RED MEAT - FRIEND OR FOE
I have relied mainly on information from Dr Georgia Ede’s book Change Your Diet, Change Your Brain. I highly recommend reading this book as I cannot do it full justice in this article.
“While there remain many unanswered questions about nutrition, the question of whether animal foods belong in the human diet is not one of them. Meat provides all of the macronutrients and micronutrients we need, in their proper forms – including some that are difficult or impossible to obtain from plant foods.”
Why is meat so good for us?
Complete bio-availability. It contains no substances that interfere with our ability to absorb or utilise nutrients. In other words, it is completely bio-available to us.
Easy digestion. Contrary to common belief, meat is easy to digest and does not cause blood glucose spikes. In other words, it does not necessitate the secretion of large amounts of insulin, which often leads to insulin-resistance.
An excellent source of heme iron. Its red colour indicates that it contains heme iron. Heme iron enables haemoglobin in the blood to carry oxygen around the body and ultimately turn food molecules into energy. Heme iron is far superior to non-heme iron found in vegetables.
Easy absorption of nutrients. Extracting nutrients from meat does not require bacterial fermentation in the large intestine as do plant foods, it is efficiently digested by stomach acid and gut enzymes and absorbed in the upper intestine.
Meat is brain food. When our ancestors started eating more meat, it became easier to provide the brain with the macronutrients and micronutrients it needs, particularly in early childhood, when the brain is rapidly growing and developing, but the digestive system is still small and immature. This is thought to be the reason why some scientists argue that eating meat made us human, for we could devote less energy to process high-fibre plant diets and more energy in developing our oversized brains.
What does meat contain?
Macronutrients
Protein: Animal foods provide the highest quality protein available. All meat proteins are considered complete proteins because they contain adequate amounts of all nine essential amino acids.
Fat: Unlike plant foods that store their energy as starch and generally contain less fat, animals store their energy as fat, so all meats contain fat. Animal fats contain a mixture of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fatty acids – PUFAs – including the precious Omega 3 fatty acids EPA and DHA. DHA is of particular importance for its role in brain development, brain energy and brain cell communication, and it is very difficult for us to make from plant fats.
Carbohydrate: All non-dairy animal foods are extremely low in carbohydrate, but they are not carbohydrate free. Carbohydrates are the only macronutrient we do not need to consume at all because our livers can make all the glucose our bloodstream needs out of fatty acids through gluconeogenesis – new glucose formation.
Cholesterol: All animal cells need cholesterol; therefore all animal foods contain cholesterol. It is an essential component of every cell in our bodies, and a critical component of brain health. More about this in another article.
Micronutrients:
It is theoretically possible to obtain all of the vitamins and minerals we need from animal-source foods alone, particularly if organ meats are included in the diet.
Only animal foods contain true vitamin A (retinol), which is at least twelve times more bioavailable than the beta-carotene in plants.
Other vitamins easier to find in animal foods are vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6, B7, B9 – insoluble fibre in some plants hinders bioavailability, B12 – not found in plant foods, D3 – superior to D2 from plant foods,
K2 – not found in plant foods except for fermented foods,
iron -15-35% more bioavailable than non-heme iron in plant foods, calcium – no interference with absorption,
iodine – no compounds that interfere with utilisation,
zinc – no compounds that interfere with utilisation,
EPA and DHA – not found in plant foods, which contain ALA – a precursor which must be converted into to EPA and DHA – and that conversion is very low.
Why has meat been demonised?
Empathy - Our ability to empathise with other species can make it psychologically uncomfortable to kill and eat other creatures, particularly our fellow mammals. Eating meat breaks some people’s hearts. When human beings had to survive from the food they could hunt and gather, they were much more in touch with nature, and understood the cycle of life, and our dependence on each other as chinks in the food chain.
False narratives – Vegetarianism and veganism are not death free. Growing grains, fruit and vegetables involves the deaths of countless creatures, some invisible to our eyes and some visible. This does not mean that we shouldn’t aim to reduce all animal suffering and improve the quality of the animals’ lives.
Religious and spiritual beliefs – many ancient traditions, including eastern religions, and in some Judaic interpretations and monastic Christianity, believe that abstaining from meat is spiritually uplifting and more ethical. The temperance movement in the early 1800s followed by the Seventh Day Adventist Church established a so-called scientific rationale for vegeterianism, and went on to have a profound effect on the scientific community.
Fear of chronic disease and the manipulative practices of big industry have had a profound influence even on the medical and scientific communities leading to:
The false association between heart disease and red meat consumption – For decades we were told that beef was dangerous because the saturated fat it contains was supposed to drive our blood cholesterol levels up, force cholesterol into our artery walls and cause heart attacks. In 2020, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology published a review concluding that there was no robust evidence to support the idea that current upper limits on fat consumption would prevent cardiovascular disease or reduce mortality.
The false association between red meat and cancer – In 2022 a review of the nutrition epidemiology studies concerning unprocessed red meat and cancer found the associations were too weak and insufficient to make conclusive recommendations about unprocessed red meat.
The false belief that meat causes gout – gout is a type of arthritis often accompanied by high blood levels of uric acid, which can crystallise in the joints and cause pain. Like most chronic diseases, gout is rooted in insulin resistance, which impairs the body’s ability to eliminate uric acid. Insulin resistance is caused by consumption of refined carbohydrates and sugar.
The false notion that meat causes constipation and gut problems – meat is the easiest food to digest. Stomach acid, intestinal enzymes, and bile efficiently break down its proteins into amino acids and its fats into fatty acids. These broken-down products are absorbed almost completely into the bloodstream with little to no waste left to eliminate. Ask yourself – have you ever seen pieces of undigested meat or fat leaving your body? Have you ever seen pieces of undigested plant foods such as nuts, seeds, corn, peas, or broccoli leaving your body?
Why should we seek humanely raised meat?
Industrialised plant and animal food production systems devalue the health of animals as well as humans. There is no doubt that animals that have been allowed to roam outdoors, have been fed species specific diets – rather than grains and legumes – are healthier and better for us to consume. We all want to see a world in which animal suffering is minimised. We should bear in mind that of all the animals raised for their meat, milk or eggs - beef cattle, even if not grass-finished, start their life with their mothers and are nourished by nursing and grazing. Most of them continue to live in herds and graze for the first year of their lives.
Those who eschew red meat in favour of chicken, should bear in mind that cows usually live much better lives.