Healthy Living: Animal protein in Costa Rica
Maintaining a balanced fitness profile, for the dedicated, mandates we consume a robust profile of nutrients, the least of which is protein.
For the vegan living in Costa Rica, the world is your oyster, ahem… legume. Beans, seeds and grains grow like weeds and cost about as much, but for the animal protein consumer the choices for good amino acids can be a bit tough to swallow at first.
There are affordable options for the frugal-fitness-fanatic and they don’t include buying skirt steak over center-cut, or tuna by can versus fresh fish, but they could if you really can’t live without your beef or tuna.
There’s no two ways about it Americans love cows. Not in the way we love cats and dogs, although my wife may argue otherwise because “cows are so cuuute,” but we love the meat we get from cows. In my former life, living in Los Angeles, grilling cuts of meat on weekends was not just a ritual but a rite of passage into the workweek.
Here in Costa Rica, it’s not that we can’t find good cuts of beef, as it is for many of us we can’t buy chub-packs of the good stuff every week to throw on the barbie while sipping Coors light. (Although we can buy Coor’s pretty cheaply here if we so desire.)
Unless you are willing to pay top dollar, burn a ton of calories tenderizing, or have the means to eat at the local Argentinian restaurant (most consistently known for good cuts) then you are likely going to find your beef consumption to slow down in Tico-town.
For many of us, for our coronary systems, this is not a bad thing. Beef may have bragging rights for it’s prestigious amino-acid profile and quality absorption rate, but the long term consequences of massive steak consumption may be the thing that is slowly killing us.
The alternative as many see it is poultry. Chicken in Costa Rica is fresh, tender, and juicy. It is also surprisingly high cost considering the proliferation of chickens running about, and the chicken industry that processes them. Even more developed areas aren’t free from roosters sounding-off all hours, as my wife and I learned the that roosters don’t need sunrise to cock-a-doodle-doo.
Chicken is more affordable than beef, and in many cases, better quality than what we are accustomed to from back home, but unless you are prepared to clean the bird yourself plan to pay top dollar for the butcher to take your breast meat off the bone, and don’t expect it to not need a little more cleaning once you get it home.
You’re best bang for buck with chicken is to buy the entire chicken, known as “pollo entero,” and clean the meat from the bone yourself. The price is $8-10 American dollars per kilo of breast meat down to $1-3 of those same dollars per kilo for an entire chicken. True, some of those kilos are bone, but not 80% of them.
Pork is available, and affordable, but it is not “the other white” meat here in Costa Rica. Most of the pork we find is very high in fat, marinated before buying, and low in nutrient density. I don’t generally recommend pork as a meat source for anybody, unless it’s bacon, and bacon gets a pass in life. Bacon goes with everything… even high blood pressure. I’m kidding about the bacon of course.
When my wife and I planned our move to Costa Rica we assumed fish would be a frequent and affordable source of protein in our diets. This was before the disaster in Fukushima, and before we found that on the whole, the quality and cost of fish in Costa Rica is not quite as advantageous as we expected.
We could cut our costs by fishing for our own fish, but that does not help us get around the insurmountable reports of Pacific Ocean fish being almost entirely irradiated by the nuclear accident in Japan. The whole thing is a mess and our answer has been to avoid seafood almost entirely until we can get more information on how to respond.
And as far as canned tuna goes, Costa Rica is full of options for tuna-lovers, more of the “oil variety,” but “canned in water” is available too. What I have been surprised to find is that not only do I now prefer draining a can of the oil version over my old dry water tuna, I like it packed with veggies for flavor, a common way of packing it here. The big downside to canned tuna? (Besides the fact that it too may also be irradiated but certainly high in mercury?)
Canned tuna here is not the inexpensive dorm-room alternative you know from back home, starting at $1.25 per can for promotions, and upwards of $4-5 per can for the high end options. With about 4 ounces of meat in the can, after draining, that works about to about $40 per kilo in the long run!
So what can we eat to keep our muscle mass in Costa Rica without eating protein-shakes?
The incredible egg. Eggs are sold in our area for a little less than $4/kilo for a flat of 25 eggs. Eggs, as a protein source have all the building blocks to make an adult chicken, and while the yolks may have been given a bum rap in recent years, that research is proving to be thin, and the connection to high cholesterol may all be one big yolk.
Still, if this concerns you, ditch the yolks and eat your eggs “cali-style.” I hard boil mine for easy eating as a snack, or as the protein source of my meal, which would allow the yolk-hater to locate and discard the offensive yellow ball if he so desired.
Most restaurants serve eggs in some fashion so they are easy enough to find, but be careful how you order them, as the word “eggs” used in the wrong way can refer to a part of a man’s body which is not your intended food item.
As a suggestion, make sure to indicate the desired preparation with your order. Ie, order “huevos revueltos” (way-voez re-vwel-toez) or scrambled eggs, instead of just “huevos.”
Of course Costa Rica offers more gamey options too, such as wild-boar for the bold of heart, or iguana meat which is probably illegal, but that’s a whole different article.
Also, many stores will offer weekly discounts on their meat selections, and some areas will offer farm-fresh market options which are ideal, like at the farmer’s market. Any time you can buy direct from the farmer I recommend it.
Those same markets that sell farm-fresh poultry or beef will almost surely sell the incredible egg as well so don’t hesitate to plan a few omelettes for your week. You could even ask the farmer for a whole chicken and a flat of eggs just to see which comes first.
Written by VIP Member Damon Mitchell who spent over 10 years in the fitness industry before he moved to Costa Rica in search of a better work/life balance. Currently he lives in Playa Tamarindo in Guanacaste, where he and his wife Cristina are owner-operators of Pizza&Co pizza express, located in Plaza Conchal 2.
Daily, Damon runs on the beach or works out at Tamarindo Fitness Center, keeping fit by doing a combination of old-school weight lifting, calisthenics, TRX, stability ball work and just about anything he can do to create new and fun exercises. Most recently he is learning to surf.
You can email Damon here if there is anything specific about staying fit and healthy in Costa Rica you would like him to cover in his next article.
Healthy Living: Animal protein in Costa Rica
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Andrew Makarik
to@welovecostarica.comAndrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.
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