5 Reasons to Cut Down on Meat

If you share the typical British appetite, you will have worked your way through more than 1.5kg of meat this week as part of your annual 80kg quota of flesh-eating. Britain is one of the biggest meat consumers in the world, but at the top of the charts, America beats them all. The average American ploughs their way through 125kg of flesh a year. Do we really need to be eating this much meat? Most people in this country and the US eat double the amount of protein they need. Excess is just broken down in the body for energy or stored as fat. Over three years ago, I started cutting down on meat. I can tell you that the benefits are extraordinary, but you won't know until you try it for yourself. Here are a few reasons to give it a try.

1. Better Health

The number one reason I started to cut down on meat was because I wanted to improve my health. Animal foods, especially red meat, are among the largest sources of saturated fats in our diet. Meat's fat, cholesterol and calories are bad enough, many say, without the hormones, antibiotics, growth producers and other veterinary drugs used in commercial meat operations. Researchers believe the hormones or hormone-like compounds in meat increase your risk of cancer. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has reported that vegetarians are less likely to get cancer by 25 to 50 percent. Cutting down on meat means that there's more room on your plate for vegetables. When you swap meat for more vegetables you load your diet with immune boosting nutrients. Meat is extremely acid-forming in the body and when the body becomes too acidic it can lead to bloating, irritability, weight problems, ageing and eventually chronic disease. The body requires huge amounts of enzymes to digest meat, which places a burden on your system and means there are less enzymes free for healing and repair. Gary Fraser, who runs a long-range study of 35,000 vegetarians at Loma Linda University in California, said vegetarians fare better than moderate meat-eaters on measures of longevity, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, and a few cancers. Giving up all animal products, including fish, dairy, and eggs is even better in measures of weight, diabetes, and high blood pressure, his research suggests.

2. Save Money

A lot of people think that the vegetarian diet is expensive because they look at the ready meals, pre-made salads, exotic ingredients, and "super foods", but cutting out meat can actually save you money. Use the ingredients that you  already have in your cupboards, and choose the less expensive own-brand products from the supermarket. Look in the frozen section for inexpensive veggie burgers, veggie sausages and veggie mince. Rummage through the ‘reduced’ section and grab a bargain. If you visit supermarkets and shops near closing time, you can often benefit from dramatically reduced prices on bakery and fresh produce. You can find anything from bargain bread buns to puff pastry and pots of houmous that are practically being giving away for pennies. Items such as pastry and bread can be put in the freezer and defrosted later to last the entire week. Instead of buying ready meals, cook up a big batch of curry, chilli or casserole, and freeze individual portions in tupperware containers, to pop in the microwave when you don't have time to cook.

3. Save the Planet

Meat impacts the environment more than any other food we eat, mainly because livestock require much more land, food, water, and energy than plants to raise and transport. The livestock industry creates almost a fifth of all greenhouse gases and takes up 30 percent of the earth’s usable land, according to a United Nations report. Farm a decent acre with cattle and you can produce about 20lbs of beef protein. Give the same acre over to wheat and you can produce 138lbs of protein for human consumption. Most people could do more for the climate by cutting down on meat than giving up their car and plane journeys.

4. Save the Animals


It’s sometimes easy to forget that the steak on your plate was part of a living creature. But the path from farm to plate can be fraught with unbelievable animal cruelty, says Paul Shapiro, vice president of farm animal protection at the Humane Society of the United States. “From locking animals in tiny cages, to slicing parts of their bodies off without any pain relief, to genetically selecting them to grow so obese and so fast that many become lame, it’s by far the biggest cause of animal suffering in the world.” Cutting down on meat means that you reduce the overall demand for meat, which means that less animals are subjected to a life of suffering.

5. You don't need meat.

Barnard, an adjunct associate professor of medicine at George Washington University, says “there is no [nutritional] requirement for meat. Zero.” Joe Millward, professor of nutrition at Surrey University, has sat on several national and international expert committees that have drawn up recommendations on protein requirements. Vegetarians "have no nutritional issues at all," he says. Their protein intakes are not much lower than the average meat eater's, and they get plenty of the micronutrients associated with meat, such as B12 and iron. Dr Mike Rayner, director of the British Heart Foundation health promotion group, points out, in the book The Meat Crisis, that the average person in the UK is already getting about 31g a day of protein from cereals, fruit, nuts and vegetables including potatoes. The UK government estimates that the average woman needs 36g of protein per day and the average man 44g. If official recommendations are right, then we don't actually need to eat meat at all.

You may find the idea of giving up meat a big challenge, but if you just cut down on meat by having one vegetarian day per week, you are doing yourself a big favour. Vegetables are not boring. Venture beyond the pot of boiled carrots and peas. Seek new and exciting produce. There is a world of vegetables you have never tried before, and the possible recipes are infinite! I found that the less I ate meat, the less I craved it. Instead of making a drastic lifestyle change, I slowly and gradually phased meat out of my life. Three years later, I occasionally eat seafood and dairy, but for the most part I enjoy a healthy and satisfying plant-based lifestyle. I feel better in mind, body, and soul. If you don't believe me, try it for yourself and see.