{"id":1233,"date":"2019-07-14T00:26:10","date_gmt":"2019-07-14T05:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.biz-america.com\/?p=1233"},"modified":"2019-07-14T04:45:04","modified_gmt":"2019-07-14T09:45:04","slug":"olivia-culpo-is-pretty-in-pink-as-she-steps-out-for-coffee-after-candid-instagram-post-about-depression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/?p=1233","title":{"rendered":"Would we be healthier? Would the planet? The risks and benefits of a meat-free life By Richard Coriolis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Would we be healthier? Would the planet? The risks and\nbenefits of a meat-free life By Richard Corliss<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Photo Illustration for TIME by Aaron Goodman<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">FIVE REASONS TO EAT MEAT:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">1)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It tastes\ngood<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">2)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It makes\nyou feel tradition<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">3)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It\nsupports the American Tradition<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">4)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It\nsupports the nation\u2019s farmers<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">5)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Your\nparents did it<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oh, sorry &#8230; those are five reasons to smoke cigarettes.\nMeat is more complicated. It\u2019s a food most Americans eat virtually every day.\nat the dinner table; in the cafeteria; on the barbecue patio; with mustard at a\nballpark; or, a billion times a year, with special sauce, lettuce, cheese,\npickles, onions on a sesame-seed bun. Beef is, the TV commercials say,\n\u201cAmerica\u2019s Food\u201d- the stars and Stripes served up medium rare-and as entwined\nwith the nation\u2019s nation of its robust frontier heritage as, well, the Marlboro\nman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"685\" src=\"https:\/\/new.biz-america.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Vegetables-1-1024x685.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1288\" srcset=\"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Vegetables-1-1024x685.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Vegetables-1-300x201.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Vegetables-1-768x514.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Vegetables-1.jpeg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But these days America\u2019s cowboys seem a bit small in the\nsaddle. Those cattle they round up have become politically incorrect: for many,\nmeat is an obscene cuisine. It\u2019s not just the additives and ailments connected\ndish of hormones, E coli bacteria or the scary specter of mad-cow disease might\nbe effective enough as an appetite suppressant. It\u2019s that more and more American\u2019s\nparticularly young Americans, have started engaging in a practice that would\nonce have shocked their parents. They are eating their vegetables. Also their\ngrains and sprouts. Some 10 million Americans today consider themselves to be\npracticing vegetarians, according to a Time poll of 10,000 adults; an\nadditional 20 million have flirted with vegetarianism sometime in their past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To get a taste of the cowboy\u2019s ancient pride, and current\ndefensiveness, just click on South Dakota cattleman Jody Brown\u2019s website,\nwww.ranchers.net , and read the new meat mantras: `Vegetarians don\u2019t live\nlonger, they just look older\u201d, and \u201cIf animals weren\u2019t meat to be eaten, than\nwhy are they made out of meat?\u201d (One might ask the same of human.) For Brown\nand his generation of unquestioning meat eaters, dinner is something the\nparents put on the table and the kids put in their bodies. Of his own kids, he\nsays, \u201cWe expect them to eat a little of everything.\u201d So beef is served nearly\nevery night at the Brown homestead, with nary a squawk from Jeff, 17, Luke, 13,\nand Hannah, 11, But Jody admits to at least one liberal sympathy. \u201cIf a\nVegetarian got a flat tire in my community,\u201d he says, \u201cI\u2019d come out and help\nhim.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the rancher who makes his living with meat or the\nvegetarian whose diet could someday drive all those breeder slaughterers to\nbankruptcy, nothing is simple any more. Gone is the age of American innocence,\nor naivet\u00e9, when such items as haircuts and handshakes, family names and school\nuniforms, farms and zoos, cowboys and ranchers, had no particular political\nmeaning. Now everything is up for rancorous debate. And no aspect of our daily\nlives- our lives as food consumers-gets more heat than meat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For millions of vegetarians, beef is a four-letter word;\nveal summons charnel visions of infanticide. Many children, raised on hit films\nlike Babe and Chicken Run, Recoil from eating their movie heroes and switch to\nwhat the meat defeaters like to call a \u201cnonviolent diet.