Meat Is Good, But Only the Right Types

Let me start with this: I love meat. It’s an important way for me to connect to my family’s heritage and traditional cuisine, it fuels my body, and honestly, I just love the taste of it. It is completely ok to feel this way.

But let me say another thing: we could all do with eating less meat.

As I’ve said before, I am not an advocate for completely cutting out a food group, animal products included. There is always a downside to restricting ourselves from foods that our ancestors have eaten for thousands of years – our bodies are wired in a certain way, and that hasn’t changed.

But on the contrary, our meat-eating habits have changed considerably over the last 100 years. And it’s costing us, health-wise and environment-wise.

This is not a post about “convincing” you to eat meat, or saying you’re “wrong” for choosing to not eat meat. In fact, I’m not even going to mention the V-word.

It’s a look into why animal products are dietary essentials, and how we can make better choices about our meat consumption for both health and sustainability.

Are animal products bad for us?

There is nothing inherently unhealthy about eating animal products, despite science naming and shaming meat and cheese as some of the highest cholesterol-contributing foods.

Remember, saturated fats from animal products are healthy and necessary, in the right amounts. Some really essential fats and vitamins are only found in animal foods: DHA is important for our brain function, found in marine animals; B12 is also crucial for red blood cell production, and there are very limited sources of it outside animal foods.

Whilst we can live for some period of time without these, a strict no-meat diet for a long period of time is bad news. Failing to replenish your DHA and B12 stores will lead to a slow cognitive and functional decline. Not ideal.

If you want to hear from someone with first-hand knowledge of declining health after being on a long term no-meat diet, check out Daniel Vitalis. His interview with Lierre Keith shows she has a similar story.

Can’t we just use supplements?

Non-meat eaters will often take supplements to combat a B12 deficiency. But is this a viable alternative? Sorry to say, but no.

The reason is these B12 supplements are not biologically active - meaning they’re harder to absorb and you won’t be reaping the benefits. Natural form is always better and more efficiently harnessed than pill form.

Yes, B12 supplements can be used in combination with dietary B12 to help with deficiencies (in fact, I take a small dose of B12 in my supplements compound). But supplements are not enough alone. We can't rely on them completely, in the place of animal foods.

So in short, we do need these products in our diet. But, not in the way that we currently consume them.

There are 2 problems with the modern meat story.

1. We eat too much meat in proportion to other foods.

The Western diet is too protein-centric – at a restaurant you order a big hunk of steak with some lettuce garnish. Weekend barbecues are sausages, chicken, lamb chops all at once, with maybe a salad on the side.

If you think about traditional cuisines, they all de-emphasise meat: Cantonese will be rice, steamed vegetables, and a small serving of meat. Indian and Italian are quite similar.

We need to reverse our plates: larger servings of vegetables, with both whole grains and healthy protein on the side. Once again, protein is on the side. (Check out my earlier post for guidelines to a healthy eating plate). And the protein does not always have to be animal.

I know the term "plant-based" usually refers to a diet that has no animal products, but I actually like how the term is focused on vegetables. I've adopted this way of thinking to create a new guiding principle for you: plant-focused. Most of what you eat should be plants.

I’ll admit, I used to eat meat every single day. This is particularly because I’m currently on a low-carb diet to work on some lingering gut health issues (despite preaching to “not cut anything out,” a paleo-esque eating plan has given me great results with reducing my candida overgrowth and leaky gut).

But now I only eat animal meats a few times a week, and get my protein from other sources.

Here’s what my meat consumption tends to look like:

• Red meat once per week

• Chicken once per week

• Fish twice per week

• Canned tuna once per week (sustainably sourced of course)

Make a similar list to keep yourself accountable!

Use these other sources of protein in your meals:

• Beans and legumes: lentils, kidney beans and chickpeas are the highest

• Nuts: almonds, pistachios and cashews are the highest

• Seeds: pumpkin, flax, sunflower and chia are the highest

• Tofu or tempeh (non-GMO and organic)

• Eggs

• Quinoa

• Vegetables like broccoli and brussels sprouts are also high

Read more about protein sources here.

And remember, go easy on the processed meat. This includes sausages, bacon, ham, prosciutto, and any meat salted, cured or smoked. The chemicals, nitrite, salt, and carcinogens from smoking methods are used to preserve the meat, but they're terrible for us. Read more here.

If we eat these types of meat all the time, there are some obvious outcomes that are scientifically proven: cancer, heart disease, hypertension.

Sad I know; I love them too. Enjoy them only on the odd occasion, though, and you'll be fine. Like once or twice a month at most. And try to choose preservative-free sausages or nitrate-free bacon from your local, trustworthy butcher when you do.

But for the majority of your meat, it should be fresh.

If the idea of this is scary, it’s completely understandable – we’ve become used to a meat-heavy diet. We live in a time fortunate enough to have access to any type of meat we desire, at any time. And, the interests of powerful agricultural companies have influenced our idea of a healthy eating plate.

But, in the tradition of coming back to the earth, think about what a natural diet from the land would look like if you had to catch and pick your own food. You might trap a rabbit every couple days, you’d be lucky to have a deer once a week, and the rest of the time you’d be eating easily accessible plants, berries and seeds.

