The meat on offer today is not so much John Bull as the ubiquitous American hamburger, or American-style southern fried chicken. It is highly processed food that is linked to a range of diet-related diseases. Our taste for meat in the form and quantity in which it is currently consumed is shaped by the power of advertising and subsidy.
Fast-food companies are among the biggest spenders on advertisements. Beef and milk production are not only among the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions , but also the biggest recipients of subsidies. Not much free market or free choice there. The cultural associations of meat-eating may go back through the ages, but the habits of mass consumption are recently acquired. There is another way. Sign up for the Animals farmed monthly update to get a roundup of the best farming and food stories across the world and keep up with our investigations.
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Animals farmed Meat industry. Less meat is good for us and the planet — why are politicians shy to say so? Felicity Lawrence. Staff pack and wrap beef at a meat processing company. Photograph: Alamy. Diabetes, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Here are 12 good reasons meat and poultry should be part of your balanced diet.
Naturally and completely. Animal proteins are complete proteins. Pork harbors a variety of parasites that are not killed with cooking. Your meat should be organic, hormone and antibiotic-free, grass-fed, and cage-free. Being grass-fed for cattle is very important because cows that eat grains have higher amounts of fat and an unhealthy balance in their omega-3 to omega-6 ratio. The first and most important reason you should eat meat is because that is the way you were created biologically.
Human beings are meat eaters by nature and our bodies require the nourishment that meat provides. Prior to the introduction of sugar, grains, legumes, and dairy in our diet, the degenerative health conditions that plague our society today did not exist. The Paleolithic diet is the diet that human beings should be eating, and meat is the major component. Not eating meat leads to or perpetuates sugar addiction, carbohydrate addiction, compulsive overeating, alcoholism, and addiction in general.
Meat and its by-products are the only complete sources of protein available to us. Not eating meat leads to neurotransmitter imbalances that result in a variety of mental and physical health conditions like anxiety, depression, hyperactivity, attention deficit, and addiction.
Meat protein gives you long-lasting energy, unlike carbohydrates which gives you a high and then a crash. Salmon and organic, grass-fed beef, as well as buffalo, are good sources of balanced omega-3 to omega-6 ratio.
Organic grass-fed beef and buffalo are also good sources of CLA, conjugated linolic acid, a substance that has antioxidant and anti-tumor properties and is attributed to reducing abdominal fat, glucose uptake and changes in serum total lipids. How much meat you should eat with each meal may vary from person to person depending on your unique biochemical needs and what health conditions you may face.
It is recommended that slightly more than half of your meal should consist of meat. That is what I have found to be true in my own life. I eat about eight ounces of meat with each meal. If I eat less than six ounces of meat, I will have severe hypoglycemia symptoms and develop a migraine. Your meat should be accompanied by a moderate amount of fat, and a lesser amount of low-starch vegetables. Eggs are acceptable as well. Fruit, nuts, and seeds should be minimized.
I am a strong environmentalist, but I completely disagree with this stance. Eating meat is essential for our physical and mental health, therefore we must find another solution to manage the negative impact that cattle has on the environment. Human beings are an important species in the environment and our health needs must be taken into account.
I, too am an animal lover and a strong supporter of the ethical treatment of animals. However, eating meat is not inhumane, unkind, immoral, or unethical. It is the way nature intended it to be. We must first be kind, respectful and loving to our own bodies, and that means providing it with the nourishment that nature intended it to have. It is entirely possible to eat meat in an ethical and humane way by eating organic meat that is cage-free and grass-fed.
According to some of the most respected authorities on the subject like Professor Loren Cordain, the human genome has not changed very much in the last 40, years — less than 0. As a matter of fact, For more than two million years we were meat eaters — grains, dairy, legumes, and sugar were not part of the diet.
This means our bodies were genetically programmed to function most optimally on a diet that includes meat, vegetables, eggs, fish, nuts, seeds. I agree with this line of research because that is what I have found to be true in my own life.
As a matter of fact, it was the ingestion of sugar, grains, legumes, and potatoes or other high carbohydrate foods that were at the root of these conditions.
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