\u201d Vegetarianism\nresolves a conscientious person\u2019s inner turf war by providing an edible complex\nof good-deed-doing; to go veggie is to be more humane. Give up meat, and save\nlives!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of course, one of the lives you could save or at least prolong\nis your own. For vegetarianism should be about more than not eating; it\u2019s also\nabout smart eating. You needn\u2019t be a born-again foodist to think this. The\nAmerican Dietetic Association, a pretty centrist group, has proclaimed that\n\u201cappropriately planned vegetarian diets are healthful, are nutritionally\nadequate and provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain\ndiseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, how about it? Should we all become vegetarians? Not just\nteens but also infants, oldsters, athletes-everyone? Will it help us live\nlonger, healthier lives? Does it work for people of every age and level of work\nactivity? Can we find the right vegetarian diet and stick to it? And if we can\ndo it, will we?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">THERE ARE MANY REASONS TO TRY VEG Etarianism as there are\nsoft-eyed cows and soft-hearted kids. To impressionable young minds,\nvegetarianism can sound sensible, ethical and- as nearly 25% of adolescents\npolled by Teenage Research Unlimited said- \u201ccool.\u201d College students think so\ntoo. A study conducted by Arizona State University psychology professors\nRichard Stein and Carol Nemeroff reported that, sight unseen, salad eaters were\nrated more moral, virtuous and considerate than steak eaters. \u201cA century ago, a\nhigh-meat diet was thought to be health-favorable,\u201d says Paul Rozin of the\nUniversity of Pennsylvania. \u201cKids today are the first generation to live in a\nculture where vegetarianism is common, where it is publicly promoted on health\nand ecological grounds.\u201d And Kids, as any parent can tell you, spur the\nconsumer economy; that explains in part the burgeoning sales of veggie burgers\n(soy, bulgur wheat, cooked rice, mushrooms, onions and flavoring in Big Mac\ndrag) in supermarkets and fast-food chains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Children, who are signing on to vegetarianism much faster\nthan adults, may be educating their parents. Vegetarian food sales are savoring\ndouble-digit growth. Top restaurants have added more meatless dishes. Trendy\n\u201cliving foods\u201d or \u201craw\u201d restaurants are sprouting up, like Roxanne\u2019s in\nLarkspur, California, where no meat, fish, poultry or dairy items are served,\nand nothing is cooked to temperatures in excess of 48\uf030\uf02e\uf020\u201cGoing\nto my restaurant,\u201d says Roxanne Klein, \u201cis like going to a really cool new\ncountry you haven\u2019t experienced before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like any country, vegetarianism has its hidden complexities.\nFor one thing, vegetarians come in more than half a dozen flavors, from\nsproutarians to pesco-pollo vegetarians. The most notorious are the vegan\n(rhymes with intriguing\u2019 or fatiguing\u2019) vegetarians. The Green party of the\nmovement, vegans decline to consumer, use or wear and animal products. They\nalso avoid honey, since its productions demands the oppression of worker bees.\nTV\u2019s favorite vegetarian, the cartoon 8-years-old Lisa Simpson, once had c\ncrush on a fellow who described himself as \u201ca Level Five vegan-I don\u2019t eat\nanything that casts a shadow.\u201d Among vegan celebrities: the rock star Moby and\nOhio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who swore off steak for breakfast and insists\nhe feels much better starting his day with miso soup, brown rice or oat groats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To true believers-who refrain from meat as an A.A. member\ndoes from drink and do a spit-take ot told that there\u2019s gelatin in their soup-a\nsemi vegetarian is no vegetarian at all. A phrase like pesco-pollo- vegetarian,\nto them, is an oxymoron, like \u201clapsed Catholic\u201d or \u201csemivirgin.\u201d vegetation\nTimes, the bible of this particular congregation, lays down the dogma: \u201cFor\nmany people who are working to become vegetarians, chicken and fish may be\ntransitional foods, but they are not vegetarian foods &#8230; the word \u2018vegetarian\u2019\nmeans someone who eats no meat, fish or chicken.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Clear enough? No to many Americans. In a survey of 11,000\nindividuals, 37% of those who responded \u201cYes, I am vegetarian\u201d also reported\nthat in the previous 24 hours they had eaten red meat, 60% had eaten meat,\npoultry or seafood. Perhaps those surveyed thought a vegetarian is someone who,\nfrom time to time, eats vegetables as a side dish-say, alongside a prime rib.