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We have no doubt all heard the statement “You are what you eat.” Well, while some of us at least somewhat realize what that statement means and the ramifications of it on our health, it is still uncommon for most in today’s society to take that statement seriously enough for the sake of their health and ultimately their life.
We know that today we have an epidemic of obesity and heart disease, which includes hypertension, atherosclerosis, arteriosclerosis and high cholesterol among many other things in North America and most of the developed world. Many groups and organizations are trying to bring awareness to this situation. Many restaurants are trying to make changes, no matter how small. Many doctors are changing their ways of treating patients. And while all of this is great to hear, not enough of us are listening or hearing the messages loud enough.
Most of us are still living with the conditioned idea that “we need meat to survive” and that “this is how people always ate.” Both of these which are complete myths.
Thus, with the coming of Earth Day and the current epidemic of chronic health problems, I wanted to share with you a quick guide on why you may want to reconsider eating meat. It is not a ploy to get anyone to go vegetarian or vegan, but some “food for thought” on what this food, that we all think is so “normal” to eat is actually doing inside of you, to your health and our environment.
1. Meat is very high in fat, especially saturated fat
It has been proven to date that we do not need any saturated fat to survive, and in fact saturated fat is the second worst fat (after trans fat) for our bodies and cardiovascular system. Not only is it linked to putting a strain on one’s heart through possible fat deposits in the arteries, increasing one’s blood pressure and causing artery damage, but it is the major fat responsible for dangerous weight gain. Today’s meat is even higher than ever in fat because of how the animals are raised, with no exercise or natural grazing capabilities. Hence they sit in a cage and are over fed, which leads to higher than normal unhealthy fat deposits.
2. Meat is very high in cholesterol
Most animals produce their own cholesterol and there is no need to be eating someone else’s, especially given the fact that your body is great at regulating its own cholesterol when we don’t throw in extra cholesterol from foreign sources. Cholesterol production can also increase in times of stress and decreased activity, both which are real problems for the animals of today.
3. Meat is very dense in calories
Since meat contains so much fat, and fat is the most calorie-dense nutrient, it is a substance that if eaten regularly or in excess can easily lead to weight gain.
4. Meat produces carcinogenic compounds when cooked
These are called heterocyclic amines and they get produced when animal flesh is cooked, especially at high temperatures. HCAs form when amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) and creatine (a chemical found in muscles) react at high cooking temperatures. Researchers have identified 17 different HCAs resulting from the cooking of muscle meats such as beef, pork, fowl, and fish.
5. Meat increases chances of colon cancer
Aside from the heterocyclic amines talked about above, meat does not clear from the intestines fast, unless ample fiber is included in each meal. This is mainly due to the fact that meat is high in protein and protein takes a very long time to get fully digested, thus it sits in our intestines the longest. This time factor, allows any carcinogenic compounds to do the most damage to the lining of the intestinal walls.
6. Meat is hard on the digestive system
Besides the increased chances of colon cancer, meat can cause a lot of digestive disturbances for the very same reasons. Meat takes a long time to pass through the intestines, where during this time it putrefies. Putrefaction produces toxins and amines that accumulate in the liver, kidneys and large intestines, destroys bacterial cultures and causes degeneration of the lining of the small intestine. Over a few years of a regular meat diet, putrefied meat is going to adhere to the lining of your intestines, where it often causes various digestive problems such as IBS, stomach cramps, prolapsed colons, haemorrhoids, constipation and many other problems that are not even directly linked to the intestines.
7. Meat carries the highest risk of bacterial contamination
Meat is animal flesh, and animal flesh is most prone to bacterial growth. This process is increased even more after the meat has been killed, as it starts to putrefy right away. Today, we do have many advances to decrease this process as much as possible, mainly refrigeration, but the most common food-borne illnesses still come from meats.
8. Meat increases chances of autoimmune diseases
Due to the fact that some animal proteins are very closely related to ours, the body responds to a lot of these as foreign particles and tries to destroy them. (Not very different from how some organ transplants get rejected.) When the body does this on a regular basis, after some time it begins to turn on itself due to some auto-immune processes that end up resulting in things like arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis and others.
9. Meat contains synthetic hormones, which disturb our hormonal balance
Unless the meat comes from an organic farm, most farms today inject the animals with various hormones for no other reasons than to speed up and enhance the animal’s growth. The faster the animal grows, the faster the monetary return and the bigger it grows obviously the more meat can be obtained for less money. Most of the hormones are various growth hormones, which not only disrupt our own hormonal balances, which can lead to many different health conditions, but also have been theorized for the faster than normal onset of puberty and development of our children today.
10. Meat contains various drugs
Due to the fact that every animal translates to dollars, most if not all animals are regularly subjected to various drugs, mostly antibiotics. These drugs do not magically vanish and researchers are studying these effects of them on our bodies. However, what we do know for sure today is that it has contributed to the current antibiotic resistance, where the antibiotics that we may need at a point in our lives, no longer work because the bacteria have gotten so much experience with them in small doses to mutate against them.
