Arsic replied
Top Bottom