\nOf more than one-third of people in a large sample don\u2019t know the broadest\ndefinition of vegetarian, one wonders how they can be trusted with something\nmuch more difficult: the full-time care and picky-picky feeding of their\nbodies, whatever their dietary preferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We know that fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes and nuts\nare healthy. There are any number of students that show that consuming more of\nthese plant-based foods reduces the risk for a long list of chronic maladies\n(including coronary artery disease, obesity, diabetes and many cancers) and is\na probable factor in increased longevity in the industrialized world. We know\nthat on average we eat too few fruits and vegetables and too much saturated\nfat, of which meat and dairy are prime contributions. We also know that in the\nreal world, real diets vegetarian and non-vegetarian-as consumed by real people\nrange from primly virtuous to pig-out voracious. There are meat eaters who eat\nmore and batter vegetables than vegetarians, and vegetarians who eat more\nartery clogging fats than meat eaters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The International Congress on vegetarian Nutrition, a major\nconference on the subject, was held earlier this year at Loma Linda\n(California) University. The research presented their included some encouraging\nif tentative findings: that a predominantly vegetarian diet may have beneficial\neffects for kidney and nerve function in diabetics, as well as for weight loss;\nthat eating more fruits and vegetables can slow, and perhaps reverse,\nage-related declines in brain function and in cognitive and motor\nperformance-at least in rats; that vegetarian seniors have a lower death rate\nand use less medication than meat-eating seniors; that vegetarians have a\nhealthier total intake of fats and cholesterol but a less health intake of\nfatty acids (such as the heart-protecting omega-3 fatty acids found in fish\noil).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But one paper suggested that low protein diets (associated\nwith vegetarians) reduce calcium absorption and may have a negative impact on\nskeletal health. And although several studies on Seventh-Day Adventists\n(typically vegetarians) indicated that they have a longer-than-average life\nexpectancy, other studies found that prostate cancer rates were high in\nAdventists, and one study found Adventists were more likely to suffer hip\nfractures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Can it be that vegetarianism is bad for your health? That\u2019s\na complex issue. There\u2019s a big, beautiful plant kingdom out there; you ought to\nbe able to dine healthily on this botanical bounty, with perfect knowledge, you\ncan indeed eat like a king from the vegetable world. But ordinary people are not\nnutrition professionals. While some vegetarians have the full skinny on how to\nwatch their riboflavin and vitamins D and B12 many more haven\u2019t a clue. This is\none reason that vegetarians, in a study of overall nutrition, scored\nsignificantly lower than non-vegetarians on the USDA\u2019s Healthily Eating Index,\nwhich compares actual diet with USDA guidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another reason is that vegans skew the stats, because their\nstrict avoidance of meat, eggs and dairy products can lead to deficiencies in\niron, calcium and vitamin B12. \u201cThese nutrients are the problem,\u201d says Johanna\nDwyer, a professor of nutrition and medicine at Tufts University. \u201cAt least\namong the vegans who are also philosophically opposed to fortified foods and\/or\nvitamin and mineral supplements\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Debates about the efficacy of vegetarianism follow us from\ncradle to wheelchair. In 1998 child-care expert Dr. Benjamin Spock, who became\na vegetarian late in life, stoked a stir by recommending that children over the\nage of 2 be raised as vegans, rejecting even milk and eggs. The American\nDietetic Association says it is possible to raise kids as vegans but cautions\nthat special care must be taken with nursing infants (who don\u2019t develop\nproperly without the nutrients in mother\u2019s milk or fortified formula). Other\nresearchers warn that infants breast-fed by vegans have lower levels of vitamin\nB12 and DHA (an omega-3 fatty acid), important to vision and growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And there is always the chance of vegetarianism gone madly\nwrong. A queen\u2019s New York, couple was indicted last May for first-degree\nassault, charged with nearly starving their toddler to death on a strict diet\nof juices, ground nuts, herbal tea, beans, flaxseed and cod-liver oils. At 16\nmonths the girl weight 4.5 kg, less than half the normal of a child her age.