So start with one Meatless Monday a week, or whichever day you choose. Experiment with alternative protein sources you find tasty, and cherish the few days that you do have meaty meals.

Meat Responsibly is a great community and they created a guide ‘Meat Reduction for Meat Lovers.’ I love their ethos on meat – Less and Better.

Get involved here.

We need a large number of people cutting out a little bit meat rather than a small number of people cutting out all their meat.

- Meat Responsibly

2. Poor quality and toxic meat fills our supermarkets

Whilst meat itself is not bad for you, the unnatural diet we feed our livestock makes their products unhealthy.

It’s called CAFO meat and it’s the devil. "Concentrated animal feeding operation:" where animals are confined in feedlots, all in the name of low cost and efficiency. If there’s one thing that should not be produced in factories, it’s meat.

There are so many problems with CAFO meat, so hopefully at least one of these will disgust you into changing your habits.

If a cow is raised on corn, soy or wheat, those GMO products end up in our bodies and the meat is flooded with omega-6 (read why GMOs are bad for us). Plus, the animals live in their own waste and the carcasses of other dead animals, creating disease and requiring antibiotics - so we ingest both the diseases and antibiotics. This environment also requires noxious cleaning chemicals and pesticides to deal with the flies and vermin - again, we ingest. And don’t forget the growth hormones to fatten up animals and increase milk production.

Like, do you really want to be eating this?

The CAFO meat industry also has an enormous carbon footprint, requiring endless fossil fuels and contributing a sizeable portion of pollution to our air, land and river systems. If you want more information or just like gorey details, check this article out.

We need to completely eliminate these kinds of animal products from our diet, both to support our health and the environment.

Remember, the way to approach this is not to cut out meat – meat is essential and healthy, if it’s the right type.

What you can do is support certified organic, pasture-raised livestock and wild-caught fish. This means they’ll be free of any chemicals, hormones, antibiotics. Being fed their natural diets means they are much more nutrient-dense, with more omega-3 and DHA. The way it should be.

And organic farming is sustainable. In fact, it can actually contribute to reversing climate change and healing our planet – there’ll be more on this in an upcoming post.

Yes, the price tag might be a little higher. But once again: do it for your health, do it for the environment. You’ll end up paying more in medical fees later if this stuff accumulates in your body. And as a planet, we’re already paying for the impacts of CAFO industries on our environment - and it’s only just begun.

So if, like me, you love meat, you can let out a sigh of relief that you’ll still be able to enjoy it healthily. But our meat consumption needs to change.

We need to think about where our meat comes from and what it’s been through to get on the shelf. We need to consider what we’re putting in our bodies indirectly, as we’re consuming what our animals consume. We need to change our mindset on how much we’re willing to pay for good quality meat.

Here's what you can do:

• Read the package labels more carefully: look for organic, 100% pasture-fed

• Shop at a butcher instead and ask questions about its source

• Better yet, find a meat wholesaler at your local market who you trust and is happy to tell you all about their farm

Cheap and over-available meat is not what we want. We want nutrient-dense, clean and nourishing meat.

So a general rule is eat less meat, buy more expensive meat.

What about the ethical argument of eating animals?

You may agree with the health benefits of quality animal foods, and understand that sustainably-raised livestock has much lower environmental impacts. But you may be caught up on whether it’s ethical for us to eat other living things. Again, perfectly understandable.

The internet circulates videos of cows being milked until the point of profound suffering, or chickens housed in cramped, filth-ridden cages. Yes, this happens. But not everywhere.

This is the reality of industrial CAFO agriculture and it’s a serious animal rights concern.

But organic farmers are a different kettle of fish. They understand the benefits of raising cattle as grazers on open lands and natural diets (it’s called ‘rangeland ecology’). And this translates to much better treatment of animals.

So buying humane, organic, pasture-raised meat – or better yet, getting intimate knowledge of your farmers’ treatment of their livestock – will simultaneously reassure the ethical concerns you may have.

What about the fact that animals have to die? Well, that simply can’t change.

If that thought does cause you genuine distress and guilt, then I support you in your decision to refrain from eating meat – follow your heart, because you’ve obviously got a big one.

But this is how I see it – in nature, it’s impossible to avoid death or the food chain. Every living organism requires the death of another to sustain itself. Now, I don't meant to get too spiritual, but death is a prerequisite for life. And in the face of the evidence about how vital animal products are to our health, this ethical argument simply doesn’t have enough weight for me. I choose to prioritise my health.

But this doesn’t mean I support carnage, suffering, inhumane treatment and destruction of ecosystems to get my nourishment.

I choose a food system that honours and respects the lives of animals, plants, the planet and human beings. Making the choice to always eat from humane and transparent sources might be enough for you to reconsider this ethical barrier.

And eating meat doesn’t mean you have to ignore where it comes from – be conscious and grateful of the animal. You can even thank the animal and the earth that raised it in a short prayer before you sit down to eat.

Instead of eliminating meat consumption altogether, we just need to promote a more natural, regenerative way. Remember, you vote with your dollar. The more people who support organic farms and change their meat consumption patterns, the more available (and less pricey) this meat will become.

Be the next person to join the community of meat-lovers, health-lovers and environment-lovers.

Repeat after me: less and better.