Meat has been part of the diet since the dawn of man and large numbers of people around the world consume it regularly. In this article, I want to explore whether eating meat is good for our health and what impact eating meat has on the environment.
Some facts about meat: Meat is generally defined as the muscle tissue of animals. For the purposes of this article, I will limit myself to poultry and meat from mammals such as cows, pigs, and sheep.
red or white Red meat contains the most myoglobin, an iron-containing molecule that gives it its red color. It is red when raw and not white when cooked. In general, red meat gets a bad rap with alleged links to cancer and high cholesterol. However, the evidence for these links is weak, and eating meat regularly will be healthy for most people as long as the rest of the diet is healthy. In fact, red meat, with its high iron content, is likely to improve the health of most people, especially women of childbearing age who lose a lot of blood. In addition to the iron boost, red meat generally contains more zinc and vitamin B12 than white chicken and turkey. After analyzing data for a number of key vitamins and minerals, beef and lamb offer more pound-for-pound of nutritional value than chicken and pork. However, remember that most of the nutritional value is in the lean cuts, not the fat. It is also likely that if the animal has had a good life, the quality of its meat will be better.
Domestic or wild. Meat from wild animals almost always contains proportionally less fat and more protein than the meat of its domesticated counterparts. In many species, there are more polyunsaturated fats in the wild population and, above all, more healthy omega-3 fatty acids. When it comes to vitamins and minerals, it's harder to see a consistent pattern of differences. Bushmeat consumption can be expected to offer greater nutritional value than the equivalent native meat. Part of the reason for this is that wild animals are more active and therefore have a healthier protein-to-fat ratio. The other is that they eat more omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids are found in greater amounts in wild plants than in native plants fed to domestic animals.
meat and health
The advantage: Meat contains a variety of nutrients that are essential for our well-being. Some of the following nutrients are found in significant amounts in meat:
- protein as whole protein. Complete proteins contain the full range of amino acids that make up proteins. This is important as health problems can arise if any of the 8 to 10 essential amino acids are missing.
- Iron in the form of heme iron, which is easier for us to absorb than the iron found in plants like spinach. Plant iron can be 2 to 10 times harder to absorb than heme iron.
- B vitamins are found in good amounts and are essential for health, and low levels are associated with mental illness and low energy. One of the B vitamins, B12, is unique to animal sources and therefore very important for vegans.
- Calcium and vitamins D and A are found in good amounts in meat and especially in the liver. These are vital to our skeletal health and health in general.
- Carnitine is a chemical found in meat and in our bodies that helps us burn fat. By eating meat, we get more of it. There is good evidence that it can improve fertility, especially in men. It is also often associated with a boost due to its fat burning abilities. However, the evidence for this is not so clear.
- Despite the reputation for being high in unhealthy fats, a lot of fat in meat is essential and good for your health. Monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats are found in all types of meat.
The controversy: Meat has a bad reputation in many places because it can be unhealthy. However, much of the criticism is not supported by solid evidence. Some of the main problems are:
- Cholesterol levels are high in many types of meat. However, the notion that dietary cholesterol is a factor in heart disease is dead wrong. Blood cholesterol levels are tightly controlled by the liver, and excess in the diet rarely results in excess in the blood. There is also mounting evidence that for optimal health, cholesterol levels must be in what is considered by many to be "high." This concept that high blood cholesterol is between 200 and 250 mg/dL arose out of efforts by drug companies to justify the ever increasing prescription rates of their profitable drugs known as statins.
- Saturated fat levels in meat are also generally quite high, although you might be surprised to learn that the healthy monounsaturated fats that people associate with olive oil are found in greater amounts in most meats than fats. saturated. Although there is some evidence that high intakes of saturated fat can raise blood cholesterol levels, there isn't much strong evidence that meat consumption is associated with heart disease or an increased risk of death.
- Meat, and red meat consumption in particular, has been linked to various types of cancer. However, it is important to recognize that the studies finding these associations, like many in nutritional science, are epidemiological in nature. These epidemiological studies use large groups of people in their studies. So far, so good. However, with groups as large, or cohorts as they are often called, it is impossible to control for confounding factors. An example in the case of red meat is that despite the bad press, many health conscious people are eating less. These health-conscious individuals are unlikely to smoke, use drugs, or drink excessively. So is it surprising that a large study of red meat consumption found that those who ate the most had a few more cases of certain cancers? Strictly controlled studies are more meaningful, in which other variables, such as smoking, can be eliminated by careful selection of the study participants. These more rigorous studies found no link between eating red meat and cancer.
The downside: However, some aspects of the meat might raise health concerns. These are:
- use of antibiotics. The presence of antibiotics in the meat we eat certainly reduces the risk of infection and foodborne illness. However, it has also led to the development of superbugs that are resistant to most antibiotics. It is certainly better to give the animals more space so that they cannot live in their faeces and those of potentially sick animals than to counteract these problems with medication.
- use of growth hormones. Growth hormones are widely used on North American fattening farms, although they are banned in the EU. It is commonly believed that hormones are broken down during the digestive process and therefore cannot have any effect in humans. However, intact proteins and lipids survive in the gut, where some can be absorbed intact through the gut walls into the blood. Once ingested, only a very small amount of hormone is required to have an effect, and it was evidence of hormonal imbalances in various human populations that led the EU to ban growth hormone in meat1.
- Processing of meat by smoking or additives such as preservatives and colorings. Epidemiological evidence that smoked foods can be unhealthy outweighs arguments against red meat. Studies in more specific populations with fewer confounders indicate an association between excessive consumption of smoked foods and certain types of cancer, such as gastric cancer. As with many things, the key is probably to eat these products in moderation rather than eliminate them altogether.
In short, eating meat is healthy for most people. Most scary headlines about the need to cut back on meat consumption aren't based on solid evidence. Let's face it, many human subpopulations have managed to live and thrive on little more than meat for several millennia. Likewise, it is true that other populations survived with very little meat, particularly in certain tropical areas. However, meat is a food of high nutritional quality and its complete deprivation can sometimes lead to malnutrition.
meat and resistance exercises.
Carbohydrates are usually needed before and during a long workout. By long I mean more than 90 minutes. However, it's not just your carbohydrate stores, called glycogen, that you use during endurance training. It also uses up protein from muscle and immune cells, and essential fats from hormones and damaged cells. Many vitamins and minerals can also be depleted through sweat and urine after prolonged exercise. Where does the meat come from in all this?
Meat for Recovery: Well, as mentioned above, meat contains good amounts of certain nutrients that can really help an athlete recover from long, hard endurance sessions. A number of minerals are lost during long endurance sessions. The most important are magnesium, zinc, iron, copper, calcium and chromium. Magnesium is lost through sweat and urine. However, meat is not the best source of magnesium. Zinc is also lost through sweat and urine, and meat is one of the best ways to make up for that loss quickly. Iron is perhaps the most well-known mineral that can be lost, especially during long-distance running, as blood cells break down and the iron it contains is lost in the urine. Meat is again one of the best ways to restore iron.
So while it's possible to be a successful athlete and avoid meat altogether, meat can certainly be a quick way to replenish key nutrients depleted during prolonged endurance training.
Meat and Weight: If you're concerned about weight control, meat isn't a big issue. It does not cause weight gain easily and is quite effective in reducing appetite before overeating. In fact, for many people who eat little meat, introducing more meat is often a helpful way to lose weight.
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