\nTheir lawyer\u2019s defense: \u201cThey felt that they have their own lifestyle. They\u2019re\nvegetarians. The couple declined to plea-bargain, and are still in jail\nawaiting trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many children decide in their own to become vegetarians and\nare declaring their preference at ever more precious ages; its often their\nfirst act of domestic rebellion. But a youngster is at a disadvantage insisting\non a rigorous cuisine before he or she can cook food-or buy it or even read-and\nwhen the one whose menu is challenged is the parent: nurturer, disciplinarian\nand executive chef. Alicia Hurtado of Oak Park, Illinois, has been a vegetarian\nhalf her life-she\u2019s 8 now-and mother Cheryle mostly indulges her daughter\u2019s\ndiet. Still, Mom occasionally sneaks a little chicken broth into Alicia\u2019s,\u201d\nCheryle says, \u201cI\u2019ll be out of luck.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By adolescence, kids can read the labels but often ignore\nthe ingredients. Research show that calcium intake is often insufficient in\nAmerican teens. By contrast, lactoovo teens usually have abundant calcium intake.\nFor vegans, however, consuming adequate amounts of calcium without the use of\nfortified foods or supplements is difficult without careful dietary planning.\nAmong vegan youth who do not take supplements, there is reason for concern with\nrespect to iron, calcium, vitamins D and B12 and perhaps also selenium and\niodine.\\<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For four years Christina Economos has run the Tufts\nlongitudinal health study on young adults, a comprehensive survey of lifestyle\nhabits among undergraduates. In general, she finds that \u201ckids who were most\ninfluenced by family diet and health values are eating healthy vegetarian or\nlow-meat diets. But there is a whole group of students who decide to become\nvegetarians and do it in a poor way. The ones who do it badly don\u2019t know to navigate\nin the vegetarian world. They eat more bread, cheese and pastry products and\nload up on salad dressing. Their saturated-fat intake in no lower than red-meat\neaters, and they are more likely to consume inadequate amounts of vitamin B12\nand protein. They may think they healthier because they are some sort of\nvegetarian and they don\u2019t eat red meat, but in fact they may be less healthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jenny Woodson, 20, now a junior at Duke, has been a\nvegetarian from way back. At 6, on a trip to Mcdonald\u2019s, she or dered a tossed\nsalad. When Jenny lived in a dorm at high school, she quickly realized that\nteens do not live on French fries and broccolio alone. \u201cWe ended up making\nvegetarian sandwich with bagels and ingredients from the salad bar, cheese\nfries and stuffed baked potatoes with cottage cheese.\u201d Jenny and her friends\nwere careful to avoid high-fat, calorie-laden fare at the salad bar, but for\nthose who don\u2019t exercise restraint, salad-bar fixings can become vegetarian\njunk food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maggie Ellinger-Locke, 19, of the St. Louis, Mossouri,\nsuburb of University City, has been a vegetarian for eight years and went vegan\nat 15. Since then she has not worn leather or wool products or slept under a\ndown comforter. She has not is used cups or utensils that have touched meat. \u201cIt\nfelt like we were keeping kosher,\u201d says Maggie\u2019s mother Linda, who isn\u2019t\nJewish. At high school Maggie was ridiculed, even shoved to the ground, by teen\nboys who apparently found her eating habits threatening. She is now enrolled at\nAntioch College, where she majors in ecofeminism. \u201cHere,\u201d she says, \u201cthe people\non the defensive are the ones who eat meat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maggie hit a few potholes on the road to perfection. Until\nrecently, she smoked up to two packs of cigarettes a day. (Cigarettes, after\nall, are plants fortified with nicotine), quitting only because she didn\u2019t want\nto support the tobacco business. And she freely admits to an eating disorder:\nfor the past year she has been bulimic, bingeing and vomiting sometimes as much\nas one a day to cope with stress. But she insists she is true to her beliefs:\neven when bingeing, she remains dedicated to vegan consumption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The American Dietetic Association found that vegetarian\ndiets are slightly more common among adolescents with eating problems but that\n\u201crecent data suggest that adopting a vegetarian diet does not lead to eating\ndisorders.