Discussion: Are there any health reasons preventing us from giving up meat?

When researching for my blog entry 2 nights ago, I came across this article: http://www.earthsave.org/health/bloodtyp.htm

I actually want you to read this before reading my thoughts. You see, I found it when trying to find any scientific evidence that those with blood type O have to eat meat, since I remember reading one such account in a newspaper years ago. While the article doesn't rule out the theory completely that the best diet is one suited to your blood type, it completely strips away the credibility of a published book on the subject. So I'm not so certain that whether a person can or cannot eat meat is that dependent on their blood type.

But the article I linked 2 days ago that talked about the health benefits of red meat did say that a regular meal including red meat is very beneficial for those with some sort of blood anaemia. That I can buy, since such people have a bit of an iron deficiency compared to most. My friend at work also told me today that she actually doesn't like the taste of red meat very much, but has to eat it at least once a week due to her unusually low blood pressure. Without that regular red meat consumption, her energy would be very low.

Recipe: Veggie and Bean Coriander Curry

This recipe was something I created accidentally some time ago. I dare you to guess which part that is.

INGREDIENTS

Potato

Carrot

Parsnip

Green Pepper

Spring Onion

Garlic

Tin of red/white kidney beans

Tin of chick peas

Herb mix: coriander and chili curry

Rice

Note: Large hard vegetables mixed with all of the other ingredients listed means you cook enough to make 3/4 portions.

Step 1: Chop/dice the hard vegetables (potato, carrot and parsnip) while starting to boil the desired amount of rice.

Step 2: Take a large frying pan, lightly grease it with some oil and warm. Begin cutting the pepper and sweet onion, while the chopped hard vegetables begin frying in the pan.

Step 3: Stir the rice frequently. Add the chopped soft vegetables to the frying pan, once the hard vegetables are a bit softer and coloured. At this point, you can add ground pepper to the mix if you want.

Step 4: Open the tins of beans and chick peas and drain away about half the preserving liquid. Begin chopping some garlic. Add the garlic and beans/peas, including the remaining liquid.

Step 5: Add the coriander curry mix. The spices should mix with the liquid that came with the beans. Stir well until ready to serve. Taste test if unsure.

Step 6: Serve with rice.

Discussion: Do we need meat in our diets?

What I find the most interesting points of contention in the topic of 'meat vs vegetarian: which diet is healthier' are the 2 claims that (1) humans must eat meat in order to get certain nutrients and (2) vegetarians/vegans are generally healthier. Both are claims put forward while also backed by scientific evidence, so I personally tried to conclude why such claims are the case.

I did have a theory a while ago that the reason why non-meat-eaters are often healthier than meat-eaters is that few vegetarians/vegans eat junk food on a regular basis. But there has to be something else behind the research, since I have personally witnessed very fit dancers constantly eating McDonald's due to the massive amounts of calories needed.

I found this interesting article that detailed the pros and cons of eating meat, or kinds of meat. Pretty much everyone can tell you that meat is eaten for the protein, but the specifically beneficial nutrients of red meat are vitamin B12, zinc and iron. The article recommends using lean cuts of red meat in order to avoid consuming excessive fat and also explains that the best way of cooking red meat is to bake or broil. The article also provides the common-sense advice to avoid eating grilled or charred meat too often, but I never knew why this was a bad idea: it turns out that high-heat treatment of meat produces cancer-producing compounds. So even an article trying to encourage people to eat meat as part of a healthy diet recommends not eating fried meat too often. There is also the recommendation to try and find common meat-types that are not preserved with nitrites, as frequent consumption of them can also cause cancer.

What I also found good about the article was its list of red meat alternatives, including white meat, fish, tofu and beans. It doesn't provide specific amounts regarding how much of each you should eat in a week, because let's face it, each person is different, but it really does give the sense that red meat really doesn't have to be eaten that often, nor should it be in most cases.

Anyway, the fact that the article discussing meat nutrition also recommends eating beans and tofu as valid sources of the same nutrients led me to wanting to find non-meat sources of iron. Why iron? Because in the discussion of whether vegetarians/vegans are lacking essential nutrients in their diets, there is always the claim that iron is necessary (which is true) and substantial amounts of it cannot be found in vegetables. So I found this article, which helpfully provides graphs showing the amounts of iron in each food type. It also explains that more iron is absorbed when vitamin C is included in a meal (such as can be found in tomatoes), so while the tables helpfully reveal the impressive amounts of iron in spinach, lentils and soybeans, compared to the poultry (ha ha) amounts in meat, there is little in the article to stop the ardent meat-lover from saying: 'I'll just have more veggies with my meat-meals then'.

