In my last post I wrote about energy balance and the complex control of appetite and metabolism. I also wrote about diets for weight loss and how well they work and how sustainable they are. In this post I’m going to write about what we can eat that is good for our individual health as well as for the health of the planet.

Traditional Cuisines

People across the world do not eat the same things. Nonetheless, all traditional cuisines (not including the ones that have been “westernized”) are associated with good health and low risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke. This even includes the traditional Inuit cuisine, which is very high in meat (seal and other marine mammals), fat and fish.

What all these traditional cuisines have in common is that they are high in unprocessed or minimally processed foods. Meat is not a large part of any of the traditional cuisines, with a few exceptions, but it is not absent in most traditional cuisines.

Healthy Plant-based Foods

There are no particular vegetables, fruits, nuts or berries that you have to have in your diet in order to have a healthy plant-based diet. The trick is to eat a variety of plant-based foods. If you want to have an entirely plant-based diet, that can be very healthy but no one plant protein includes all the essential amino acids. In order to get all the essential amino acids you must be sure to include legumes, lentils and nuts in your diet as well as leafy vegetables and potatoes.

Is a plant-based diet better for the environment than one that includes meat?

The answer to this question is complicated. Some people choose vegan diets because they don’t believe in killing animals for food. Growing vegetables, fruits and nuts results in killing lots of animals and insects however. Most vegetables, fruits and nuts are grown in monocultures. Monoculture attracts large numbers of animals and insects that eat those crops. Farmers use insecticides and rodent poison to kill insects, including beneficial insects, mice and rats. Farmers are allowed to shoot deer that are eating their crops. Even farmers who grow organic vegetables use things like BT and neem oil to kill insects. People who think no animals die when they eat a vegan diet are mistaken. Soybeans in particular are grown in large monocultures and the USDA has a hard time policing soy that is supposed to be organic, but is not.

The use of manufactured fertilizer is another problem. Synthetic fertilizers, especially the nitrogen component are made from natural gas (which is mostly methane). Phosphate and potassium have to be mined.

Many food crops are genetically modified for insect and herbicide resistance. Food and fiber plants that are resistant to glyphosphate (Roundup) have resulted in detectable glyphosphate levels in all animals including humans. Corn that has been genetically modified to include BT has been harmful to honey bees.

So the answer to whether a vegan diet is good for the planet depends on how those vegetables, fruits berries and nuts are grown. Growing your own or getting vegetables from known small farm sources can be very good for the environment. Truck farming in large monocultures is not so good for the planet.

Is eating meat healthy and is it bad for the planet?

The current way that most meat animals are raised is not only cruel to the animals, but bad for the environment. Most meat animals (at least in wealthy western countries) are raised in CAFO’s (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations). There is an alternative way to raise meat animals that is not bad for the planet. I will write about that shortly, but first I want to show you some examples of CAFO’s. Most meat eaters buy meat in the grocery store, neatly packaged. Since most people do not live on farms anymore, we are separated from and do not witness the killing of the animals whose meat we eat. I’m about to show you some disturbing photographs of how animals are treated in CAFO’s. After that I will write about how it is possible to eat meat from animals who are treated well up until the day they are killed.

This is caged CAFO egg production. These chicken live their whole lives in these cages

This is a CAFO beef cattle feed lot. These animals are fed grain to fatten them up before they are sent to the slaughterhouse.

This if a pig CAFO. The animals hardly have room to turn around.

If you buy meat in a grocery store and you don’t know the source of the meat, it likely comes from a CAFO like these. Another problem with animal feeding operations like these is that they are fed grain that could be used for human consumption. It takes 6 pounds of grain for every pound of meat for cattle. Chickens require a little less and pigs a little more.

Farmed fish are raised in CAFO’s also. Here are two images of salmon raised in pens. Many of them fail to thrive and die. The dead fish that have been autopsied show very high levels of stress hormones.

Other fish that are farmed in CAFO’s include tilapia, catfish and shrimp.

How to eat meat and fish ethically without harming the planet

Most of the information below comes from a book I recently read by an Australian farmer, Matthew Evans. It is called On Eating Meat – The truth about its production and the ethics of eating it. It is worth reading. The link is to Thrift Books, but you can also get it from Amazon.

The first thing we can do is to simply eat less meat. The US and Australia are the biggest meat eaters in the world, and every country that can afford it is also increasing the amount of meat they eat. This is simply not sustainable. Cattle from feed lots and chickens from CAFO’s add carbon to the atmosphere and make global warming worse. We need to follow journalist Michael Pollan’s succinct advice about diet: “Eat food (food is anything your grandmother would have recognized as food), mostly plants, not too much.”

