The info in this blog is knowledge I've acquired over the years from various sources like books, podcasts & blogs. I'm constantly adding to this knowledge in my mission to become the 1st super healthy 100-year-old who can do backflips. As I learn more, I will update this blog as necessary to reflect any new findings.
MY MEAT SHAME
As mentioned in previous blogs, there was a time when I ate meat every day, some days with every meal I had. I basically lived to eat meat. I took every opportunity I had to eat it. It's strange looking back at those times & seeing how much my opinion of it has changed. Even though I still enjoy eating meat, I can't imagine ever eating the ridiculous amounts I used to. I can't even touch raw meat anymore; it strangely grosses me out. The only time I can eat meat these days is when someone else cooks it for me. Even then, I see it as a guilty pleasure, something I should be ashamed of eating. This shame is in no small part down to the negative publicity meat has been subjected to in recent times.
"Don't eat meat it gives you cancer!"
"Don't eat meat it makes you fat!"
"Don't eat meat, its unsustainable & cow farts are causing global warming!"
Those are just a few headlines I've seen, I'm sure there're many more but how has something that's been a natural part of our diets for our whole existence become 1 of the most controversial foods in recent times?
It's still the most dominant part of many people's diets today. Mostly out of habit & our natural inclination to resist change, but it's also a great source of protein & other essential nutrients.
The argument against it is that there are people who also believe eating it is unhealthy, unethical, & unnecessary. Who's right though, the carnivores or the herbivores?
Spoiler alert: neither is right, not according to my google research anyway. I haven't found any info that has shown that a human population has ever thrived on a 100% plant-based diet. There's plenty of communities that have survived off of minimal animal products, but even the famous Jains of India are, with rare exception were lacto-ovo vegetarians.
& then there are our closest relatives, chimpanzees who are also occasional meat-eaters.
& then there's the fact that we produce the enzyme elastase, which serves to break down connective tissue for digestion. This could also just be a total coincidence of course.
Saying all of this, just because history shows that animals have consistently been part of our diet doesn't mean it needs to be going forward. So just how important is meat to our longevity?
WHAT IS MEAT?
When you think about what meat is, it's pretty gross. Technically it's the flesh of animals that people casually prepare & consume as food.
It also comes in many forms such as; steak, chops, ribs, roast, ground form, non-ground form, juicy forms, the list is endless.
When you think about it more, it gets grosser...
Many moons ago, offal which is organs like liver, kidneys, brains, & intestines, was commonly enjoyed in most cultures. As gross as this sounds to me, if you're going to sacrifice a precious life for food you should at least eat as much of it as possible (shoutout to my grandad who eats cow foot). Most Western diets have excluded offal these days & this lack of exposure is probably why I think it's so gross. Nevertheless, offal does remain popular in some other parts of the world, particularly among traditional old school societies who are about this frugal meat life. Many delicacies are also organ-based:
- Foie gras aka duck or goose liver.
- Sweetbreads aka thymus glands & pancreas
- Menudo aka Stomach soup (as in it literally contains stomach aka tripe)
WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?
Today, the majority of the meat on our plates comes from domesticated animals raised on farms. This simple concept shouldn't be that problematic, but in most cases, big industrial complexes often house thousands of animals at a time. & these complexes don't provide the most luxurious accommodation either
There are still some traditional cultures where hunting animals remains the sole means of obtaining it & I've always advocated for it to be the only means. Before you cancel me for saying this, I do also feel uneasy about hunting animals, but it's the lesser of the 2 evils. I feel like people in our society these days are way too lazy to learn how to hunt for their food & would choose the vegetarian life out of convenience (could just be me though). They could also find a workaround & just buy it off of someone else who can hunt. The people who know how to hunt would make a killing in this alternative scenario. Ok, maybe it's more problematic than I first thought.
Either way farming domesticated animals as we do currently is causing multiple issues, 1 of them being the unsustainability aspect of it contributing to global warming. Then there's the whole pandemic thing, with viruses jumping from animal to human & spreading globally happening on numerous occasions now.
There're farms which are sustainably producing meat, but unfortunately these are rare cases. Meat is a business & most farms are just looking to exploit the situation for monetary gain with little regard for the health of the animals, the planet or consumers.
MEAT TYPES
We tend to categorise meat by their animal source & how they're prepared, which is a pretty logical system if you ask me. I've listed those categories below for anyone who's interested.
