The Socialization of Meat Eating

No idea what the title means?  I’ll get to that in a second.

Over here in London and getting ready to head to Paris.  I thought at night with down time and internet access that I would watch a movie on Netflix for the Movie Monday post.  However, as I just found out, Netflix does not work outside the United States.  Soo, instead, I’ll continue the protein series today and hopefully get a new Movie Monday post up next week.

I had a reader make a comment on the blog recently in regards to one of the protein series posts.  I’ll have it lead into this post.  By the way, thanks for leaving comments, suggestions and counter-points.  They really help drive discussion and ideas for new postings.  Chances are many other people are thinking what you are, so taking the time to voice your opinion is doing so for many readers, not just yourself.

It's just how life works. We adopt many tendencies from our parents like economic status, social views, and how we eat.

With the protein series so far my goal has been to make it interesting to find out new information about protein that you may not have known.  Disclosing new information that gives a different point of view than what we are taught growing up inevitably leads to certain objections.  This is because we are hard wired to change slowly, hence evolution.  When we grow up indoctrinated in a certain way it is hard to accept a different point of view without (personal) emotional stimulus pushing us in a new direction.  In other words social mobility is similar to emotional mobility.  We generally end up in the same economic class as our parents.  Our actions shape our thoughts and outlook on life as children.  Naturally, this leads to how we are taught to eat as kids ends up shaping our eating habits as adults (as a general rule).

When I have someone ask me, “how can eating meat be bad for me? our ancestors did it and if it was bad we would have died out on the evolutionary chain.”  My response is a series of points that I hope you are (willing to follow) to understand where I am coming from.  I will try and address both sides of this argument as the meat side and my side.

Just because in the story of evolution our ancestors ate meat doesn’t mean it’s the ideal diet for the health and longevity of our bodies.  Thinking that our species would have died out if it was bad to eat meat is focusing on the wrong thing.  Humans have evolved and survived because of our intelligence, not because of what we ate.  As intelligent beings we were able to make tools and weapons that shot us to the top of the food chain.  I would recommend you (re)read the first protein series post addressing our physical traits compared to true meat eaters if you want to compare humans eating meat to other animals.

There's not a ton that we can learn about how to be healthy today from what early humans ate. That's kind of like Ferrari studying the Model T to get new engineering ideas for their next car.

Did humans die of heart disease millions of years ago because they ate meat?  I don’t know.  I can tell you one thing though; they didn’t thrive from it!  Life spans we like 30 years back then.  In addition, animals weren’t domesticated for food so catching your food involved a lot of hard work and exercise which is beneficial to the heart even if they weren’t eating a “heart healthy” diet.  Generation over generation we have slowly lengthened our life spans.  This can be attributed recently to modern medicine eliminating many pre-mature deaths from the most basic of ailments.  Previously, farming practices that made more food available to more people are how humans were able to start living longer.

Until now.  We are finally at a point in human history where our life expectancy is shorter than our parents.  One reason: disease.  It’s not that we’ve hit the pinnacle of evolution, it’t that there are diseases now that we can’t cure.  Toxins in the food chain all the way down to the smallest of sea creatures are bombarding our body with stresses we haven’t adapted to deal with.  Would you develop disease if you ate a diet exactly like humans did a million years ago?  5,000 years ago?  Probably not.  The other side of the coin is that YOU CAN”T eat the same diet that our ancestors did.

Plain and simple, we have polluted our air and water so much on this planet that our conventional food is no longer safe to eat.  So if you can find a place on this planet where you can eat meat, gather wild fruits and vegetables, drink pure water and breathe clean air let me know!  Then maybe, just maybe you could make an evolutionary diet argument.

The only sensible argument one can make for eating a diet high in meat, fat and cholesterol is that it’s what we’ve always been told to eat.  The pro meat camp then backs it up by saying that our bodies “need” cholesterol and saturated fat and getting it from meat in our diet isn’t bad.  Additionally, our bodies “need” essential amino acids and the only way to efficiently get those in the quantity we need is by eating meat.

Yep, we need cholesterol, BUT our bodies make both HDL and LDL cholesterol.  If it was necessary to get cholesterol from food, then vegans would be screwed!  However, the science shows that people living longer and healthier than the average are the ones eating less meat and animal products and more plant based foods.  Yes, we need protein, but if you take one thing away from this series it’s that we can get all the amino acids we need from plants.

I’m not trying to convert you to veganism.  I’m just trying to build a case for eating more plants and (less) meat.  Science shows you’ll live longer and healthier by doing so.  Not only is it good for you, but it’s good for the planet too.  Science also shows that domesticated animal production for food is one of the greatest impacts on global warming.  Between the methane gas, the decreased forests (cleared for farms and pastures) and the need to heavily pollute by transferring the meat all around, storing and cooking it we are harming our planet.

There's nothing wrong with going against the grain if you aren't harming others. History often reveals the first ones to turn the car around are the most successful. I just want to live a healthy, disease-free life until I'm 150 years old!

Look, it’s fine if you don’t want to give up meat.  Your body is your body.  However, many people find this blog because they are curious about living healthier.  I simply strive to give you science backed information with some personal opinions to try and bridge the gap between science and what makes sense.  It’s natural to defend the way you eat especially if you like it!  Nobody is forcing you to change, but trying to convince people that eating unhealthy is actually healthy (like our government policies and guidelines do), that’s where I draw the line.  I don’t like misleading information and I don’t like when people/corporations/government impede my ability to live a clean and natural life.  If you’re offended by that, I reason that you are in fact doubting your own lifestyle on some level.

The next step in evolution will actually be a step back.  The next step is to consume less than before and more efficiently.  Until now our evolution has been the result of learning how to consume more without care for efficiency because resources were plentiful.  With the environment in peril and the realization that resources are finite, it is now our moral obligation to find that emotional stimulus.  Only then can we begin looking at the facts to make the necessary decisions to continue thriving once again!