Meat-eating and health

Meat -- including muscle meat, animal fat, and offal -- is real food. We've been eating meat for tens of thousands of years in good health, and likely far longer than we've been eating the whole grains that comprise the base of our food pyramid.

The idea that high levels of meat consumption (at or above the levels of a Western diet) is somehow unnatural or a direct cause of modern diseases is contradicted by epidemiological evidence. Consider the following cultures who subsist on a high-quality animal-based diet:

- The Maasai pastoralists. While on their traditional diet of cow milk, meat, and blood, they have low blood cholesterol and little atherosclerosis.
- The Plains Indians of North America. Wild bison meat and fat were a staple food source, often in the form of pemmican.
- The Inuit eskimos. In these groups, a whopping 75% of dietary calories came from animal fat, including seal, walrus, polar bears, whales, and fish.
- The Vedda of Sri Lanka. Traditionally known for their meat-heavy diet of deer, hare, tortoise, monitor lizard, wild boar, monkey, and fish. In 1986, they were forced off their hunting land and into smaller pockets of the jungle. This made hunting much more difficult, and the Vedda now rely on cultivated yams and rice as a fallback. A 1987 study found that coronary heart disease and obesity were rare among the Vedda.
- The Ache of Paraguay. Pre-contact, they derived an estimated 80% of their energy from animal foods.

All of these populations eat more animal foods than we do, and yet suffer virtually none of the Western diseases that conventional wisdom blames on animal products (heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, etc). This suggests that animal foods per se are not harmful, even in large doses. In some circumstances, these people will subsist on near-complete carnivory.

Contrast this with the fact that there are zero known vegan societies in the history of the human race. Why might that be? A vegan diet without supplementation often leads to B12 deficiency, which causes infertility and miscarriages. Vegan children can experience permanent brain damage. Since pure veganism is at odds with much of our evolutionary experience, I consider it highly experimental and quite dangerous.

As our paleolithic ancestors first began migrating out of Africa, they left in their wake a trail of destruction. Large game animals all went extinct shortly after the arrival of homo sapiens. We've been eating meat (and arguably a substantial amount of it at times) for quite far into our past. Meat has been so integral to our evolutionary history that I reckon many of us do need some level of animal products to meet basic nutritional needs. In other words, it's easier to become nutritionally deficient on a vegetarian diet than an omnivorous diet, and veganism is a complete non-starter. For example, approximately 45% of people have lost the enzyme to convert beta-carotene to retinol. Translation: these people must get vitamin A from animal fat, as they cannot synthesize it from plant sources of vitamin A. In general, nutrients from animal foods are more bio-available than those from plant foods. This applies not only to vitamin A (beta-carotene vs. retinol), but also vitamin D (D2 vs. D3), vitamin K (K1 vs. K2, the main exception being stinky natto), omega-3 fatty acids (ALA vs. EPA/DHA), essential amino acids (protease inhibitors in plant material), and trace minerals (phytic acid), particularly iron and zinc. Then there is the aforementioned risk of B12 deficiency commonly known among vegetarians and vegans. Animal foods are good, convenient sources of choline. Meat is also the main dietary source of creatine, which is necessary for brain function.

Here is an epic N=1 tale from a former vegan who has experienced many of these issues firsthand. This is actually a fairly common scenario if you survey ex-vegetarians; 35% of them return to meat-eating for health reasons.

The bottom line? Over-consumption of animals is unlikely to be the culprit in the epidemic of Western diseases. (It may not even stop you from living to 100. Some centenarians eat a diet rich in saturated fat.) Furthermore, plenty of us may well in fact need some animal products for health. Exactly how much meat is optimal depends on individual needs and variation. It's possible to eat a whole lot of meat or very little and still be healthy, so I would experiment and see what works best.

So does this give you a license to eat as much meat and fat as you please? Not necessarily. We live in a toxic food system where the average meat quality is pretty bad, coming from the industrial food supply. It would be prudent to eat only as much industrial meat as you need to feel and perform well. If you can source high-quality meat (pasture-raised or grass-fed) then you're good to go. If not, then it would be wise to limit your consumption to what is necessary (I think that eating some amount of industrial meat is safer than going completely vegan).