Red meat: Sourced from mammals & contains more of the iron-rich protein myoglobin than white meat. Examples are listed below:
- beef aka cattle
- pork aka pigs & hogs
- lamb
- veal aka calves
- goat
- game aka bison, elk, and venison (deer)
White meat: Sourced from birds & generally lighter in colour than red meat. Examples are listed below:
- chicken
- turkey
- duck
- goose
- wild birds aka quail & pheasant
Processed meat aka illness meat: meat that's been altered through salting, curing, smoking, drying, or other processes & additives to preserve it or boost flavour. Examples are listed below:
- hot dogs
- sausage
- bacon
- lunch meats like salami, pepperoni & pastrami
- jerky such as beef & bison
HOW NUTRITIOUS IS MEAT?
Lean meat is an excellent protein source. It contains roughly 25–30% protein by weight after cooking. A 3.5-ounce (100-gram/ more or less the size of the palm of your hand) serving of chicken breast has about 30 grams of protein. That same size serving of lean beef has about 27 grams. These figures are also about the most protein the body can efficiently process for muscle repair in 1 sitting.
As mentioned in previous blogs, animal protein is also a complete protein. So it provides all nine essential amino acids, check out the protein blog for all things protein.
A typical 3.5-ounce (100-gram) portion of lean beef provides:
- Calories: 205
- Protein: 27g
- Riboflavin: 15% of our recommended daily intake
- Niacin: 24% of our recommended daily intake
- Vitamin B6: 19% of our recommended daily intake
- Vitamin B12: 158% of our recommended daily intake
- Niacin: 24% of our recommended daily intake
- Phosphorus: 19% of our recommended daily intake
- Zinc: 68% of our recommended daily intake
- Selenium: 36% of our recommended daily intake
Nutritionally the other muscle meats like lamb, pork, turkey etc. have a similar profile. Liver & other organs have the added bonus of being high in vitamin A, vitamin B12, iron, & selenium. Whilst also being a great source of choline, an essential nutrient for brain, muscle, & liver health (maybe they're not so gross after all).
HOW NOT TO COOK MEAT
The way you cook meat has an impact on how healthy it is. Grilling, bbq'ing, or smoking at high temperatures, can be an issue because fat is released. This produces carcinogenic compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons aka PAH's, which can rise & seep into the meat. For those who don't know, carcinogenic basically means cancer & cancer sucks. It's not all doom & gloom though, minimising smoke & promptly wiping away fat drippings when they occur can apparently reduce those problematic PAH's formation by up to 89%.
Heterocyclic aromatic amines aka HAA's are another carcinogenic compound. It also occurs when heating meat at high temperatures to the point of charring (starting to see a pattern here). It appears cooking food for long periods at high temperatures can increase the production of toxic byproducts which can cause cancer. This is 1 of the arguments many people make for meat increasing cancer risk. However, this ultimately depends on the type you eat & more importantly, how it's cooked.
WHAT THE STUDIES SAY ABOUT RED MEAT?
Well, a lot of studies are hating on high red meat intake & blame it for various types of cancers like:
- digestive tract cancer
- prostate cancer
- kidney cancer
- breast cancers
However, when you dig deeper into these studies, with nearly all of them the association was between cancer & well-done meat/PAHs or HAAs, rather than red meat itself. These studies only indicate that high-heat cooking was the issue & not the meat itself.
Of all cancers, colon cancer is mentioned the most in association with red meat intake, with multiple studies reporting a connection.
In summary, the increased cancer risk seems to occur mostly with higher intake of processed & well-done meat. This is according to the studies anyway, & studies have turned out to be wrong frequently. Studies are only really right until there's a new study saying it's wrong.
OTHER CANCER RELATED FACTORS
While red meat that's cooked at high temperatures MAY = cancer, white meat hasn't been reported to have the same effect. 1 study even found that chicken consumption reduced the risk of colon cancer, even when cooked to the point of charring. This study could have been funded by Nandos or KFC though so take all study findings with a massive bucket of salt.
It's important to stress that because these studies are observational, they only show a relationship (2 things occurring at the same time) & don't prove that red or processed meat does indeed cause cancer.
Either way, it would be a smart move to reduce your consumption of processed meat as our bodies aren't adapted to eating those kinds of food anyway. When it comes to eating unprocessed red meat, another smart move would be to adopt cooking methods that avoid burning it. These suggestions are only for those who wish to play it safe. If you're a wildboy or girl, feel free to ignore them. I'm sure plenty of people have eaten processed & burnt meat over the years & lived to tell the tale.
