I’ve been noticing more and more that people are asking me about my opinion on red meat. Or have I heard about this study or that study “proving” that red meat is bad for you, or did I know that red meat is linked to this or that cancer or disease? I haven’t looked into these studies at that time, but I decided I probably should, as this goes against everything about my new way of eating and living. But hearing what I’ve been hearing was definitely not resonating with me, and I had a funny feeling some of these “studies” could have a flaw or two, and they could all be leading to another dangerous health fad like the low-fat craze started in the 80s (that only led to more disease and obesity…). But I didn’t want to discredit it until I read more for myself.
The vegetarian lifestyle has caught my interest a time or two in the past, back when I was exploring different diets and lifestyles in my attempt to get healthier. I know how plenty of fruits and vegetables are not only good for you but necessary for good health. I’ve gone a few weeks to a month without eating meat, to see if I’d notice a difference. I didn’t feel the greatest… but that was before I learned what carbs and sugars do to the body, and I certainly wasn’t avoiding breads and pastas at the time like I am now. So I don’t know, I won’t knock the vegetarian lifestyle – to each his own – but I’m not sure I feel okay about the omnivorous lifestyle getting knocked. Since I’ve been following a more Paleo way of eating (and I’m not strict, by any means, but I do my best) and learning more about that lifestyle, it just makes more and more sense to me. It’s balanced, first of all, with lots of vegetables, fruits, meats, nuts and seeds, and healthy fats and oils. It also takes us back to our roots. Simply put, it’s the “caveman” diet. What did we eat before there was industry and agriculture interfering with everything? We existed for thousands of years living off the land – that meant gathering vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, roots, berries, etc., and also hunting for animals for their meat. And in wintertime, that meat was critical to our survival. If meat leads to all these cancers and diseases, wouldn’t the human race have been wiped out long ago?
Since I’ve been following this lifestyle more closely, I’ve been feeling amazing. I can think clearer, I feel stronger, I just feel, overall, good. I know most of that is because I’ve been avoiding bad carbs like breads and pastas. But I have been eating meat...
Now, I will say one thing… processed meats and meats from animals that had not-so-healthy lifestyles probably aren’t the best to consume. I truly believe they’re not. So many animals are not fed healthy, natural, balanced diets; they’re injected with steroids, artificial growth hormones, and too many medications, and all that gunk gets stored in their fat cells and muscle tissue. Which is what we then eat. Yuck. What are all those residual steroids, artificial growth hormones, and medications going to do to OUR cells? Lead to all the cancers and diseases that red meat is blamed for, I bet! Consuming the meat of animals that ate the grasses and plants in their natural diet is probably a better idea than eating those that were injected with unnecessary junk that really only serves to make them more profitable to the farmer. That’s what the cavemen were eating, after all, and the human race survived that era!
There are a lot of studies that demonize red meat… Here’s a link to one of them that I’ll pick at for now: http://archinte.jamanetwork.
It’s basically saying that the data was gathered by food frequency questionnaires, so people had to chart what they remembered eating over the past two years… I’m lucky to remember what I ate for lunch a week ago, soooo… Anyway. The study groups weren’t very well controlled either. Factors weren’t taken into account like the subjects already being overweight, smokers, drinkers, or sedentary, which that alone can bring about risk factors for your overall health. And were these people eating grass-fed meat…? Here’s some more info on that topic: The beef from corn-fed cows can have as much as 50 times more omega-6 fatty acids than grass-fed cows. Too much omega-6 in the diet is known to promote inflammation and oxidation in the body, which, *drumroll*, leads to heart disease and cancer. Hmmm… But that bit of info was excluded from the studies. I think a lot of the anti-red meat studies were conducted without paying attention to these facts.
But enough about those claims and studies that make red meat seem deadly. Let’s focus on the proof of WHY humans ARE omnivores. The evidence is a little more sound here, and isn’t generated from faulty “studies” but rather historical, archeological, and physiological evidence. Our stomachs produce hydrochloric acid, which herbivores do not produce, and our pancreas can produce a large array of digestive enzymes to break down a wide range of foods, from vegetable to animal. The teeth in our skulls contain both teeth for tearing meat and teeth for chewing vegetables, and have been that way since the dawn of our evolution.
