{"id":188869,"date":"2021-07-19T12:00:54","date_gmt":"2021-07-19T11:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=188869"},"modified":"2021-07-13T09:52:35","modified_gmt":"2021-07-13T08:52:35","slug":"the-myth-that-meat-is-essential-for-human-health-could-harm-us-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/07\/the-myth-that-meat-is-essential-for-human-health-could-harm-us-all\/","title":{"rendered":"The Myth That Meat Is Essential for Human Health Could Harm Us All"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Meat contains higher levels of sulphur amino acids than plant proteins.\u00a0 Natalia Lisovskaya<\/p><\/div>\n

12 Jul 2021 – <\/em>Bacon and eggs for breakfast, a turkey sandwich for lunch, and roasted chicken for dinner are some of the go-to meal choices in America where meat is considered an essential part of the everyday diet.<\/p>\n

Historically, Americans have been led to believe that eating meat and other animal products is necessary to be strong and healthy. This belief was ingrained in most Americans from the moment they were born. The food industry has continuously pushed consumption of these products through ad campaigns that proclaim, \u201cBeef. It\u2019s what\u2019s for dinner<\/a>,\u201d and \u201cMilk. It does a body good<\/a>.\u201d An article in Nourish by WebMD<\/a> raves about chicken\u2019s supposed health benefits, and poultry has appeared in every food guide<\/a> by the United States Department of Agriculture since the 1940s. Americans have been led to believe that if they forgo these staples of the Westernized diet, they will dissolve into anemic zombies.<\/p>\n

In truth, not only is meat consumption not necessary<\/a> for humans to stay healthy, but it\u2019s also potentially quite harmful. Consider meat\u2019s links to heart disease<\/a>, diabetes<\/a> and certain cancers<\/a>. Or the millions of people who fall sick from listeria, E. coli<\/a>, and salmonella<\/a> each year due to the consumption of contaminated meat. Or the more than 2.8 million<\/a> Americans who contract antibiotic-resistant infections\u2014which is a result of a nasty upshot of the rampant use<\/a> of antibiotics on factory farms.<\/p>\n

Americans eat more meat<\/a> per capita than any other country, according to the World Economic Forum\u2014which referred to the 2016 figures of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development-Food and Agriculture Organization Agricultural Outlook 2017-2026\u2014but meat consumption hasn\u2019t been a boon for the health of Americans. There is a high prevalence of obesity<\/a> and diabetes<\/a> and one of the highest rates of cancer<\/a> among the American population. In light of these numbers, saying meat is essential makes about as much sense as saying cigarettes are essential.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the notions that we can\u2019t live without meat and that our meat supply is sacrosanct have been even further entrenched during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Thanks to intense lobbying<\/a> by industrial meat producers in 2020, the U.S. government had deemed meatpacking and slaughterhouse workers \u201cessential.\u201d While many small businesses were crippled or had to shut down in order to stem the virus\u2019s spread during the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. in 2020, the federal government forced<\/a> slaughterhouses to stay open\u2014this was despite the soaring<\/a> coronavirus infection rates<\/a> and employee deaths<\/a>. A single Smithfield plant in Sioux Falls was linked to at least 1,294<\/a> coronavirus cases and four deaths in the spring of 2020, according to an article<\/a> in National Hog Farmer. In Louisa County, Iowa, which is home to a Tyson plant, 1,301<\/a> of the 11,223<\/a> residents contracted the virus by July 2021.<\/p>\n

Indeed, an insistence on consuming copious amounts of meat poses a grave threat<\/a> to the very survival of our species. In our mad dash to curtail the virus and develop vaccines at warp speeds, we\u2019ve overlooked\u2014perhaps intentionally\u2014one foundational, inconvenient fact: COVID-19\u2014the source of which has been traced to a live animal market<\/a> in Wuhan, China\u2014is only the latest in a long line of pandemics that have arisen from our insistence on eating meat:<\/p>\n