Ungulates

Ungulates (cattle, sheep and goats) eat grass, which we can’t eat or digest, and turn it into meat, which we can eat. Although ungulates do burp some methane, they also store carbon from grass in their muscles. Eating grass fed beef (or lamb or goat) does not add new carbon to the atmosphere, especially if meat only makes up a small part of our diet. Grass fed beef and lamb can usually be found at farmer’s markets. Specialty grocery stores are beginning to carry grass fed beef and lamb, and it can also sometimes be found at health food stores.

Chickens

Pasture raised chickens eat plants, worms and insects for most of their diet. They are often supplemented with some organic feed. Again they are part of the carbon cycle and do not add new carbon to the atmosphere. Many of the stores that sell grass fed beef also sell pasture raised chickens. Beware of terms like “free range” and “natural”. Chickens can be called free range if the door to the chicken house is open for part of the day. Free range says nothing about the density of chickens in the chicken house. Once they are raised in high density they don’t go outside even though they technically can. Organic chicken is better than nothing because no antibiotics can be used and they have no added chemicals. Organic chickens can be raised at the same density as CAFO’s however.

Eggs

Cage free eggs means chickens are free to roam inside a building, but it does not mean they get to go outside. The density of the chickens can still be unacceptably high. Cage free is certainly better than CAFO caged egg production, but is still not ideal. Pasture raised egg production is best, but this is not a term that is regulated by the FDA. If the egg carton says pasture raised, look for a stamp that says “Certified Humane” and/or “Animal Welfare Approved.” These are third party organizations that certify that eggs come from pasture raised chickens.

Pigs

Pigs are not ungulates, so they do not eat grass, but they do eat plants, insects and nuts. This diet can be supplemented with silage and grain, but pigs will also eat table scraps, so like grass fed beef and lamb, pigs can turn something we normally throw away into nutritious meat. Pasture raised pigs get to behave like pigs, which includes rooting and digging as well as running. Their meat is therefore less fat and more nutritious. Pasture raised pork is a little harder to find than grass fed beef and pasture raised chickens. Farmers markets are probably the best source.

Cornucopia

There is an excellent non-profit organization called Cornucopia. They rank sources of both animals and plants for ethical standards. They have scorecards for beef chicken, eggs, dairy, yogurt, cereal and others. They also include where to obtain each type of food. Here is a link to their website: Cornucopia.org.

Fish

There is no question that eating fish is good for your health. although children and pregnant women need to be careful because some ocean fish has a substantial amount of mercury. The fish with the highest levels of mercury are shark, swordfish, fresh tuna marlin, king mackerel, tilefish from the Gulf of Mexico, and northern pike. These species should probably be avoided by children and pregnant women.

Some type of fish are farmed sustainably and others are not. Wild caught fish is usually better, but not always. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a rating service that is based on science and what is known about fish stocks Their service is called Seafood Watch. The service has the following ratings:

• BEST CHOICEBuy first. Green rated seafood is well managed and caught or farmed in an environmentally responsible manner. It poses a low environmental risk.
• CERTIFIEDBuy the certified products listed on our website.
• GOOD ALTERNATIVEBuy if a Best Choice option is not available. This seafood poses a moderate environmental risk.
• AVOIDTake a pass on this red rated seafood for now because it poses a high risk to the environment. They’re overfished, lack strong management, or are caught or farmed in ways that harm other marine life or the environment

They also have a super green list of seafood no-brainers. The database includes almost all edible fish with ratings for each one. Here is a link to their website: Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch.

Bottom Line

Traditional cuisines, which include many types of foods and that have not been westernized are all healthy and decrease your risk of heart disease compared to the standard American Diet.

Whether you are a vegan, vegetarian or include meat in your diet, the sources of your food have the most to do with how healthy what you eat is for you and for the planet.

The current level of meat that western countries eat is not sustainable for the planet. Meat should not be the main part of your diet. If you are a meat eater you should eat grass fed beef and lamb, pastured chicken and eggs, pastured pork and sustainable fish – wild caught or farmed responsibly.

CAFO’s are cruel to animals and harmful to the environment. We should not include meat or fish from them in our food budgets. Meat from pasture raised animals costs substantially more than meat from CAFO’s. Since we should be eating less meat anyway the extra cost should be sustainable for most people.