But it's not just processed meat that poses a health risk — science has known for a while that eating all kinds of animals, including "white meat," is bad for you. Like, really bad. I myself had a vague idea that eating too much meat wasn't great for my health, but since I used to only eat "a little" meat, and usually organic at that, I sort of thought of myself as exempt.
Well, not so much. While cutting back on your meat consumption in any form is a great step to take, the fact remains that eating any meat — hormone-free or not — poses several serious long-term risks to your health.
It's worth knowing exactly what the health risks of eating meat are , so that you can make an informed decision for yourself about how much of a risk you feel it's necessary to take by continuing to consume animals. Here are eight reasons eating meat is bad for you. Most of us saw the story last year when the World Health Organization declared processed meat a "carcinogen" which increases one's risk of colon or rectum cancer by 18 percent.
But it's not just processed meat that puts you at risk. A vast array of studies from top universities and independent researchers has found that eating chickens, cows, and other animals promotes cancer in many forms. Large studies in England and Germany showed that vegetarians were about 40 percent less likely to develop cancer compared to meat-eaters , the most common forms being breast, prostate, and colon cancers. A Harvard study found that just one serving a day of red meat during adolescence was associated with a 22 percent higher risk of pre-menopausal breast cancer , and that the same red meat consumption in adulthood was associated with a 13 percent higher risk of breast cancer overall.
A number of hypotheses are used to explain the connection between meat consumption and cancer risk. First, meat is devoid of fiber and other nutrients that have a protective effect against cancer.
Meat also contains animal protein, saturated fat, and, in some cases, carcinogenic compounds such as heterocyclic amines HCA and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons PAH , which are formed during the processing or cooking.
Meat also contains hormones, which increase your cancer risk more on that in a bit. This is the reason Bill Clinton went vegan. Meat, dairy products, and eggs all contain cholesterol and saturated fat and contribute to America's top killers: heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, and various types of cancer. Experts have long disagreed about the exact contribution of eating meat to health, with advocates of abstinence and inundation at the tail ends of the curve.
Through it all, though, Americans have always eaten more than any mainstream guideline has ever recommended. For most of history, in much of the world, meat eating was synonymous with prosperity. Wealthy people who could eat meat regularly grew tall and strong, and the poor subsisted on porridge and potatoes, or starved.
That rapidly changed in the midth century, as some wealthy countries developed the agricultural and transportation technology to make fast food cheap and ubiquitous. Chain restaurants, government subsidies, and a jingoistic idea that meat is synonymous with America have ensured that consumption has grown decade over decade.
Coinciding with the rise of meat and other processed foods, heart disease surpassed infectious diseases as the leading cause of death in wealthy countries. Attempting to stem the tide, people started thinking about what they ate.
Taking a nutrient-focused approach, most experts targeted one or two compounds as the possible cause of or solution to all our health concerns. Some recommended avoiding cholesterol and saturated fat. Others supported Atkins-style dieting, essentially the opposite, beginning in the s. Outside of these circles, the gist of most medical advice regarding meat has been that a moderate amount of meat is not necessarily that bad for you.
Although it is, some experts then add, bad for the planet. Doctors with an especially environmentally conscious bent might add that a third of the land on Earth is used to raise livestock, and that these animals are a major cause of water pollution, soil loss, and deforestation. The crucial determinant of health is lost in this dichotomy: Environmental harms are themselves harms to human health. The idea that the effects of food are limited to nutrients was passable as scientific theory a century ago, but to ignore all this new information about how food affects our bodies is no longer an intellectually honest premise.
Animal agriculture is water-intensive and space-inefficient , and over the next three decades, the amount of land required to support livestock will quickly increase as the habitable land for humans narrows. With fewer trees, pollution and greenhouse gases linger. Inhaling pollution already kills more than 7 million people every year, mostly by way of cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cardiovascular disease.
Currently, there are 70 billion livestock animals , and the ruminants with four stomachs are extremely inefficient converters of plants into meat. The industry generates the spectrum of major greenhouse gases. It is the primary and growing source of methane and nitrous-oxide gases with more intense warming impact than carbon dioxide. In a white paper, researchers at the National Institutes of Health described the dire effects of climate change on human health.
Among them are increases in severe weather events that cause people to suffer and die directly or through the loss of their homes, livelihoods, and food supplies. Mosquito-borne illnesses pose an existential threat as standing water becomes ubiquitous. Infectious diseases spread as people are displaced from their homes. Water supplies are contaminated as pesticides and algal blooms encroach on living spaces around the world.
Large-scale animal agriculture is the primary driver of the antibiotic resistance that leaves people vulnerable to dying of diseases we could have easily treated decades ago. Researchers are often furthering a dichotomy that is imposed by the cattle industry and, subsequently, by the U. The most overt example might be the Dietary Guidelines for Americans , which are written every five years by the Department of Agriculture in conjunction with a panel of academic nutrition scientists.
Red meat has high amounts of protein, which helps promote muscle growth, and vitamin B 12 to make red blood cells. A serving of red meat is also a good source of zinc, which can help the body produce testosterone, and selenium, a powerful antioxidant.
Plus, red meat is rich in iron. However, Dr. Hu says that you don't need to eat red meat to get these essential nutrients. Some kinds of red meat are not necessarily healthier. There are no firm studies that have shown nutritional or health advantages from eating organic or grass-fed beef.
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