But meat, the kind of high-welfare meat that Buxton would like us all to eat, is expensive. “That’s because our food system is biased. If I were designing policies to make it affordable to eat right, I would tax the most processed stuff and empty carbs and junk and subsidize regeneratively farmed eggs and meat, and well-raised fish. And he would support farmers with active policies to transition to best farming practices.”
First, though, the anti-meat rhetoric needs to end. Encouragingly, diets like Keto (high fat, low carb) are gaining popularity to treat an epidemic of obesity and diabetes. In many ways, this and veganism are antithetical.
For Buxton, it’s a sign that as a society we are rethinking how a healthy diet could be balanced, fresh and unprocessed. “Eventually, I really strongly believe that if we go down the regenerative path, we will eventually see fully sustainable, healthy meat available at reasonable prices.”
Is a plant-based diet really healthier?
If you have a nagging feeling that meat, eggs, and dairy are bad for you, you may be suffering from a hangover from the demonization of cholesterol in the 1950s. Today, eggs and dairy in moderation are considered part of a healthy diet, but the damage to red meat’s reputation remains, despite no studies conclusively proving it’s bad for our health.
“Red meat is lumped in with processed meat, which some studies have shown to be harmful. However, recent studies in the Annals of Internal Medicine [2019]who conducted a meta-analysis of the entire body of research, concluded that there was not enough evidence to recommend a reduced consumption of red or processed meat,” says Buxton.
There have been several criticisms of the WHO report on cancer (2015), which is responsible for the notion that eating processed meat causes cancer, including one from a member of the committee that produced the report, who felt that it was not evidence-based .
“The thing about the data on red meat is that, through epidemiological studies, it has been grouped with other aspects of an unhealthy diet, such as excessive consumption of processed carbohydrates. Is it the meat that produces the results or the bun, fries and cola that are consumed along with it? Buxton asks.
When it comes to veganism, you are concerned that a diet that requires additional supplementation (plant-based diets are deficient in nutrients like preformed vitamin A, B12, and D, iodine, iron, omega-3s, several essential amino acids, and zinc) may be considered healthier than a balanced one that doesn’t.
Plant-based milks require fortification with calcium and other vitamins; The Vegan Society encourages breastfeeding vegan mothers to take B12, iodine, vitamin D, and omega-3 supplements, and to increase their intake (requirements are 80 percent higher than for other adults) by eating foods fortified with calcium and calcium. set tofu. When we approached the Vegan Society for comment, a spokesperson said: “From a health point of view, a well-planned vegan diet can help people of all ages lead healthy lives, including during pregnancy and lactation. ”.
However, a single egg contains omega-3 essential fatty acids in the form of DHA, vitamins A, B6, B12, E, D, and K, calcium, iron, zinc, and many other healthy minerals. Take that, egg no egg.
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