I really enjoy reading Mark Bittman in the New York Times. Recently he has been writing more about food quality and the political and economic environment of food. Earlier, he had a regular column and video blog of great recipes.
He has published many books of recipes including vegetarian and vegan recipes. For the past few years he has been on a "Vegan Before 6" diet where he doesn't eat animal products during the day but is a "flexitarian" for the evening meal. He had great success with this diet, losing 30 pounds and improving his cholesterol levels and his health.
He points out three problems with food from animals:
1. Animal products are not healthy for individuals (saturated fat, toxins, etc.).
2. Animal products are not health for the planet (resource and industrial chemical intensive).
3. There are serious ethical problems with industrial animal farming.
Taking these into consideration, he comes up with a compromise which is to eat vegan during the day but allow himself some animal products in the evening. This reduces the three problems but does not eliminate them. This is a compromise between his health and his guilt.
One should look at his three problems and reach the logical conclusion that it is better for your health and the planet to not eat any animal products. However, he must still crave meat and eggs and cheese and butter since he eats them for his main meal.
Receently the Annals of Internal Medicine published a flawed meta-analysis of nutritional studies and concluded that animal fat can't be shown to lead to heart disease. There are many problems with this meta-analysis which relies on one study from the dairy industry for it's main conclusion and a few errors and omissions which have been pointed out by many people. The analysis actually did show that people who ate more animal fat did suffer greater amounts of heart disease but they determined that this result was "not significant". For some reason, their analysis did not include the recent study of the Mediterranean diet which found improvements in heart health (as well as general health, cancer, etc.) from eating fewer animal products.
However, most news outlets gladly pronounced that it was OK to eat animal fat! Mark Bittman contributed his own take in "Butter is Back". His guilt at eating animal fat is now reduced. In this article, he does reaffirm his commitment to vegetables and to avoiding factory food but still thinks it's just fine to eat dairy and meat that is raised humanely.
We really shouldn't live our lives by "avoiding guilt". Most people are fairly set in their ways and won't change unless they face immediate danger. However, I have seen people in the hospital with severe lung disease continue to smoke as soon as they get off the respirator so I'm not sure that even certain death will change deeply ingrained behavior.
However, one should go back and re-read Mark Bittman's three problems:
1. Animal products are not healthy for individuals (saturated fat, toxins, etc.).
2. Animal products are not health for the planet (resource and industrial chemical intensive).
3. There are serious ethical problems with industrial animal farming.
Follow these to their logical conclusion and adjust your diet accordingly.
He has published many books of recipes including vegetarian and vegan recipes. For the past few years he has been on a "Vegan Before 6" diet where he doesn't eat animal products during the day but is a "flexitarian" for the evening meal. He had great success with this diet, losing 30 pounds and improving his cholesterol levels and his health.
He points out three problems with food from animals:
1. Animal products are not healthy for individuals (saturated fat, toxins, etc.).
2. Animal products are not health for the planet (resource and industrial chemical intensive).
3. There are serious ethical problems with industrial animal farming.
Taking these into consideration, he comes up with a compromise which is to eat vegan during the day but allow himself some animal products in the evening. This reduces the three problems but does not eliminate them. This is a compromise between his health and his guilt.
One should look at his three problems and reach the logical conclusion that it is better for your health and the planet to not eat any animal products. However, he must still crave meat and eggs and cheese and butter since he eats them for his main meal.
Receently the Annals of Internal Medicine published a flawed meta-analysis of nutritional studies and concluded that animal fat can't be shown to lead to heart disease. There are many problems with this meta-analysis which relies on one study from the dairy industry for it's main conclusion and a few errors and omissions which have been pointed out by many people. The analysis actually did show that people who ate more animal fat did suffer greater amounts of heart disease but they determined that this result was "not significant". For some reason, their analysis did not include the recent study of the Mediterranean diet which found improvements in heart health (as well as general health, cancer, etc.) from eating fewer animal products.
However, most news outlets gladly pronounced that it was OK to eat animal fat! Mark Bittman contributed his own take in "Butter is Back". His guilt at eating animal fat is now reduced. In this article, he does reaffirm his commitment to vegetables and to avoiding factory food but still thinks it's just fine to eat dairy and meat that is raised humanely.
We really shouldn't live our lives by "avoiding guilt". Most people are fairly set in their ways and won't change unless they face immediate danger. However, I have seen people in the hospital with severe lung disease continue to smoke as soon as they get off the respirator so I'm not sure that even certain death will change deeply ingrained behavior.
However, one should go back and re-read Mark Bittman's three problems:
1. Animal products are not healthy for individuals (saturated fat, toxins, etc.).
2. Animal products are not health for the planet (resource and industrial chemical intensive).
3. There are serious ethical problems with industrial animal farming.
Follow these to their logical conclusion and adjust your diet accordingly.
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