Should You Eat Meat?

 

 

 

You need to differentiate health from body transformation. You can look fit and great but not be healthy on the inside and this is what a lot of people miss… The inside is what catches up with you over the years and we shouldn’t be waiting until we get cancer, autoimmune, type 2 or cardiovascular issues…

A lot of people talk about it from a surface-based perspective and are extremely biased. For example, there are currently multiple people promoting keto as the diet that “everyone should follow” when we know that it can have a huge impact on women’s hormones. It can create a lot of damage that would then take years to undo.

HOW MUCH PROTEIN DO YOU NEED?

Take your ideal bodyweight and divide that by two. For example, if you weigh 170 lbs, you need 85 grams of protein per day coming from whatever you like such as plant, fish, meat, etc.

There is a lot of research that says you don’t even need that much but that is the starting point for most people.

Regardless of where your protein comes from, it should be no more than 10-20% of your diet. Remember that the people that live the longest eat the smallest amount of protein. However, this doesn’t mean no protein at all because that is not healthy for you either. This is something that I see often with a lot of my vegan/vegetarian clients when they are not careful with their protein intake.

RISKS

1. Cancer

There was a study published in Cell Metabolism which said that meat and dairy may be just as detrimental to your health as smoking cigarettes. This study looked at 6,380 adults over the age of 50 and on average 60% of their total daily calories came from protein and 2/3 of that amount came from animal protein. This means that the majority of their protein came from animals. They divided the groups into (1) high-, (2) moderate- and (3) low-protein eaters. Protein could come from animal or plant sources. People who ate high protein diets were 74% more likely to die before the end of the study than those on low protein diets!

They found that plant-based proteins were not as detrimental to health as animal-based proteins. Those who consumed the highest levels of animal protein were 4 times more likely to die from cancer.

This increased rate is similar to the difference in cancer risk between smokers and non-smokers!

Almost everyone is going to have a cancer cell in them at some point. The question is, does it progress? Turns out, one of the major factors in determining whether or not it does is protein intake.

In Ayurvedic medicine, we know meat is a more anabolic food. Tumours are an anabolic dysfunction of the body so this is why a lot of people that do get cancer go on vegan-based diets and I would agree with that if you had a cancer-based tumour (not a blood-based cancer). So yes, it is great if you’re trying to build muscle but really poor if you’re trying to stay healthy in the long run.

The higher your meat consumption, the greater your likelihood of cancer.

2. Cardiovascular disease

During World War II, the sheep, the cows, and all of the dairy products were taken from the people in Norway and they saw (over a course of 5-10 years) a massive decline in heart disease. The only change was that they did not consume as much meat and dairy as they previously had. Is this a coincidence? I don’t think so.

BOTTOM LINE

I believe that you can still eat some meat and certainly some fish because we don’t see the same correlation with fatty fish that are wild-caught and some shellfish with heart disease or cancer.

An ectomorph/vata body type may be able to get away with eating a little bit more meat or protein because their body is naturally more catabolic. However, for the pitta or kapha/endomorph body type they do much better on a plant-based diet because they naturally have more mass. This is why there no “one size fits all”.

A vata/ectomorph body type that goes on a vegan diet has to watch the protein that they’re eating and they do need a little more.

Lower the amount of protein to 10-15% of your diet. Then choose how many times a week you want to eat meat. I tend to limit animal protein to maximum once a day and it is usually from wild-caught fish. I do eat some grass-fed and grass-finished red meat once or twice per month.

You do not have to cut out meat completely out of your diet but if you’re eating it every day or a large amount of it, you might want to think about cutting back on it. My job is not to force anything upon you, it is simply to question your current habits.

My number 1 and only priority is helping people (and myself & my family) live the longest, healthiest lives they can…


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