Eliminate the Unhealthy
Most foods contain protein, including fruits and vegetables, yet many people still believe the myth that meat is the best or only source of protein . This myth and the dietary habits that support it are having serious health ramifications.
The average North American eats over 248 pounds of meat every year. That’s about 40 percent of his or her diet. Most experts confirm that meat should not exceed about 10 percent of our overall food intake. So the average person is eating four times the amount of meat he or she needs.
While the proponents of high-protein diets espouse their weight-loss capacity, the reality is that almost everyone is currently on a high-protein diet just because of excessive meat consumption . And the overweight and obesity statistics are staggering.
One of the things proponents of high protein diets won’t tell you is that excess protein in your diet is turned into glucose (sugar) or glycogen (a specific type of sugar that is made in the liver and muscles in your body), or turned into fat. That’s right: too much protein is stored as fat!
But it’s not just the quantity of protein foods that play a role in health—the quality of the protein is also important. Animal protein requires a massive amount of energy and plentiful amounts of digestive juices and enzymes to adequately break down the meat into its amino acid constituent components. The result: Excessive meat can be hard on the digestive system and your whole body. And depending on the strength of your digestive system, even a small amount of concentrated protein foods like meat may be difficult for your body to break down, meaning your body may not be getting the important amino acids contained within the protein food. Everyone is unique in this regard.
Meat is also devoid of fiber and contains little water, both of which are needed to ensure the proper movement of foods through the digestive tract. Excess meat can slow the whole process and potentially lead to waste and toxins being absorbed through the walls of your intestines alongside the nutrients that normally follow this path. Additionally, the by-products of meat digestion are acidic and can put a strain on the kidneys to eliminate the acid.
Start today to limit your intake of all types of animal protein to no more than 15 percent of your diet. Instead of trying to count calories to determine 15% of your diet. Estimate 15% based on the amount of food on your plate. If your plate was divided into 6 portions of food, 15% would be a little less than 1/6 of all the food on your plate. Yes, that includes white meat, red meat, and any other type of meat, including fish, and eggs. That means taking a look at your plate and making sure that only about one-seventh of the food you’re eating is meat. And try to choose only organic meat free of antibiotics, hormones, or other unwanted ingredients. Remember: You are what you eat! And, don’t worry if you don’t like meat or prefer to go vegetarian . That’s a valid option on The Life Force Diet.
Ready to limit your meat consumption? Post your health intent and find community support and content to help you achieve it!
Week 2: Eliminate the Unhealthy
Why eat meat at all? Veganism is great! There is no reason not to be vegan.
Great post! And check out this article:
'Low carbon diet' a healthy option for Earth"
<a href="http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_11866966?IADID=Search -www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com” target=”_blank”>http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_11866966?I…” target=”_blank”>-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com
Best,
Lori
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Lori Hope
Author of Help Me Live: 20 Things People with Cancer Want You to Know
http://www.lorihope.com
blogging at CarePages.com
http://www.carepages.com/blogs/helpshurtsheals/po…
is it sad that the raw meat picture is making me hungry?
I am trying to give up beef, though. Small steps.
<< There is no reason not to be vegan. >>
Yes there is, meat is delicious!
But yes, limited quantities… oh, and lots of variety… Don't let chicken, beef, and pork be your only 3 options.
Okay then. There is no -good- reason not to be vegan.
<< Okay then. There is no -good- reason not to be vegan. >>
Meat and other animal products provide types of nutrition that are challenging to get from a pure vegan diet. A strong source of protein helps calcium absorption. Some studies have found higher rates of prostate cancer and hip fractures among vegans. Avoidance of meat, eggs and dairy products can lead to deficiencies in iron, calcium and vitamin B12. Infants breast-fed by vegans have lower levels of vitamin B12 and DHA (an omega-3 fatty acid), important to vision and growth.
I was in the bush in Alaska with a friend who laughed and said, "let a vegan try to survive out here for a week and they'll be eating meat in two days…" He said this because he and his friends had seen it happen so many times. Let me tell ya, there's nothing in the vegan world that matches a salmon pulled right from the water, smothered in butter and garlic, and roasted up next to a camp fire. Yum…
I fully understand that a vegan diet *can* be nutritious and healthy. However, fully understanding the impact of removing meat from your diet and learning to properly balance a vegan diet is not a casual change.
