Yes! Eat Meat

The studies and other research about the benefits of not eating meat or the benefits of eating meat will most likely never cease. And for those who raise livestock, the battle to promote these products will always be there.

I’ve never been too concerned about meatless diets out there. That is the people’s choice, but we do need to be concerned about the false and misleading statements that people and some companies are making to promote the meatless way of life and make money.

Thank God we have our beef and lamb checkoffs to help get the true message out to the public – a public today that is very gullible. Many believe everything they see and read in social media and other information avenues. We have to support the good news and battle the misinformation.

There are some new meatless products out there hitting the grocery shelves, even in Wyoming, from a company in, believe it or not, California. The company, Beyond Meat, is a privately held company that makes single-serve meals of burgers and chicken using plant-based products. They are working with another company, Chef’s, where people can order these single-serve meals over the internet. As you can see, these meals will appeal to many, especially the millennials. I can see where it fits right in with some lifestyles. So here is a company making and selling a product to replace beef and chicken, but I imagine the main goal is to just make money, and they are using all the misinformation out there to promote these products.

Two new studies have surfaced lately about not eating meat. One was from the University of Graz in Austria, and it found that vegetarians are unhealthier and more mentally disturbed than meat eaters.

The study states that vegetarians are more often ill and have a lower quality of life than meat eaters. It also states that vegetarians are more likely to have heart attacks, some types of cancer and psychological disorders than those who eat meat.

In the study, they evaluated findings from the Austrian Health Interview Survey and the European Health Interview Survey evaluating some 1,320 people divided into four groups: vegetarians, big meat eaters, little meat eaters and meat eaters who included lots of fruits and vegetables in their diets.

Another study that just came out, the Netherlands Cohort Study by the Meat Investigation Cohort, which is an analytical cohort of 11,082 individuals including 1,133 self-reported vegetarians, aged 55 to 69 years at baseline. At baseline in 1986, subjects completed a questionnaire on dietary habits and other risk factors for cancer and were classified into vegetarians, pescetarian, those who ate meat once a week, those who ate meat two to five days per week and those who ate meat six to seven days per week.

The results showed, after 20.3 years of follow up, 279 lung, 312 postmenopausal breast and 399 prostate cancer cases, including 136 advanced, were available for analysis. After adjustment for confounding variables, they found no statistically significant association between meat consumption groups and the risk of lung cancer, and no significant associations were observed for postmenopausal breast and overall prostate cancer, while vegetarians and those who ate meat up to once a week did not have a reduced risk for the same types of cancer. They also had reported a non-significantly reduced risk of vegetarian and low meat diets on colorectal and especially rectal cancer.

That’s a lot to think about, but meat came out a winner.