The Meat-a-tarian

While I was at Subway one time I found myself behind a strange gentleman who called himself a "Meat-a-tarian"(like the opposite of a vegetarian). He would only eat meat, cheese, and bread. Never any veggies or even lettuce on his sandwich. So naturally he and I all argued about how unhealthy his life style is for about a half-hour. By the end of it I distinctly remember calling him a caveman. Only a few months later the Paleo Diet became mainstream and the main point of the diet is eating, "foods from the food groups that our hunter-gatherer ancestors would have thrived on during the Paleolithic era, or Stone Age.Learn More...". So essentially a caveman diet. And while some swear by this method and the Cross Fit workouts do seem to work, I find many problems with it. 
First, since the average age that "our ancestors" lived to was about 30-years-old, why then would eating like them give you a long healthy life? Personally I think that the logic behind this entire diet is flawed. But there is a lot of research backing the diet and so I will dissect it for bits and pieces that I think might be true. I'll start with meat.

Before freshman year volleyball season started our head coach Kim, a Paleo believer, laid out a diet for us that was a version of Paleo. She preached moderation. Limit your bread in take, don't eat anything fried and always get your meat grilled, were some of the rules we had to follow. I understood most of the rules and I did not argue of course, but there was one rule that I simply could not follow and that was no bacon! But thank god, at the start of my sophomore year her rule changed. She said that as she looked into it more, bacon can actually be the best thing to eat in the morning because the protein fuels your body for the rest of the day. 
I also talked to our trainer recently about the topic of meat. His entire job revolves around eating healthy and staying active, and when I asked him what he thought about bacon he said, "Delicious, I love it." He also had no problems with the meat and said that as long as you are an active person your body will absorb the protein as energy and burn off the fat.
Protein is also what makes you feel full after you eat, and so you wont snack or pig out later. 

So my conclusion is that meat is an essential part of our diets. I think that meat of all kinds is good for you, BUT IN MODERATION. Being a meat-a-tarian is a bad idea and I will stand by that. I agree with the Paleo method on this one but there are many things that I will always disagree with and next week I will research bread. 

Here are some other articles I looked at this week that helped me come to this conclusion. 
http://www.lifesupplemented.org/articles/healthy_diet/benefits_of_lean_meat.htm

http://www.helpguide.org/life/healthy_diet_fats.htm