Abstaining from meat all-year round may be a great idea for the planet and our health
As Holy Week draws nearer, millions of Catholic Filipinos, and hundreds of millions more across the world, are about to observe their most sacred of days with deep spiritual reflection, and abstinence from eating animal products, or meat.
For many environmentalists, the foregoing of meat by the Catholic faithful is a welcome respite for what they see as a beleaguered Earth reeling from the adverse environmental effects of a massive livestock industry. For health experts, meat and its other byproducts such as dairy, could symbolize a heavy “cross” that human health has to bear.
Here are five reasons that show abstaining from meat 24/7, 365 may actually be a great idea for the planet and our health:
- Environmental costs, including climate change. A staggering 45 percent of the Earth’s land area and more than 70 percent of the Amazon forest have been cleared for raising livestock and growing crops to feed them. More than half of the annual worldwide manmade greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs, the necessary ingredient for climate change) are attributable to the billions upon billions of cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, camels, pigs and poultry and their processing.
Worldwide meat production (beef, poultry, pork and other animals) emits more atmospheric greenhouse gases than do all forms of global transportation or industrial processes. This study was published in the February 2009 issue of the Scientific American by Nathan Fiala, a doctoral candidate in economics at the University of California, Irvine.
- Minimizing the risk of a heart attack. A study in Finland showed that a reduction in animal fat intake (including butter) and smoking, and the increase in vegetables and fruits in the diet showed a health boom in Finland.
The World Health Organization website cited that early 1970s Finland had the greatest cardiovascular diseases mortality rate in the world. A comprehensive community-based intervention involving health services, NGOs, industry, media and public policy was mobilized. After the initial period (1972-77), the project experiences have been actively used for a comprehensive national heart health program.
- Plants are good protein sources. The Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) of the Department of Science and Technology said the consumption of beans and nuts in any form may be a cheaper but good substitute for the expensive protein sources of meat, fish, poultry and eggs.
FNRI cited specific protein sources: tofu (tokwa), kadyos (a kind of pea), unripe jackfruit (langka), taho, soymilk, soy sauce, mungbean or munggo like buchi, hopia munggo, turon munggo and ginataang munggo, saute mungbean sprouts or togue as viand or as lumpia for snack, kidney beans, chick pea or garbanzos, and fried peanuts.
- Breast cancer risk reduced. Scientist Jane A. Plant, PhD, author of the book “The No-Dairy Breast Cancer Prevention Program,” said: “Undoubtedly, the best anticancer diet would be completely vegan (a diet that foregoes animal protein entirely: no poultry, beef, pork, seafood, egg, cow’s milk, butter, margarine or cheese). I was living on a completely vegan diet at the time my cancer disappeared and for about eight months afterward. If you can become a vegan, so much the better, but you must ensure that you don’t become deficient in essential nutrients such as zinc and selenium and vitamins such as D and B12.”
- Improved taste of vegan food. There are more delectable meat substitutes now than ever, such as banana bud/blossom (puso ng saging), shiitake mushrooms, potato (to make potato balls), unripe jackfruit (langka) to cook with coconut milk, and so on. Check vegan recipes, vegan support groups and directories like www.happycow.net (a list of vegan restaurants and cafes all over the world, including the Philippines).
