As this thread is perpetuating, I should add some brevity to it.
I am an example of someone who has carelessly risked his health with excessive consumption of fatty animal stuffs. I am taking 5 times as long to type this as I should because of three strokes in my right brain affecting my left side and continually type the wrong letters, have to go back and correct, and so on... thia is ab unedied sedvion of slcwebeisg that ime tyring tg toype. I am not working and it appears that i will no longer be able to work because my speech is heavily slurred - who wants to talk to a salesman who can't talk?
The culprit is my carotid and ventricular arteries in my neck (two carotids in the front, left and right, and two ventriculars in the spine, left and right). The right carotid was the worst. Only 60% blocked but severely ulcerated and shooting out stroke-causing blood clots to the brain. The left is 70% blocked. The right ventricular is 90% blocked and the left ventricular is 70% blocked. This situation plus a high stress 55-60 hr 6 day a week job is what is causing my strokes.
I can only blame myself. I was raised a meat man and enjoyed meat, inlcuding fat, immensely. I would not turn down the fatty striations in a chuck roast; that was the honey to the ham so to speak, the Flavor And Tenderness to the meat.
Now, however, I face the consequences. The excess fat has clogged my arteries, these most apparent, but also throughout the rest of my body. Fortunately, or possible unfortunately, my cholesterol has always been low to that warning sign has not been apparent; now however I take cholesterol meds too. Plus aspirin and Plavix. I am on a total of 14 prescription medications totalling $547 per 90 day supply. For 60 years I have had the attitude "Let the Good Times Roll and the Devil Be Damned... Full Speed Ahead!" Now I sing a different tune as i cut the skin off my chicken breast and weigh out my meager portions of extra lean beef and buy only the 93/7% ground meat. To survive I must make allowances now for what I did not make when younger.
Hidden in processed meats is what we should avoid, excessive fats. The good news is that we have the ability to change that for our betterment by making our own processed meat to a leaner standard. I am committed from this point on to do so; even if it affects the substance or quality of the products I produce; I already know that my sausages will be much drier and less flavorful without the 20%+ fat; so be it; at least it's no longer killing me. I invite you all to do the same to whatever extent you can. Cutting 30% fat to 15% fat is 100% improvement! I will post more fat-reducing recipes as I go along and can afford to buy product; the latest bout of $3,000 + hospital bills would buy a lot of lean, nutritious meat I could be enjoying otherwise.
I am currently testing out chickens; I have two in the brine curing; one that I skinned before curing and the other I will skin after curing to see which is easier, if any, to do; the result though will be smoking two skinned chickens, reducing the fat and cholesterol from the birds via the skin and fat. We'll see how they turn out!
Thought i'd throw in the result of my latest operation....