\u201d It can be argued that most American teens already have an eating\ndisorder- fast food; soft drinks and candy are a blueprint for obesity and\nheart trouble. Why should teens be expected to purge their bad habits just\nbecause they have gone veggie? Still, claims Simon Chaitowits of the pro\nvegetarian and animal-rights group physicians Committee for Responsible\nMedicine, \u201cKids are better off being just-food vegetarians than junk-food meat\neaters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maybe, According to Dr. Joan Sabate, Chairman of the Loma\nLinda nutrition conference, there are still concern over vegetarian diets for\ngrowing kids or lactating women. When you are in what he calls \u201ca state of high\nmetabolic demand,\u201d any diet that excludes food makes it harder to meet nutrient\nrequirements. But he is quick to add that \u201cfor the average sedentary adult\nliving in a Western society, a vegetarian diet meets dietary needs and prevents\nchronic diseases better than an omnivore diet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like kids and nursing moms, athletes need to be especially\nsmart eaters. Their success depends on bursts of energy. Sustained strength and\nmuscle mass, factors that require nutrients more easily obtained from meat. For\nthis reason, relative few top athletes are vegetarians. Besides, says sports\nnutritionist Suzanne Girard Eberle, the author of Endurance Sports Nutrition,\n\u201clots of athletes have no idea how their bodies work that\u2019s why fad diets and\nsupplements are so attractive to them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Eberle notes that vegetarian diets done correctly are high\nin fiber and low in fat. \u201cBut where are the calories?\u201d she asks. \u201cWorld-class\nendurance athletes need in excess of 5,000 or 6,000 calories a day. Competition\ncan easily consume 10,000. You need to eat a lot of plant-based food to get\nthose calories. Being a vegetarian athlete is hard, really hard to do right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s not that easy for the rest of America, either.\nMiddle-aged to elderly adults can also develop deficiencies in a vegetarian\ndiet (as they can, of course, with a poor diet that includes meat).\nDeficiencies in vitamins D and B12 and in iodine, which can lead to goiter, are\ncommon. The elderly tend to compensate by taking supplements, but that approach\ncarries risks. Researchers have found cases in which vegetarian oldsters, who\nare susceptible to iodine deficiency, had dangerously high and potentially\ntoxic levels of iodine in their bodies because they overdid the supplements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meat producers acknowledge that vegetarian diets can be\nhealthy. They also have responded to the call for leaner food; the National\nPork Board says that, compared with 20 years ago, Pork is on average 31% lower\nin fat and 29% lower in saturated fat, and has 14% fewer calories and 10% less\ncholesterol. But the defenders of meat and dairy can also go on the offensive.\nThey mention the need for B12. And then they ratchet up the fear factor. Kurt\nGraetzer, CEO of the milk processor Education program, scans the drop in milk\nconsumption (not only by vegans but by kids who prefer soda, Snapple and Fruitopia)\nand declares, \u201cWe are virtually developing a generation of osteoporotic\nchildren.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr. Michelle Warren, a professor of medicine at New York\nPresbyterian Medical Center in New York City- and a member of the&nbsp; Council for Women\u2019s Nutrition Solutions, which\nis sponsored by the National Cattlemen\u2019s Beef Association-expresses concern\nabout calcium deficiency connected with a vegan diet: \u201cthe most serious\nconsequence are low bone mass and osteoporosis. That is a permanent condition.\u201d\nWarren says that in her practices, she has seen young vegetarians with\nirregular periods and loss of hair. \u201cAnd there\u2019s a peculiar color, a yellow\ntinge to the skin,\u201d that occurs in people who eat a lot of vegetables rich in\nbeta carotene in combination with a low-calorie diet. \u201cI think it\u2019s very\nunattractive.\u201d She also is troubled by the reasons some young vegetarians give\nfor their choice of diet. One female patient, Warren says, wouldn\u2019t eat meat\nbecause she was told it was the reason her father had a heart attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Centre for\nScience in the public Interest in Washington, sees most of the meat and dairy\nlobby\u2019s arguments as desperate, disingenuous scare stories. \u201cIt unmasks the\nindustry\u2019s self-interest,\u201d he says, when it voices concern about B12 while\nhundreds of thousands of people are dying prematurely because of too much\nsaturated fat from meat and dairy products.\u201d Indeed, according to David\nPimentel, a Cornell ecologist, the average American consumes 112 grams of\nprotein a day, twice the amount recommended by the National Academy of\nSciences. \u201cThis has implications for cancer risks and stress on the urinary\nsystem.\u201d says Pimentel. \u201cAnd with this protein comes a lot of fat. Fully 40% of\nour calories-and heavy cardiovascular risks-come from fat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pimentel argues that vegetarianism is much more\nenvironment-friendly than diets revolving around meat. \u201cIn terms of calories\ncontent, the grain consumed by American livestock could feed 800 million\npeople-and, if exported, would boost the U.S. trade balance by $80 billion a\nyear.