This makes me laugh a little, as reading both articles led to my conclusion that one of the healthiest meals you can cook is a minced meat with spinach and chopped tomato spaghetti bolognaise, with wheat pasta to make it healthier. Or you can just have strips of lean meat in a spinach and tomato salad, thereby cutting out the carbs if you're trying to shed weight.

The overall conclusion from reading both of these articles is that eating different foods every day really is the key to a healthy diet. In all fairness, that statement produces the instant reaction of "well, duh!", but it's important to know why variety is key. Indulging in too much fried meat means consuming too many nitrites and carcinogens (that cause cancer), while indulging in meat-free meals that contain a mix of veggies and beans adds some variety to your food and a boost of iron, protein and vitamins without the fat.

Recipe: Basic Vegetable Noodles

I've cooked my first meal, so I thought I'd share it with you:

INGREDIENTS

Potato

Carrot

Parsnip

Red Pepper

Spring Onion

Ground (Black) Pepper

Soy Sauce

Noodles

Note: These are just the ingredients I used tonight, you can actually mix and match your own desired veggies.

Step 1: Boil water in a saucepan, ready for the noodles. Which kind of noodles? Really doesn't matter, you choose. Tonight I used rice noodles, as those are the only authentic noodles you can buy in the Czech Republic; my personal favourite to use are the Japanese udon noodles.

Step 2: Begin dicing the hard vegetables: potato, carrot and parsnip in this case. To make the noodles look a little more authentically Asian, I recommend peeling along the carrot to make carrot strips. It's easy, once the carrot skin is peeled away, just chop away one end, grip the other, and slide the peeler as deeply into the carrot as possible.

Step 3: Now is the perfect time to put the noodles into the boiling water and to warm up the frying pan. Lightly grease the frying pan with a drop of oil (don't use olive oil, it heats up far too easily) and pour in the hard vegetables. If you had peeled the carrot for carrot strips, don't add those just yet.

Step 4: Stir the hard vegetables every so often while cutting the soft vegetables (half of the red pepper and a stalk of spring onion in this case). Once the potato has turned a deep yellow and appears to be nearly roasting, add the rest of the vegetables.

Step 5: At this point, the boiling water cooking the noodles should have its heat turned down. While stirring the frying vegetables, mix in black pepper and light amounts of soy sauce. If you prefer to have other kinds of ground pepper put into the mix, go right ahead.

Step 6: Once the noodles are done and the vegetables almost ready, drain the water from the noodles. When using udon noodles, I like to add them to the frying pan after the water has been drained away, stirring some more for a minute or two until the meal is ready. This should also work with ramen, phad thai or ho fun noodles. With the rice noodles though, they seemed appetising on their own, so I just served the food as it was.

Bon appetit!

My final meaty meal

Yes, you read that right: tonight I ate my final meal that includes meat. What did I eat? Chicken fajitas.

Tomorrow I begin my foray into the world of (mostly) vegan diets. And incessant blogging.

The Rules

1. No meat or seafood whatsoever will be eaten.

2. All regular dairy intake will have to be substituted.

3. Such a diet will be followed for 40 days, beginning on Shrove Tuesday and ending on Palm Sunday.

Explanations:

1. None needed.

2. The thing about milk, eggs and butter is that traces of it are found in many recipes, baking ones in particular. So since I am focussing on cutting out animal products from my regular diet, if I need to use butter in a baking recipe, I will. The most obvious example of regular dairy intake is the milk I pour into my bowl of muesli every morning, I'll need to buy soy milk for the next month-and-a-bit.

3. Bizarrely enough, the 40 days bit stirs up quite a bit of debate. A lot of people think Lent runs right up to Easter Sunday, but if you actually count 40 days on your calendar (and I have), you'll find it finishes on Palm Sunday. I also remember reading last year that Lent does run up to Easter Sunday if you believe that you get a 'day off' Lent every Sunday. Frankly I think that's just rather stupid, it's not like Jesus got a day off wandering the desert.

So there you go, these are my rules and I hope I have made them clear. Questions in the post comments if they're not.