Many people have asked me over the years why I believe meat is not part of an optimal diet and insist that I must surely be wasting away without all that necessary animal-derived protein. Here's the short list of my top health concerns with frequent meat consumption (>1 serving/week):
1. Too much saturated fat and cholesterol. Saturated fat will metabolize to LDL cholesterol and, in excess, will deposit on blood vessels. A small amount may have some protective effect against toxins in the blood and possibly other biological roles, but too much causes blockages and lowers vascular elasticity, effects that raise blood pressure and increase risk of stroke and heart disease. Too much fat also decreases the absorption of water-soluble nutrients you've eaten with the meat, inhibiting those phytonutrients from buffering the stress associated with the metabolism of meat.
2. Too much of the wrong kind of iron. The heme (blood-derived) iron found in meat is absorbed too quickly and can oxidize cholesterol to increase the rate of deposition on vessel walls. Research has shown a direct relationship between heme iron intake and risk of heart disease, whereas iron from plant sources does not increase risk even at many times the intake levels a person would typically consume. Pre-menopausal women and blood donors can tolerate this kind of iron better because they are shedding the excess regularly, but there are plenty of plant sources for iron sufficient to meet nearly everyone's dietary needs.
3. No fiber. Because our digestive system is very long compared to carnivores, it takes a substantial amount of fiber to move food through the digestive system before it begins to putrefy and breed undesirable kinds of bacteria which can lead to digestive problems and possibly cancer or nutrient deficiencies. It has been shown that meat can remain in the intestines for a month or longer, many times having rotted before excretion.
4. No antioxidants or phytonutrients. Without cofactors to buffer and modulate the absorption of iron and protein, rapid assimilation of these and other nutrients creates stress on the body. Most of the stress goes unnoticed because the body compensates, especially in kids, so it's easy to believe that you've escaped the problems of meat until your eating habits are well-established. After habits are cemented, most people will defend them almost to the death until a doctor specifically tells them continuing will kill them.
5. Too much concentrated animal protein hurts bones. Protein without soluble fiber is absorbed very rapidly. In it's catabolized form (amino acids) it can begin to lower pH. To compensate, the body releases calcium from the bones to form CaOH with water. Over time, this leads to microfractures in bones that can weaken them to the the point of breaking. This is a problem shared by milk in it's pasteurized form (all commercially produced milk in this country); although there is more than enough calcium in milk, the cofactors are not present in the right forms to make use of it before it is removed by the kidneys. The removal by the kidneys of the calcium sourced from diet and bones after neutralizing the acidity can cause kidney stones to form. Calcification in other organs and glands can also occur.
6. Natural carcinogens are produced by cooking meat. All meat except sushi must be cooked to reduce the risk of parasites. Heat is destructive to all biological materials, reducing nutritional content and changing the food chemistry. It generally makes things more digestible by breaking down starches and such, but in the case of meat, chemicals such as known carcinogenic heterocyclic amines (HCAs) are produced within the meat itself and heat sources such as gas or charcoal used in grilling can deliver a significant amount of polycyclic hydrocarbon carcinogens to the grilled food. http://www.cancerproject.org/survival/cancer_facts/meat.php
7. Most animals are raised in poor conditions, increasing disease risk. Ethics aside, poor living conditions, treatment, and food for animals results in low-quality meat, detrimental to human health. Lack of exercise, fresh air, or a diverse diet, along with hormones, disease, and sometimes cruel slaughtering methods, produce a buildup of stress hormones. Because our physiology is so similar to the most common types of meat, except seafood, stress hormones in our food can create stress responses in our bodies, leading to a cascade of biological changes that ultimately effect health and immune function on some level.
8. Meat is too energy-dense (and nutrient-sparse). Energy sounds good, but in this case it actually causes a problem because of it's relationship with metabolic stress. Nutritional density is defined as a ratio of nutrition (vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, etc.) to energy content and can be used as a rule of thumb to qualify good foods from bad. Because of the large amounts of fat, even the leanest meat is less nutrient-dense than the fattiest whole vegetables. As calorie restriction research indicates, calorie intake is not only a factor for weight control but also plays a role in lifespan because of the direct relationship between calorie intake and systemic metabolic (oxidative) stress. Since our nutritional needs remain largely the same from day to day, the only way to reduce our calorie intake while continuing to meet all dietary requirements is to lower the average energy density of our food, essentially replacing energy-dense foods like meat and dairy with nutrient-dense high-protein vegetable foods.