11. Meat contains its own diseases
As well as each animal and farm is controlled for safety, regulations are nowhere as close as we would like them to be. Even though it is easy to catch an infectious disease in an animal and then treat it appropriately, other chronic diseases are not as easily caught. In fact, think of how healthy an animal can be, that sits all of its short life in a tiny cage, where some cannot even properly stand up, let alone walk around and get some exercise.
12. Meat eating results in killing billions of animal each year
According to ADAPTT, 140 billion animals are killed each year by the meat, egg and dairy industries. That is a mind blowing number that most people are completely not aware of and most of this is simply due to the fact that today we eat a diet in the developed world that is way too highly animal based.
13. Meat production leads to wasted natural resources like water and land
Having seen the above number, now imagine how much water is wasted each year to grow the food to feed these animals and how much water is wasted to keep them hydrated while they are growing. In order for land to be made suitable for animal production, land must be properly cleared and this usually involves the chopping and clearing of many trees. Livestock production accounts for 30% of the entire land surface of the planet. Just think of how many people can be fed in the world and have clean drinking water, if it wasn’t all going to the billions of animals.
14.Meat production is heavily responsible for climate change
Animals produce natural gas, mainly methane. Methane is a very potent greenhouse gas, in that it traps heat even more readily and abundantly than carbon dioxide. In fact animal production is responsible for about 18% of the world’s climate change and to put that in perspective that is even more than all of the world’s transportation. (Source: United Nations)
15. Meat raised under stressful conditions has a negatively altered biochemistry, that negatively alters ours
Just think about yourself and what happens to you in times of stress. The number one thing that happens to all animals under stress is an elevation of stress hormones, which initialize a whole slew of other biochemical reactions that lead away from an animal’s healthy balanced state. This of course leads to various diseases. When we consume this meat, whether you embrace the Eastern views of karma, qi energy changes and thus chakra disruptions or not, eating meat from stressed animals has been shown to be linked to various negative mental and emotional states of being in us as well.
So perhaps it will be for your health, perhaps for the environment, or perhaps for the animals that you give this topic some serious consideration if you are currently consuming meat. Whatever your choice or actions are today or tomorrow, my hope is simply this, that each of us starts taking accountability for our own personal health and starts being the change that we want to see on this Earth.
*Photograph courtesy of Stefano A
About the author:Evita Ochel, B.Sc., B.Ed., CHN - is a certified holistic nutritionist, biologist, educator, writer, researcher and speaker in the areas of health, science and holistic wellness. She is a nutritional science expert and her teaching and writing focus on natural, wholesome, plant-based and organic nutrition to achieve optimal health and longevity. Learn more about Evita Ochel or Follow Evita Ochel on Twitter.
15 Comments to “15 Reasons Why You May Want to Reconsider Eating Meat”
Hi Evita,
I used to eat a little meat. I’m Asian, so I didn’t eat a lot of meat — just a bit in salads, sandwiches, or stir fries.
One morning last January, I woke up to find myself vegetarian. From that day, I just can’t eat meat. On the few occasions I ate just a tiny piece of meat, my digestive system rejected it violently, so I have no choice.
I think it’s part of light ascension, and I’ve heard similar stories from quite a few people. Again, I didn’t try to become a vegetarian, I just became one.
Thought you might find this story interesting ;)
Akemi
Hi Akemi,
Thank you for sharing and I completely understand, as I know that I have been brought to the same place from a similar journey. Although the basis does revolve around health primarily, when me and my husband “started” our spiritual awakening, it was him (the steak lover) who came home one day and said “I don’t think we should eat meat anymore” and that was that. I have heard that from many people as well, that as we start to resonate at higher vibrations, many things that one used to do or that seemed normal, just don’t seem like that anymore. It is definitely a part of the awakening process, I believe, and the shift that is occurring on the planet as we speak.
Thanks again, that was interesting!
Another fabulous, well-researched post, Evita. Hard to believe nine months ago, I lived on cheeseburgers, cheeseburgers, cheeseburgers. I smelled one last week and had a bodily reaction — I gagged.
Good article related to #14: Hamburgers are the Hummers of Food in Global Warming.
@ EARTHMOTHER – Thank you so much EarthMother for that feedback and the article!
I opened it and immediately had a chuckle, it is a fantastic message and said in a very catchy way. Hopefully more people are going to hear it.
It is such a simple act to cut down on meat, never mind cut it out all together, but I feel so many people feel so attacked or threatened by it, like taking away meat means taking away their main food source. That is sad because meat should never be anyone’s main food source, but anyway.
So here’s to celebration of our changes and to a happy and healthy future!
I don’t think people have to give up meat completely to be healthy or to preserve the planet. People need to take responsibility for what they eat. Getting meat that is organic (grass feed and free range) is much better for your health than eating what most people do. You should get your meat from as close to the source as possible. Go to a farmers market or join a food co-op. Don’t get organic meat from large chain supermarkets because the labels are deceiving.
The problem isn’t necessarily eating meat, people have eaten meat for thousands of years. Traditional society eat meat. The problem is eating too much meat and not knowing how to eat meat. Overcooking meat and grilling it is terrible for you. Cooking it like that makes it carcinogenic and makes it harder to digest. The average person needs to understand that they shouldn’t eat meat at every meal. They shouldn’t even eat meat everyday.