According to anatomist and primatologist John McArdle (who, believe it or not, happens to be a vegetarian himself) expects we would have a specialized colon, specialized teeth and a stomach that doesn’t have a generalized pH for digesting meat if we were designed to be strict vegetarians. That isn’t our case though. We also have a low synthesis rate of DHA (a fatty acid) and taurine, which suggests that our ancestors required animal foods for these nutrients. Vitamin B12 is another nutrient that is essential for our development but only found in meats. Even in The China Study (a vegetarian bible), Dr. T. Collin Campbell recommended that the Chinese village people in his study eating a vegetarian/vegan diet take a B12 supplement. If vegetarianism were how our bodies are designed to eat, we wouldn’t need supplementation then, would we? Also, from what I understand, “animal-protein” was a lump category including not only meat but milk as well. Most of the diseases contracted by the villagers in the animal-protein-consumption category were linked back to casein, a protein in milk, not red meat. And I do support avoiding dairy (although I do have trouble with avoiding it myself… I love me some cheese… but someday I hope to eliminate it) – we happen to be the only mammals that consume other mammals’ milk, and I do find that a bit strange… But even when I try to look past that, just knowing the processing most milk goes through from its raw state to its state in the carton at the grocery store is a bit disturbing… I have way more researching to do on this subject, though, so stay tuned in the future when I decide to write an article about dairy! Let’s get back to the topic at hand, though.
So what about protein? Protein is found in not only meats and eggs but in beans, nuts, and grains as well. So you should be fine on protein if you’re not eating meat, right? Well, here’s the thing about protein: it’s a chemical made up of chains of amino acids, and they form all animal tissue – muscle, bone, everything. They transport and store minerals and oxygen. They are required for motion. They are needed for body structure, for blood clotting, for immune system strength, for hormone production in cells, for enzymes (which are also proteins) to do their jobs in chemical reactions in the body. It’s needed for good energy, for blood sugar stability, and bowel function assistance. Protein is fuel. As I said before, proteins are made up of amino acids. Our bodies require around 22 amino acids, and we need to consume around 10 to 12 of them – those are essential amino acids, and the rest can be manufactured from those essential ones. Some protein foods contain all the essential amino acids, and these are called complete proteins. These are mainly meat, poultry, and eggs. Grains and beans are considered incomplete proteins, but, from what I’ve read, in the right combinations they can create complete proteins, making vegetarianism doable for some people. Some foods are much more balanced in essential amino acids, and a food with good balance has what’s considered a higher biological quality. Egg protein is the highest, and meat protein is the second highest in biological quality.
So, all that being said and considered, I’m not going to put much stock in all these “studies” claiming that red meat is going to kill us. We are clearly designed to eat it as well as vegetation, and so long as we eat responsibly (not consuming processed meats or meats from animals that led unnatural lifestyles), we’ll be just fine. Eating vegetarian is more of an ethical choice rather than a necessary diet for humans, and I have no problem with that, so long as you’re making sure your body is getting all the necessary nutrients it needs to grow and progress. It’s definitely a humanitarian move to eat vegetarian, especially with all the terrible conditions our food animals have to deal with, and then in turn we have to consume… But my ethical choice is to follow in my ancestors’ footsteps, eat what God or Nature or whatever you believe in provides us, and support the farmers that care for our food animals in a humanitarian way (or, in my case, go hunting!). And on another hand, I also believe every individual is different – body chemistry, ethnic background, and lifestyle are all factors in how your body responds to what you consume. Perhaps some people’s body chemistries require more protein than others, or protein from various sources, or some need more vegetables than fruit, or more fruit than vegetables… I don’t know, I’ll have to look into that more! But, no matter what lifestyle you follow or choose, do your best to eat clean – as I’ve said before and I’ll continue to say, avoiding the chemicals that find their way into both meats and produce and eating clean, grass-fed meats and organic, non-GMO and pesticide-free produce will do your body a huge favor, both now and in the long run.
If you want to read more, this link has some good food for thought: http://articles.mercola.com/
Sources:
http://robbwolf.com/2012/03/
http://
http://rense.com/general20/
http://www.drlwilson.com/
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