Is Meat Bad for You? Is Meat Unhealthy?

Is Meat Bad for You? Is Meat Unhealthy? Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation

When our ancestors started eating meat around two million years ago Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation it wasn't just because animals taste great, it was a pure necessity Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation since climate change made many of the plants less available Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation but over the last few years eating meat has increasingly been associated Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation with health risks like: heart disease, cancers, and early death Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation

Why do we need meat?

Biologically, we need to eat for three reasons: Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation for energy, to acquire materials to fabricate our cells Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation and to get special molecules that our bodies can't make themselves Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation Meat contains all essential amino acids our body needs Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation and a lot of minerals, like: iron, zinc and essential vitamins Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation some of which are barely found in plants like Vitamin B12 Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation

Only one essential nutrient is missing in most of the meat we consume: Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation vitamin C, which appears in almost all plants, it supports our immune system Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation and the development of connective tissues Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation

Another advantage of meat is that some of the nutrients in them Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation are broken down faster and available quicker than those from plants Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation A purely meat-based diet also lets the Unuit survive in extreme climate conditions Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation Since they consume the whole animal including the organs Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation they get every single nutrient they need including vitamin C Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation So meat itself is definitely not dangerous for us Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation

Different types of meat

However, the health effects of meats vary Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation depending on how its prepared and what animal it comes from Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation The most healthy animals to eat are probably fish Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation they contain fatty acids, like omega-3 Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation which may lower the risk of cardiovascular diseases Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation and support anti-inflammatory immune functions Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation As part of a balanced diet, fish can be eaten regularly without health risks Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation however, overfishing contributes to overfishing Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation

Chicken is regarded as the meat with the fewest health risks Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation but still, its high content of saturated fats is associated with Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation a higher cholesterol level and cardiovascular disease Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation

Things start to get problematic with high intakes of red meats Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation like beef, veal, pork, lamb, horse and goat Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation Large-scale meta-analysis studies have shown Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation that eating 100 grams of red meat every day increases the risk of diabetes by 19% Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation strokes by 11% and, colorectal cancer by 17% Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation

However, most studies that linked health risks Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation to eating red meat were case-control studies Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation which means taking a group of people with a disease Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation and classifying them by their eating habits Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation and people who eat less meat tend to live a healthier lifestyle in general Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation

Things get worse when we look at processed meat though Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation Processing meat means adding certain chemicals Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation by curing, smoking, sorting or fermenting Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation or in other words, making it delicious Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation Bacon, ham, salami, sausages and hot dogs Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation contain chemicals that are harmful for us like nitrates and nitrites Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation that can damage the DNA in our digestive system and lead to cancer Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation

How much meat is safe?

The W-H-O reviewed 800 studies over 20 years, concluding that Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation processed wheat is strongly linked to an increased risk of colorectal cancer Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation Each extra 50 grams of processed meat per day Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation increases the risk of cancer by 18 percent Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation which puts processed meat in the same category as smoking Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation and also significantly increase the chance of suffering from Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation diabetes, strokes and coronary heart diseases Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation It also makes a difference what sort of life our meat lived Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation It's common to feed large amounts of antibiotics to livestock Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation in order to prevent diseases that can spread antibiotic resistance Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation

To blame meat alone for bad health would be wrong though Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation There is no evidence that the very essence of meat Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation has any negative effect beyond its high fat content Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation Most public health agencies suggest cutting meat consumption to 500 grams a week Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation while studies suggest cutting down processed meat as much as possible Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation The average American consumes around 1600 grams of meat a week Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation

Aside from health concerns Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation the meat industry is one of the largest contributors to climate change Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation and has reached a scale where it's impossible Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation to deliver millions of tons of meat and still treat animals with dignity Select your native language from the sidebar for translations, tap for pronunciation

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