I made a very hard decision last semester, and that decision was to take red meat out of my diet. Doing so has made me feel a lot healthier because when I stopped eating red meat, I lost a couple of pounds in a couple of weeks. Cutting out red meat mean I was choosing leaner forms of protein, so I am now consuming less saturated fats than I was before. After watching a video of cows being penned in these small areas, walking around in their own feces, I would not stand to eat their flesh any longer and watching Food Inc was a good reminder of why I continue to not eat red meat.
There are many reasons to stop eating red meat, and a lot of those benefits are anthropocentric. The benefits affect humans in a positive way physically. Readers Digest has a whole article about the benefits to the body that comes from not eating red meat, and a couple that stood out was the lowered “bad” cholesterol levels, the decreased risk of heart disease, and the associated weight loss.
Many Americans suffer from high cholesterol, and according to the CDC, 95 million U.S. adults age 20 or older have total cholesterol levels greater than 200 mg/dL. Having a high saturated fat diet is attributed to high cholesterol levels, and if reducing intake of red meat can lower LDL levels, it seems to be worth the sacrifice. Heart disease is one of the largest issues in the United States and kills over 600,000 people per year, and one of the reasons people suffer from heart disease is because of high cholesterol levels. There is an obvious connection between lowered cholesterol and lowered risk of heart disease. According to a research article by Renata Micha, “On average, processed meats contain about 400 % more sodium and 50 % more nitrates per gram. Dietary sodium increases blood pressure (BP), and may also increase peripheral vascular resistance and impair arterial compliance”. The article explains how red meat can cause cardiovascular problems, and it is a commonly known fact that salt is not heart healthy. Burgers, Hot Dogs, and a lot of other processed meats are very salty and terrible for the body.
Why else should you quit eating red meat?
Removing red meat from your diet is a great stepping stone towards becoming a vegetarian. I want to eventually be a lacto-vegetarian because it is not necessary to eat meat in order to get the necessary nutrients. Quitting meat cold turkey is very hard, so setting parameters and slowly increasing them is a slow way to introduce the idea that there are other foods that are filling and full of protein. Cows and other animals are not meant to live in cramped pens eating corn all day, shuffling around in feces and getting filled with hormones to make them grow. I drove past a cattle farm in Texas, and the smell was so terrible and spread for miles past the “farm”. There was no grass where the cows were, having been trampled on too many times to grow there, and the cows were loudly mooing, and the cows were shuffling around looking agitated. No living creature should live like our meat cattle do.
Works Cited
https://www.cdc.gov/cholesterol/facts.htm
http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/type-fat-red-meat-1886.html
https://www.rd.com/health/diet-weight-loss/stop-eating-red-meat/
Cutting red meat out is so beneficial and I love whenever I hear about someone cutting out any kind of meat. I do not eat anything derived from an animal, and its crazy how many benefits there are to it. I really like how you described the benefits of cutting out red meat and then explained them with statistics and facts!
It’s great to know that you’ve made steps to better yourself and the environment! It is quite devastating that the modern American diet encourages us Americans to eat unethically and unhealthily. What do you think can be done to spread awareness that not only does this diet not live up to moral standards, but it also doesn’t live up to what should be required health standards? Do you think the American people would care more about health than ethics?
I think that this post was extremely interesting. I have been personally trying to decide if I want to attempt a vegetarian diet lately so it was cool to read about the effects of meat on one’s body. I think it’s also important to note that many people over consume meat. They way exceed their portion size of meat with each meal and it is extremely unhealthy. A good reference for portion size of meat is that it should be able to fit in the center of your hand.
Kudos to you, Sophia, and best wishes on your journey!