If that's not enough, there are also a (big) handful of major environmental and sociopolitical problems with raising meat:
9. Meat is too resource- and land-inefficient to produce enough for the whole world without deforestation. Forests are where 50-75% off all species live along with their respective valuable natural biotechnologies. A Nobel laureate demonstrated in the mid 90's that for every $1 that is spent on rainforest preservation, at least $4 are saved in biotechnology research and other non-destructive uses of those resources. That estimate does not include the benefit of jobs created by preservation projects. This ratio was recently substantiated by North Carolina's investment in conservation of state natural resources (http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20110223/NEWS/302230065/Report-NC-conservation-trust-funds-bring-4-every-1-invested).
10. Fertilizer runoff for feed grains destroys fragile freshwater ecosystems. Fertilizers run into rivers and streams, causing an explosion of bacteria which consume oxygen needed by fish, also causing food shortages for anything that feeds on those fish. Waste parts from billions of slaughtered animals are composted into fertilizer which frequently seeps unregulated into the groundwater and other bodies of fresh water, creating large dead zones where nothing can live for miles.
11. Rainforests in third-world countries with leaders looking to cash in on their fragile ecosystems are clear-cut to make room for cattle. Because they lack the infrastructure to study and make use of the biotechnology found in exotic plants, animals, and insects in their own backyard, undeveloped nations have a predisposition for liquidating forests rich with unique species to make room for cattle. Plants increase biodiversity when farmed responsibly and support rich ecosystems, while animals typically destroy them, especially during conventional meat production.
12. Meat production is responsible for large amounts of greenhouse gases. Cattle are a considerable source of methane and carbon dioxide, both greenhouse gases, and the oil used to produce feed for them and care for them contributes to sulfur and hydrocarbon emissions, many of which also contribute to global warming in addition to cancer. The same amount of food produced by plants (especially tree fruits and nuts) actually has a net reduction of greenhouse gases because plants act to purify air by consuming CO2 and moving more into the soil. Fertilizers and decomposing refuse biomass from also directly release greenhouse gases.
13. Most of our water is used to raise meat. Our tax money is used to treat 3x the water we actually consume as human customers, even during shortages. This effectively subsidizes the production of meat by placing a heavy purification demands on municipal water systems, supported with your tax dollars. Meat takes 10x the amount of water to raise (2500 gallons/lb) as plants (~250 gallons/lb). Going green by conserving water and energy has never been easier or more effective than simply avoiding meat.
14. Far more fossil fuel calories are used to raise meat than is obtained from the meat itself. Every level in a food chain is associated with a drop in energy content in of at least one order of magnitude (90%).Growing vegetables results in a small but usually positive net caloric gain over the oil used (net gain of 0-300%), whereas meat production requires more than 35 calories of oil to produce 1 calorie of meat (a net loss of 3400%). The chemicals used to treat animals, prepare fertilizer for feed crops, treat waste, and produce medical support supplies account for an estimated 30-40% of all energy costs associated with food production.
15. Meet production facilities are responsible for antibiotic resistant bacteria superstrains and viruses such as the H1N1. Crowded animal compounds, poor living conditions, excessive antibiotics to improve yield, and improper sanitization practices create the perfect storm for new strains of bacteria and viruses to propagate. Occasionally they jump to humans either in the production facilities while handling the animals or after the consumption of contaminated meat by consumers.
16. Feed subsidies artificially increase demand for meat. Meat is so cheap in this country because of the government's subsidies for feed crops like corn and soy. This artificially increases demand by lowering the price to consumers while forcing vegetarians to pay for the price reduction through taxes. The production of vegetables, even after the cost of transportation and loss to spoilage, is so naturally efficient, no subsidies are necessary. This means we are basically paying tax dollars to have to have our environment and bodies destroyed so a very few can profit. The problem was caused by a combination of a natural human craving for meat and meat industry lobbyists spending hundreds of years and billions of dollars to influence lawmaking.
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