\u201d Grain-fed livestock consume 100,000 liters of water for every kilogram\nof food they produce, compared with 2,000 liters for soybeans. Animal protein\nalso demands tremendous expenditures of fossil-fuel energy-eight times as much as\nfor a comparable amount of plant protein. Put another way, says Pimentel, the\naverage omnivore diet burns the equivalent of 4 L of gas a day-twice what it\ntakes to produce a vegan diet. And the U.S. Livestock population-cattle,\nchickens, turkeys, lambs, pigs and the as U.S human population. But then there\nare 7 billion of them, they outnumber us 25 to 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the spirit of fair play to cowboy Jody Brown and his\nendangered breed, let\u2019s entertain two arguments in favor of eating meat. One is\nthat it made us human. \u201cWe would never have evolved as large, socially active\nhominids if we hadn\u2019t turned to meat,\u201d says Katharine Milton, an anthropologist\nat the University of California, Berkeley. The vegetarian primates (orangutans\nand gorillas) are less social than the more omnivorous chimpanzees, possibly\nbecause collecting and consuming all that forage takes so darned much time. The\nearly hominids took a bold leap: 2.5 million years ago, they were cracking\nanimal bones to eat the marrow. They ate the protein rich muscle tissue, says\nMilton, \u201cbut also the rest of the animal-liver, marrow, brains-with their high\nconcentrations of other nutrients. Evolving humans ate it all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just as important, they knew why they were eating it. In\nMilton\u2019s elegant phrase, \u201cSolving dietary problems with your head is the\ntrajectory of the primate order.\u201d Hominids grew big on meat, and smart on that\nlovely brain-feeder, glucose, which they got from fruit, roots and tubers. This\ndiet of meat and glucose gave early man energy to burn-or rather, energy to\nplay house, to sing and socialize, to make culture, art, war. And finally,\nabout 10,000 years ago, to master agriculture and trade-which provided the\nsophisticated system that modern humans can use to go vegetarian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The other reason for beef eating is, hold on, ethical- a\nmatter of animal rights. The familiar argument for vegetarianism, articulated\nby Tom Regan, a philosophical founder of the modern animal-rights movement, is\nthat it would save Babe the pig and Chicken Run\u2019s Ginger from execution. But\nwhat about Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse? Asks Steven Davis, Professor of animal\nscience at Oregon State University, pointing to the number of field animals in\nadvertently killed during crop production and harvest. One study showed that\nsimply mowing an alfalfa field caused a 50% reduction in the gray-tailed vole\npopulation. Mortality rates increase with each pass of the tractor tp plow,\nplant and harvest. Rabbits, mice and pheasants, he says, are the indiscriminate\n\u201ccollateral damage\u201d of row crops and the grain industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By contrast, grazing (not grain-fed) ruminants such as\ncattle produce food and require fewer entries into the fields with tractors and\nother equipment. Applying (and upending) Regan\u2019s least harm theory, Davis\nproposes a ruminant-pasture model of food production, which and pork production\nwith beef, lamb and dairy products. According to his calculations, such a model\nwould result in the deaths of 300 million fewer animals annually (counting both\nfield animals and cattle) than would a completely vegan model. When asked about\nDavis\u2019 arguments Regan, however, still sees a distinction: \u201cThe real question\nis whether to support production systems whose very reason for existence is to\nkill animals. Meat eaters do. Ethical vegetarians do not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The moral: there is no free lunch, not even if it\u2019s\nvegetarian. For now, man is perched at the top of the food chain and must live\nwith his choice to feed on the living things further down. But even to raise\nthe question of a harvester Hiroshima is to show far we have come in\nconsidering the human treatment of that which is not human. And we still have a\nway to go. \u201cIt may take a while,\u201d says actress and vegetarian Mary Tyler Moore,\n\u201cbut there will probably come a time when we look back and say, \u201cGood Lord, do\nyou believe that in the 20th century and early part of the 21st, people were\nstill eating animals?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It may take a very long while. For most people, meat still\ndoes taste good. And can \u201cAmerica\u2019s Food\u201d ever be tofu\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reported by Melissa August and Matthew Cooper\/Washington,\nDavid Hjerklie and Lisa McLaughlin\/New York, Wendy Cile\/Chicago and Jeffrey\nRessner\/Los Angeles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Would we be healthier? Would the planet? The risks and benefits of a meat-free life By Richard Corliss Photo Illustration<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1233"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1289,"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1233\/revisions\/1289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}