Plant-based Meat Options
A reader who is battling prostate cancer writes:
Here is an article on primate diets, showing that our human ancestors were nearly all vegetarians. I now find myself in the camp that believes that a plant based diet is healthier and will extend life span for those with prostate cancer. There are also many reports that those who have made this change have lost weight and just feel much better. There are many studies that implicate meat, particularly red meat, with increased levels of coronary disease, to the point where this has become an accepted fact, just like smoking causing lung cancer. Meat seems to be the centerpiece of almost every meal I have eaten in the past. Any suggestions on how to make this transition easier?
Fortunately, modern plant-based meat options, e.g., the Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat, is indistinguishable from beef. It’s borderline miraculous, IMO. It’s better for you, for the planet, and for the cow.
Good luck and keep me posted!
Craig,
I feel very sorry for your friend with prostate cancer and wish him well with the success of his treatment.
(Prostate is a dread for all men of a certain age).
As I keep saying, everyone is entitled to their own dietary beliefs and preferences.
However, you are not entitled to your own facts!
1) Ancient humans were not “Vegetarians” . No reputable anthropologist or scientist would make such a preposterous claim ! A quick check of your own teeth will tell you humans are equipped by evolution to consume meat.
In fact, on the best scientific evidence available well probably owe our large brain and highly developed cognitive brain capacity to eating marrow from the bones of animals, not cabbage leaves !
2) The consumption of “red meat” causing coronary disease is not an “accepted fact” (except among vegetarians) and no properly conducted scientific studies exist establishing such an absurd claim.
Craig, again I repeat, if you feel better living on what ever diet you choose, then I’m happy for you, but don’t pretend it has any scientific basis !
Oh, and it’s also not better for the cow ! Cows only exist because they a re economically viable, providing milk, butter, cheese, meat and leather. No market, no cow ! No cow, no pasture land with animals self manuring. No manure no flies, dung beetles, etc In fact, a whole Eco-system would cease to exist.
The only ‘miracle’, is how a bunch of seemingly intelligent and educated affluent people could regard eating a synthetically produced composition of dangerous chemicals, superior to the natural food mankind has been consuming since he first stood upright !
Here’s a point to ponder before you are so adamant about the environment.
Adjacent to my Australian property is a vast mountain National Park. (I farm in the valley). On a part of my property is an old, well tendered, Orchard growing a variety of fruits.
Each night we are visited by some Fruit Bats, whom we discovered live in a system of caves high up in the dense mountain forest.
The bats have created a mini eco-system within the caves. These caves are quite extensive with sandy floors and small lakes. There are all kinds of insects, a blind fish, a species of crayfish and even a unique marsupial rodent-like creature, along with some unique flora that’s evolved to exist nowhere else in the universe, except in this little cave world.
The only source of sustainability is the bat. The bat’s bring seeds, fertilizer (droppings) etc. In the dark depths over the eons the little world has evolved into a mini environment.
Over the eons the forest has changed also. many of the native fruiting trees have slowly retreated until the bats, and the little world the created would have disappeared but for the establishment in 1864 of my orchard by pioneering missionaries.
The bureaucracy of the State Parks and Waterways Department wanted to eliminate the bats for reasons of “green’ ideology (the bats are not native to that particular forest) despite having existed before European settlement, and the little world would have ceased to exist.
Fortunately, I was able to persuade my neighbors,State Premier and relevant Minister to reverse the decision and pass a regulation to protect the bat’s, and the little world.
I guess the lesson I’m trying to impart is nothing is as easy or simple as it appears when we are in the grip of enthusiasm.