There's a good reason to have *reasonable* amounts of meat in your diet – to help ensure balanced health.
Well yes I wouldn't attempt trecking in Alaska but most of us don't live in that kind of climate. In connection with spirit anything can be done. Not eating meat is just a detail. It's difficult if you think it's difficult.
Finding other sources of protein is not at all as difficult as it seems. Some people with a vegan diet probably suffer, yes but it's nothing in comparison to people who do eat meat. Vegans that suffer are simply doing it slightly wrong and there are other reasons, which has nothing to do with your personal health which weigh tons in comparison to maybe get sick if you are not doing it right. Such as:
- The vast impact meat eating has on climate change due to the energy it takes to 'produce' meat in comparison to vegetable matter.
- The food crisis we are in the middle of. Eating meat simply is not a sustainable way of eating when so many people are facing starvation. If a majority could hold a vegan diet it would be much much easier to feed all of us.
- Respect for life. We are intelligent sentient beings with much more choice and awareness then animals. We don't have kill for our food. I don't see why we should. Our modern industrialised agriculture treats intelligent living creatures such as cows and pigs as if they were walking products for us to breed and eat. It lacks compassion and respect for their intricit value and is often cruel and destructive in the extreme. No one gains from such a relationship with the world.
I do understand some of your concern however. I'm hoping to some day be in a position where I can buy some chickens which I can look after and enjoy the eggs they produce. The nutrition in eggs is very similar to that of meat. On the other hand I also believe that you do not have to eat at all.
We're kinda walking through a debate lots of folks have already had a few times. And actually, I agree with you on a lot, particularly that our meat consumption uses ridiculous amounts of energy.
However, the numbers are skewed. We feed cattle grain, in particular a lot of corn. Cattle were originally forest creatures and were never meant to eat corn. Their digestive systems get very little nutrition out of corn and pass most of it through. In fact, corn used to make fuel ends up having a high nutritional value for cows after it's processed and the starch is removed. What this means is we use tons of resources to grow corn to feed animals that only use a small fraction of the nutrition – and the rest is wasted. This isn't an issue of meat consumption nearly as much as an issue of conservation.
I also agree largely with the article we're commenting on – in that we eat too much meat. From what I read and understand about nutrition, it's excessive to eat large portions of meat at every meal.
The food crisis is horrible and makes me sad. However, we have enough food, right now, to feed everyone in the world – easily. The problem is far more social and political than supply. To me, this is even more sad.
You're right, much of our industrialized agriculture treats animals with cruelty. However, much of it does not. There are many ranches where animals live very good lives. Peta's propaganda campaign has done a powerful job of demonizing ranchers.
I realize the many spiritual belief systems, such as Yoga, believe in being vegan. I respect these belief systems and even suspect there are spiritual benefits in a vegan diet. However, I do not agree with the idea that it is some how unethical to consume meat. I do not believe that, at the core, eating meat is disrespectful of life.
Gaia is full of life and the plants (fungi, insects, etc) are no less alive and deserving of respect than the animals or people. To refer to animals as "intelligent living creatures" in the same paragraph that you say it is disrespectful of life to eat meat condemns all of Gaia's meat eating creatures. It's a bit of a paradox.
I believe it is all about balance. If the fox doesn't eat the rabbit, the rabbits over populate. Then there are too many rabbits and not enough vegetation to support them all. From the ocean to the sky, all forms of life grow and evolve by consuming other forums of life.
I love the phrase "you are what you eat…" I love to meditate on the life, energy, and experience of the things I consume. I like to think of my body as being composed of all the same basic elements that formed possibly millions of other life forms…
This made me change my diet a bit. The idea of being made up largely of cow… kinda depressing. But now I know my physical body is made from a wide variety of life from all around the world including that salmon from Alaska.
If I had a structured spiritual system, I think one of the tenants would be to eat a variety of things.
As to your notion of not eating at all… I suppose I could talk about that in terms of an energy body. I'm am not – and have not met anyone who is – able to maintain my physical body independent of nature's cycle of consumption – the recycling of life.