I don’t think that there’s one diet that’s right for everyone. Everyone’s bodies are different.
@ LOVELYN – You bring up a great point Lovelyn about not necessarily giving it up all together and that is in fact how I counsel people who are adamant about keeping some in their diet. I simply say that when it comes to meat, there is a way to “enjoy it responsibly” and that is eating it seldom and with lots of veggies. The veggies undo most of the negative effects of the meat in this way.
And taking responsibility for what we eat and why our health is the way it is, is another huge great point! And not just when it comes to meat.
Now when it comes to everyone being different, I do agree but at the same time, at the core we are all the same species. So while minor modifications are prudent for most people out there, I know that no one’s body is going to thrive on processed food or a lot of what the general population is eating today.
And good points about the organic aspect of it too. I guess the only downfall to that, is that it still kills an animal. But I completely respect that different people have different views on that and many choose to eat “ethically raised meat” and who’s to say that that is wrong for them.
I reduce to intake all meat. Interesting information. I share your article with facebook friends.
This was a very good post. My wife and I are meat lovers, or at least we currently are. She loves steak, I love pork chops and we both love burgers and brats. After reading this and considering my diet a lot, I went home and suggested we have an experiment-one month of 95% vegetarian, where we’ll eat meat just a couple of times. We’re still discussing the rules (and trying to get rid of the meat in our freezer to avoid temptation), but I think we might actually do it. I just don’t know if we picked the wrong time to go about this transformation…summer…grilling season! The fact that we both love grilled veggies will help, as will our vegetarian friend. Are you on Twitter? If so, I’d like to follow you. I’m @SwansonBlogBen
@ ABRAHAM – Hi Abraham! Thank you so much for that input and feedback. It is great to hear that you are taking steps towards optimal health :)
@ BEN – Thank you so much Ben – I really appreciate the feedback!
I think it is fantastic that you have considered to take this step in your life and bring about change for the sake of your and your wife’s health. I feel pretty strongly about this, as I know myself that if it wasn’t for an article I read here or there, I might still be eating it too. But the information that I read lead me to research more and more about this issue and I have to tell you I was stunned when I really looked into it, because on a day to day basis we are lead to believe that eating meat is not only “normal”, but the right thing to do. When in reality things are not quite the case. My husband used to eat meat too and was a steak lover and he approached it at first from the animal cruelty issues, as he came across something and that spurred our journey towards a plant-based diet. And today we have never felt better. But we did do it in steps and very quickly for the leading reason being our health.
The best way to bring about change and lasting change is 2 ways I find:
1) Do it slowly, let your body, your wallet, your kitchen, and most importantly your mind adjust to the new ideas.
2) Research! The more people read up on any change they want to make, the more they are either swayed toward it or away from it with great conviction.
And as for barbecue season, I’ll tell you what, if you can get through that being a meat lover, you can get through anything :) What would do it for me, is also being conscious, as you see the meat grilling and approaching higher temperatures and darker colors, thinking of the chemical reactions that are happening in there that are less than positive for your system to deal with.
Bottom line, when you should choose to enjoy meat, be sure to combine it with a lot of fresh veggies, as they offset a lot of the meat effects and help the meat to pass through your digestive systems faster.
And do let me know if you have any other questions, or need any other support on your new journey. And yes I am on Twitter – thank you for asking as it got me more motivated to put a logo for Twitter on the site :)
Awesome feedback! Thank you so much. I’ll try to keep you posted. About the adjusting to your wallet comment, though…is going vegetarian expensive? I’ve kind of seen both sides of the story, coming from both ends of the editorial spectrum of course.
Hi Ben,
You are very welcome, and no to the wallet part, I actually meant it as a positive thing :) I only mention that from the perspective that there will be changes in your lifestyle in everything almost that you do when it comes to reducing or eliminating meat. I probably should have said adjustments to your grocery trips more so.
In terms of your wallet, not at all, it should actually be cheaper. Meat and dairy are the 2 most expensive things in a store, so if we cut out or down one of them or both, you should notice savings for sure! The only way it can get a little more expensive is if you buy everything organic, depending on how competitive the prices are at your local store where organics are concerned.
As much as people try to tell me that eating natural (not even veg) is more expensive, I don’t buy it for one minute, because a bag of dry beans costs about $1, brown rice maybe $3 which last many meals each. (Not saying you would live on that everyday, but no comparison in eating veg and natural to processed and/or animal based.)
Another great and comprehensive article!
@ HANLIE – Thanks so much for your feedback Hanlie!
hi, I love to eat meat but didnt know all these stuff. thanks for sharing
@ IRTIZA104 – Hello and you are welcome. Unfortunately most news stations will not talk about this too loudly, as it would hurt the economy of the farmers who produce meat.
But suprisingly as more and more studies are done, one can even hear some of this on the news. The science world knows it well, we man never evolved on as much and the kind of meat that we have today. So it is no surprise that our health suffers, hence we can empower ourselves through education :)