Men love food. Not only do we generally eat more of it than our female counterparts, food (especially meat) plays a significant role in how we produce our identities as men and how we relate to each other. As poignantly stated by one of the chefs, er, manly food cookers, in Man Cooking: Swiss Meat Roll, “Little known fact, weaving is manly, as long as you’re weaving with BACON!” Meat, cooking (particularly with fire, not an induction stove top), and our ideas about manliness are inextricably linked to one another in the defining of the masculine. The average male body requires more protein than a female one simply by virtue of body size, we’re generally bigger, unless you’re a giant Dutch woman… But how much do our bodies actually need? According to Gloria Tsang, Registered Dietician for HealthCastle.com:

The average requirement is calculated based on 0.8 grams of protein per kg of body weight. Therefore, a 165 pound (75 kg) man would need 60 grams of protein daily. In general, both healthy men and women (regardless of body size) will do fine with 60 grams of protein a day. That is equivalent to eight ounces of meat.

I’m about 170 pounds or 77 kg, so according to this calculation, my daily protein needs average to about 61 grams a day. 8 ounces of meat? That’s about the size of a deck of cards! If you’re the average guy like me, you eat far more than a deck of cards worth of meat a day, chances are you’ve eaten a Caesar’s Palace worth in one sitting. The average Canadian eats about 62.61 kg (132 lbs) of meat (inclusive of red, seafood, and poultry) a year. 132 lbs!? That’s a f*cking person worth of flesh! Nonetheless, that averages out to about 172 grams a day, nearly three times the necessary intake for the general man population without counting non-meat sources of protein.

Despite the fact that the average man (read: not an elite athlete, ‘roid monkey, or Chuck Norris) doesn’t need any more protein for nutrition’s sake, according to Food Ethics Council, the worldwide consumption of meat is expected to be double the 229 million tonnes we consumed in 2000 by 2050, especially in heavily populated and increasingly wealthy countries like China where the population already consumes nearly 50% of the world’s supply of pork. And you thought you liked bacon… Continue reading →