Secret 6: Eat Meat as a Treat

Welcome to the heated debate between meat-eaters and pure plant-eaters!  I consider the debate heated as emotions often seem to cloud the facts.

Sally Beare observes that the inhabitants of blue zones eat very little meat. Meat either "has to be caught or taken from one's household stock" and "meat is eaten as a special treat once a week, or in small amounts to flavor vegetable-based dishes". She defines meat as cows, lamb, goats, sheep, wild boar, pigs, snails, and chicken. I assume that Sally does not eat meat, because after confirming that blue zoners eat very little meat, she then presents her own arguments against eating meat. I will play devil's advocate, and present counter-arguments. I quote Sally in blue, and counter argue in italics:

• if you try biting into the side of a cow, you will see that your teeth are not well suited to eating meat
• if you try eating grass all day, the cellulose will wear down your teeth and you will end up chewing with your gums. Ouch!
• we do not have carnivorous bodies, as lions and tigers do
• we do not have herbivorous bodies either.  Those who choose a vegetarian diet have to supplement Vit. B12, as this vitamin is not found in adequate amounts in a typical Western vegetarian diet
• we are not designed to eat meat as we have much longer intestinal tracts than lions and tigers
• that's because we are omnivores.  Our tracts are longer.  On the other hand we are not designed to be herbivores.  Let's stay with the example of the main red meat in human diet.  The cow is a ruminant; it regurgitates indigestible food, grinds down the cellulose even further through mastication and then reswallows the cud so that this can be processed by stomach microbes that decompose cellulose.  We cannot digest cellulose.  Furthermore, in order to be successful vegetarians, cows have a stomach that consists of four chambers.  Our heart consists of four chambers, but our stomach only has one.  Maybe we are not meant to be vegetarians?
• products of meat digestion linger in intestines for days and weeks and are broken down into toxic by-products such as ammonia, phenols, amines, and fecal bile acids
• and that may be a reason we are omnivores, as a balanced mix of meat and vegetables will ensure that we have adequate fiber to 'mop up' any lingering waste
• we chew from side to side with our large flat molars, shaped for grinding grains and grasses
• any dentist will tell you that we have the teeth of an omnivore.  We have molars, premolars, but also incisors and - just like lions and tigers - canines (a bit smaller)
• the link between meat intake and cancer is well-established
• Inuits eat mainly a meat diet.   They eat walrus, Ringed seal, Bearded seal, Beluga whale, caribou, polar bear, muskoxen, birds (including their eggs) and fish.  Do they have extremely high rates of cancer?
• the traditional Maasai diet consisted of meat, milk and blood from cattle.  Did the Maasai have a higher rate of cancer?
• any meat we eat has to be tenderized first by cooking, marinating, or bashing it with a hammer
• my favorite meat is carpaccio. And I am not the only person who enjoys raw meat.  The Inuit, in order to obtain Vitamin C, eat raw or frozen caribou liver, whale skin and seal brain; cooking would destroy the Vit. C content. According to Wikipedia, one common way for Inuit to eat hunted meat is frozen. Only when the meat has to be transported for more than a day will it be cooked. 

The arguments and counter-arguments could continue ad nauseum. I would argue that we are omnivores, moderation is healthier than excess, and the quality of the meat is critical.  A majority of meat in the U.S. comes from feed lots where cattle is fed a grain-based diet supplemented with hormones and antibiotics. This is not the traditional diet of cattle. If you want to eat red meat and are on a tight budget, you might want to reduce the quantity and replace feed lot beef with the more expensive beef from grass fed, free-roaming animals. Or perhaps you might decide to shift your red meat base from highly domesticated species to species that are not as overbreed such as buffalo and venison.

In keeping with my goal of living each secret for a week, I tried to reduce my meat intake and instead enjoyed shrimp, mushrooms, salmon and other fish. One night I did make tacos for dinner and used bison instead of beef. The feedback on the bison tacos was very positive. Another night we had peppers stuffed with minced beef and pork. According to the person at the meat counter, the beef was grass-fed until its  last month of life, when it was grain fed to fatten it up and marble the meat. One night we also had chicken.  Although this is not a red meat, it is still considered meat according to Sally Beare. I did not miss eating large quantities of meat, and enjoyed the diversity in our protein sources. So my recommendation would be to eat less meat, and if you do eat meat, choose grass-fed beef, lamb, free-range chicken, bison, venison or emu or go out and hunt your own.

And here a few interesting tidbits for you from Sally Beare's chapter on "Eat Meat as a Treat":

• all eight essential amino acids are found in the following foods: meat, dairy products, fish, eggs, soy, hemp (the previous secret), avocado, quinoa and millet (secret 3)
• foods with a high protein content are (for 100 g. of each particular food, g. of protein are listed) : steak 30; chicken 25; cheddar cheese 25, mixed nuts 23.

Take-home lesson: reduce the proportion of meat in your diet and ensure that the meat you do eat is raised as naturally as possible.