If arguments #1-#8 haven’t convinced you, maybe these last 3 will!
Behold, arguments #9-#11 against avoiding meat to be healthier:
Argument #9: Muscle
Meat is the best source of protein for building and maintaining muscle.
It contains:
- Zinc – assists in muscle repair.
- Heme iron – boosts energy levels and combats fatigue. Plants contain non-heme iron, which is more difficult for our bodies to absorb and utilize.
- Creatine – a nitrogen-containing compound that increases protein creation and provides muscles with energy, which encourages muscle gain.
Argument #10: Overall health
Grains of any kind, even whole grains, are not healthy for your body. Humans’ GI tracts are not able to process whole grains very effectively and in fact, they damage the GI tract and disrupt metabolism.
There are no nutrients in grains that you can’t get from other foods, so you’re not missing out by skipping them. Your body can actually get most of the energy it needs from protein and fat anyway.
Cholesterol and fats (including saturated fats) increase our ability to absorb nutrients, they aid in digestion, and they prevent constipation. Also, they are crucial for:
- Neurotransmitter production and function
- Blood sugar regulation
- Hormone production and function
- A healthy nervous system
- Providing energy
All of these things are super important right now when we’re all trying to stay healthy in the face of this worldwide COVID-19 outbreak.
The quality and kind of meat you eat is important. Go for fresh, grass-fed, free-range, pasture-raised, hormone and antibiotic-free, organic and whole cuts of meat like steaks, roasts, legs, thighs, breasts, or ground meat.
Avoid all kinds of processed meat. It’s got sugar, salt, chemicals, additives, nitrates, hormones, pesticides, antibiotics, and preservatives that can lead to disease. Some examples are pepperoni, salami, sausage, chicken fingers, buffalo wings, bologna, or deep-fried meats.
Argument #11: Ethics
For those of you who declare ethics as your reason for avoiding meat, that’s perfectly fine. I totally understand where you’re coming from because I was vegetarian for 3 years with daily aspirations of one day becoming vegan for mostly ethical reasons. But if you are on the fence and considering giving up animal products for “ethical” reasons, please keep reading.
A truly vegan food does not exist
It’s hard to produce food without ending a life, even if it is tiny. I found a dead caterpillar in my cauliflower the other day, a dead moth in my box of baby kale one time, and I find dead gnats in my veggies all the time.
Also, avocados and almonds are reliant on pollination by bees. The continual demand for these crops is puts unsustainable pressure on beekeepers, which results in the death of tons of bees. Every spring, 70% of commercial bees in the US are drafted to pollinate almonds alone. Last year, a record number of over a 1/3 of those bees died as a result of these pressures. And almond trees unsustainably require more water than any other dairy-alternative: 16.25 gallons of water to produce 1 glass of almond milk.
So if you want to get technical about it, avocados and almonds aren’t really vegan.
And it’s not just bugs. A researcher in the animal science department at Oregon State University named Steven Davis found that tractors that make space for more fields of things like kale and whole grains unfortunately kill a lot of field-dwelling creatures such as rabbits and mice.
Here are some other things that aren’t technically vegan:
- Ever heard of chitosan? Me either. But it’s the spray that companies use to extend the shelf-life of bananas. They make it from crab and shrimp shells. So technically most bananas aren’t vegan unless you’re growing them in your back yard.
- Regarding hundreds of types of cartoned juices, companies add vitamins back in to the finished product because the natural vitamins are lost during all the processing that the juice goes through (what a waste!). Any juice that says it is a good source of vitamin D most likely contains the D3 form, which comes from sheep’s wool. And if your juice carton also says it’s a good source of omega-3s, those are most likely derived from fish oil and gelatin.
- Many breads, bagels, and pizzas contain a L-cysteine, an amino acid most commonly obtained from human, duck or hog hair.
- Most companies that produce white sugar process it using bone char to make it look whiter. What the crap is bone char? Bone char is made from the bones of cattle who were slaughtered in foreign countries and sold to traders in other foreign countries, who then sell the bones to the U.S. sugar industry. Talk about a carbon footprint!
Speaking of carbon footprint…
Some staple vegan foods are not very sustainable, good for the planet, or even good for humanity. This includes: tofu, avocados, cashews, palm oil, quinoa, and coconut products. Check out this fascinating article.
Not to mention the fact that lots of vegan products are very heavily processed, so they’re not that much healthier than the processed food that does contain animal products. I’m a huge advocate for eating whole, real food and avoiding all processed food, so this is a no-brainer to me. I feel better mentally and physically when I can pronounce all the ingredients in a dish I’m consuming.
Cost?
I can hear you saying, “That’s all well and good, Kristen, but grass-fed beef is expensive!”
Check this out: at WalMart.com, a pound of organic, grass-fed beef is almost half the price of a pound of vegan meat substitute! HALF the price! I’ll take the 1-ingredient package over the 20+ ingredient package full of stuff that’s hard for my body to identify and digest, thank you very much!
If you are to go this route, the best way to do a vegan or vegetarian diet is to consume a balance of macronutrients by eating local, in-season, real, whole foods, and supplement with high-quality supplements for the nutrients that are lacking. Avoid processed foods at all costs. And that’s super hard in an increasingly busy world!
There you have it! 11 reasons NOT to give up meat. What are your thoughts? Were you considering giving up meat? Are you still considering it even after reading these past 3 blog posts? Let me know in the comments below!
Hungry for more info on this and other health topics? Check out my Resources page for my favorite books, podcasts, etc. for more reading. My absolute favorite is The Big Fat Surprise by Nina Tiecholz.