If you saw my Instagram post this morning then you saw that I am digging through a book called Sacred Cow by Diana Rogers and Robb Wolf. This book debunks the pseudoscience that says that meat is bad for our health and the environment and instead presents the real science that shows how meat is necessary for optimal human health and even for our environment!
We are living in a time when many governing bodies are telling us that the responsible thing to do for our health and our environment is to not eat meat. In this newsletter, I am going to address the health side of this conversation. The environmental and economical side of the story will come in a later newsletter.
Declining Health in the U.S.
It’s no secret that since the 70s, health in our nation has been on a steady decline. In the 70s, the rate of obesity was 13%. Now it’s over 40% and obesity-related conditions are the leader in preventable premature deaths. Diabetes, which is considered an obesity-related condition and a result of the chronic overconsumption of carbs, has also been on the rise since the 70s which is depicted in the graph from the CDC below:
When it comes to heart disease, we have gotten “better” at treating people who have it but the fact is it is still the leading cause of death for men, women, and most racial/ethnic groups.
Now if you listen to governing bodies, the food industry, and the many plant-based advocates of the world, you will hear that meat consumption is the cause of this rise in poor health. However, this graphic from Sacred Cow tells a different story:
That’s right, you are reading this graph correctly. Since the 70s, our red meat consumption has actually gone down. Now wouldn’t it make sense that if meat is the cause of so many health impairments that our consumption of it would have increased or at least stayed the same during the period of our nation’s history where health has declined the most? Common sense would suggest so but the data suggests otherwise.
If meat is not to blame for our poor health, then what is? Let’s take a look at protein intake.
Too Low Protein Intake
The average American is getting only 16% of their calories from protein. This is far too low, even by the already low standards put in place by our governing nutrition bodies. There are several problems to address with low protein intake:
Optimal Protein Intake: Our bodies need more protein to function optimally and fight off chronic and degenerative diseases.
Poor Rest of Diet: Low percent of calories coming from protein means the rest of those calories have to be coming from somewhere else. If you look at the graph above, that somewhere else is sweeteners, grains, and proinflammatory refined seed oils. No doubt huge contributors to chronic disease.
Too Much Low-Quality Protein
To make matters even worse, not only is our society eating less protein, but the quality of the protein we are eating is also decreasing. We are seeing a huge push towards fake meat alternatives that are chalked full of proinflammatory veggie oils and low-quality protein. It doesn’t stop there though. Even “clean” plant-based proteins are still far from optimal which can be easily seen when looking at the Protein Digestability-Corrected Amino Acid Score or PDCAAS. Below is an infographic explaining PDCAAS and here is an Instagram post talking more about it.
The summary of this graphic is that even the “cleanest” plant-based proteins are suboptimal for human consumption and will not provide us with all of the nutrients we need and can get from animal protein.
On the other side, the quality of real meat has also gotten worse due to CAFO feeding operations and various other common animal agricultural practices. However, it should be noted that there are far better solutions to this problem than just cutting out meat which will be the topic of a future newsletter.
Wrap-Up
Some of you may be reading this and wondering, “wow, what about all those Facebook articles I’ve seen highlighting studies that say meat causes cancer and other health impairments?” It is important to note a couple of things about these studies:
These studies fail to isolate that meat is the actual problem since they are merely observational studies in which people report and are questioned on what they eat. Most of these studies fail to ask about or present data on processed carb and refined seed oil consumption.
What most of these studies are trying to say is that processed meat might be dangerous to our health in which most health professionals, including myself, would agree.
The truth is there is a large body of research that agrees that meat and the fats contained within it (primarily cholesterol and saturated fat) are not harmful to our health. In fact, they play a crucial role in our health due to their function in our body and the accompanying micronutrients that come in the animal foods rich in these fats.
Regardless, the notion that meat and fat is the reason for our current health epidemic is not only incorrect but the opposite of the facts, and the spreading of this misinformation has only contributed more to our current state of health affairs. We now have a society that is overfed and undernourished.
Meat is important to not only our health but our environment and our economy. Our environment can not sustain itself with more plant agriculture and less animal agriculture and the financial burden of poor health from not eating more of the most nutrient-dense food on the planet is a big reason why health care spending in the U.S. has crept to nearly $4 trillion per year! A topic for another newsletter.
Thanks for reading,
Chris Irvin
P.S. There are still a few spots open for my night class where I will be teaching about blood sugar and how to keep it under control. This will be a virtual class consisting of 4-sessions and only 15 spots to ensure plenty of opportunities for questions and engagement. If you’re interested in signing up, respond to this email or shoot an email to theketologist@gmail.com!