DOES MEAT MAKE YOU FAT?
Several observational studies have linked high intakes of red & processed meat to obesity.
Researchers have found that although there was a relationship between frequent red meat consumption & obesity, people who ate the most generous amounts also took in about 700 more calories per day than those who ate smaller amounts. As mentioned in previous blogs calorie intake is the key component when it comes to weight management. Weight gain occurs when there is an energy imbalance of more calories coming in than going out. Just because meat is present in obese people's diets doesn't mean it should foot the blame for lack of self-control.
DOES MEAT CONSUMPTION HAVE ANY BENEFITS?
Meat does provide benefits for muscle growth, appetite management, metabolism, & iron absorption. High-protein diets that include meat have been shown to increase metabolic rate, reduce hunger, & promote fullness. In terms of iron absorption meat contains heme iron, which your body absorbs better than non-heme iron from plants. Before you start hating on plant iron, this doesn't mean iron from plants suck. It just means the meat version is slightly better.
WHY PEOPLE DON'T EAT MEAT
More & more people are choosing not to eat meat for various reasons. Some don't believe in slaughtering animals for food when there are other means to replace those nutritional needs.
Some people don't believe animals should be raised in large, industrial complexes that are sometimes referred to as factory farms or concentration camps. These farms are often ridiculously overcrowded & starve animals of enough exercise, sunlight, or even room to simply move. As a way to prevent infection from living in these heinous conditions, the animals are pumped with antibiotics which isn't great as you're also what your food eats. Do you really want to be consuming second-hand antibiotics? The non-consensual animal doping doesn't stop there though. To further exasperate people's health & ethical concerns, many animals are also given steroid hormones to speed up growth, so you're also potentially consuming second-hand roids.
Some people hate on meat consumption because of the environmental effects of factory farming. In particular, the waste produced during raising & slaughtering them, as well as the high cost of grain-based meat production.
There are alternatives & small farms that raise animals humanely, don't use antibiotics or hormones, & provide animals with natural diets DO exist. Unfortunately, they aren't commonplace as its more expensive to raise animals in this way, meaning the meat they produce is more expensive as a result. This puts a lot of people of off as it's easier to sacrifice health for finances which is understandable for families struggling to make ends meet.
MORE SUSTAINABLE MEAT CONSUMPTION
Believe it or not, we can consume meat in a way that is healthier for us, the animals & the environment. Firstly non-processed meat will always trump the processed alternatives. Avoid high heat cooking methods, overcooking or charring because... cancer.
Unprocessed plant-based foods are your friend. Not only are they an essential component of a balanced diet, but they're also high in fibre & valuable antioxidants. Making plants the star of your plates rather than meat reduces your overall consumption & allows you to get more micronutrients into your diet.
Choose organic grass-fed meat, it's more environmentally friendly, ethical & ultimately healthy.
TO EAT MEAT OR NOT TO EAT MEAT
I don't expect any readers to quit meat. If you want to eat meat then it's your prerogative. I just hope to shed light on the impact of meat consumption, not only on your body but also the environment. If it compels you to reconsider the amount of meat you eat then great, if not then great.
The transition from an animal-based diet to a plant-based diet is difficult, I know this from experience. There's no point attempting it unless you think you'll be able to sustain it long term. When I first tried to go vegan, I relapsed after a week because I didn't have the knowledge to cook healthy balanced vegan meals every single day.
Some vegans & carnivores get caught up in ideological warfare fueled by their egos need to be right. There's no universal diet that suits everyone. Some people can't follow a strict vegan, keto, or carnivore diet for health reasons. We aren't designed to follow restrictive diets, its part of the reason they're so hard to sustain long term. The key is getting the masses to take baby steps in the right direction long term rather than unsustainable giant leaps that only last a week. Whether those steps involve eating less processed meat & sticking to the unprocessed stuff or adding an extra broccoli tenderstem to your meals it's all progress.
If you like eating meat, there isn't any conclusive health or nutritional reason to stop.
If you don't feel right about eating animals, there isn't any conclusive health or nutritional reason not to switch to a well-balanced vegetarian or vegan diet.
Disclaimer: LOLA does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Any information published on this website or by this brand is not intended as a substitute for medical advice, and you should not take any action before consulting with a healthcare professional.