High Steaks by Eleanor Boyle

Author:Eleanor Boyle [Boyle, Eleanor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781550924992
Publisher: New Society Publishers

We Can Be Healthier by Eating Less Meat

How do you stay healthy if you’re eating less meat? It’s certainly the case that people who are undernourished get healthier if they eat some meat or other animal products. But most of us are not in that category, and would be much better off with less. And for humans as a whole, we don’t need any meat to survive and thrive, as long as we get a wide range of plant-based foods. We’re not primarily carnivores, but highly adaptable omnivores.

Low-meat diets that are well-rounded can provide adequate protein, iron, and other nutrients. You can also get all you need for physical well-being from vegetarian diets and even from vegan ones, which include no animal products.39 Whether you eat meat is not the deciding factor in whether your diet is a healthy one. You can eat well with few animal products if you include a variety of vegetables, legumes, grains, and fruits, and minimize highly processed foods loaded with salt, fat, and sugar.

Protein is the issue on most people’s minds when considering a reduced-meat diet. Vegetarians are constantly asked by friends and family how they get enough, but sufficient good-quality protein is easily obtainable on low-meat or no-meat diets. The meat industry has worked hard to make “protein” seem synonymous with meat,40 but many other foods contain this macronutrient in good quantity and quality. Nutritional science shows it’s not difficult to get ample protein from modest servings of beans, lentils, nuts, and even foods we don’t consider sources of protein such as whole-wheat bread, potatoes, and grains.

Most of us appear to take in much more protein than we need or is good for us. According to scientists David and Marcia Pimentel, average Americans eat twice the recommended daily allowance of protein per adult per day.41 That’s backed up by the Food and Agriculture Organization, which says a safe level of protein consumption for average adults is 58 grams a day (about 2 ounces), while average protein consumption in the United States from 2003–2005 was 116 grams (about 4 ounces) per person per day.42 Most American protein intake is from animal products, and that’s part of the problem because these also contain significant amounts of cholesterol and fat. Meanwhile, excesses of protein cause their own health problems. For example, too much can promote calcium excretion, which may make us more vulnerable to osteoporosis.43

Most recommendations say Americans can get all the protein they need while eating less meat. The US Department of Agriculture food pyramid recommends 2 or 3 protein servings a day, and its graphic representation of a healthy meal shows proteins taking up less than one quarter of the plate.44 But your protein doesn’t need to come from animal sources, so you don’t need any, or many, animal products if you eat a few baked beans, or some whole-wheat toast with peanut butter, or morning oatmeal with soymilk, or other protein-containing plant foods. Canada’s Food Guide, another tool for healthy and balanced meals, underscores the need for protein but points out that there are many sources.

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