Meat finally a health food
Finally, after about 15 years of feeling pretty lonely on the island, I am happy to report that a few others have shown up. I am referring to my nearly deserted island of “Meat Consumption as a Health Food.”
Dr. Shawn Baker, from California, joined me recently on Rural Route Radio and he said, “You guys are in the driver’s seat and you’re sitting on a gold mine but you not telling anybody about it.”
Baker reported that after evaluating thousands of patients who have increased meat consumption and completely eliminated processed foods, he has witnessed the reversal of an entire list of chronic diseases.
In fact, it made such an impact on him that three years ago he moved solely to meat consumption. His diet now consists of 98 percent meat and the remaining 2 percent eggs and some seafood. He said that as a result of the change, at the age of 51, he is more athletic than ever before.
I really go back to a few years ago when 27-year vegetarian Nina Teicholz wrote the book presenting the hidden science about the health benefits of milk, meat and eggs in “The Big Fat Surprise.” Nina spent nine years researching actual science on the impacts of increasing protein and fat consumption. If you have not read this book, I contend that it is imperative reading for anyone who really cares about his or her personal and family health.
Baker said that if you study the actual impact of food production to the environment, the most efficient food to consume is meat. This is in direct contrast to the barrage of lies from the media about meat’s contribution to the demise of the planet.
I have been shouting about the health benefits for years and the reason the anti-meat crowd moved over to spreading dread about planet health is because they realized the science was coming hard and fast about how meat is a pure health food. With that said, the only avenue they had to plant seeds of doubt about meat consumption in the mind of consumers was to use the emotional aspect of animals and planet health.
In 2007, the U.N. Food and Ag Organization reported that eating meat contributes more GHG’s than driving an SUV. In 2009, Frank Mitloehner proved that data to be extremely flawed because it did not compare meat to the whole life cycle of carbon. Even though the lead author of the U.N. study agreed, the horse was already out of the barn.
The truth of the matter is that animals improve both human and planet health. Finally, some folks in the West are beginning to ask, “Why did we stop grazing?” Unfortunately it took the loss and expense of numerous out of control wildfires and millions or billions of dollars of destruction for them to see the light. More importantly, over 70 percent of the United States land mass is not capable of growing food other than cellulosic material which a ruminant animal can graze and convert into nutrient dense human food and hundreds of other essential by-products. So why not graze it?
I do wish to remind everyone that despite the demonization of GHG’s, they too are essential to the wellbeing of life on this plant. Greenhouse House Gases are plant food, plain and simple. Within reason, an increase in GHG’s in the atmosphere provides the greater growth potential for plants. Losing sight of the whole life cycle is not healthy for either plants or animals.
The residents of Hong Kong are clearly the highest meat eaters per capita of any people on the planet. Low and behold they also have the longest life expectancy on the planet. The women are just short of 88 years and men are 81. On the other end of the spectrum, India has the highest population of vegetarians and the highest rate of heart disease. Even the National Institutes of Health reports that heart disease has increased four-fold in the past 40 years in India. Your risk of heart disease in primarily vegetarian India is 11 percent greater than it is right here in the fast food capital of the universe.
Clearly the age of animal protein and fat as health foods is emerging from the swamp of dietary advice. Like all swamps, they don’t drain easily but rather they require a lot of work and effort. For the benefit of human health and life on earth, let’s all grab a shovel and dig in.
Editor’s note: Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.LoosTales.com, or email Trent at [email protected].
