Not everyone has that strong of a reaction, but it's not entirely uncommon when you go back to red meat after not eating it for a long time. Basically, if you want to enjoy it around a specific event (like Chinese New Year), you have to introduce tiny amounts consistently (and increasing the amount over time) for a couple of weeks (I think that was the timeline I saw) to re-establish the flora. As I recall, the flora decreases significantly in 14 days, and dramatically in 30 days.
Generally, Chinese New Year amounts of beef, or the amounts in anything I might get in a good Chinese restaurant are small, and generally steamed and don't bother me much, if at all. I guess I should clarify that I have not had much red meat in a very long time. I have only had it in Chinese restaurants in things like steamed Niúròu (beef) and that is generally ground with vegetables mixed in and the whole thing rolled up in something much like a dumpling skin. It is when I get into the more western versions of red meat, which I do not eat anymore, in large amounts, I have trouble. As for the McD's burger, I think part of that issue was the additives in it too. I eat a lot of organic stuff these days too.
However this time, Mrs Xue got her hands on some thin cut beef she fried with onions, that was mighty tasty, so I ate to much, my mother sent over beef meatballs (she usually sends chicken) and my mother-in-law made "beef" dumplings, which I do not think she has made the entire time I have been married to Mrs Xue. Then at the restaurant got Chinese New Year, stir fried beef was ordered. And then I came home and had the beef strips w/onions for dinner the next day. And I was not exactly feeling right before I had dinner.... Basically it was a willpower free, self induced, perfect storm, of beef...today, breakfast was pumpernickel bread with peanut butter and lunch will be a salad with chickpeas and a cut up hard boiled egg.
I can generally tell when I have had to much meat, no matter the variety, because I start getting a light sore throat. Then I stop, or cut back, and all gets better within a day. But this beef thing, I dove in with both feet and over indulged big time over a longer period of time, and ignored what my body was trying to tell me, so it has lingered and I was lethargic, upset stomach and generally not feeling right. I cut it out yesterday and I feel much better today, not 100%, but getting better.
