All About Meat

Based on last week's blog and other stuff I am interested in I thought I would make my blog about food and nutrition.  I haven't really decided how exactly I will blog about it - bullet points?, recipes?, surprising facts?, most likely some of each.  This week I think I will provide some interesting and surprising facts about meat.

• People in the United States eat about 1/2 (0.5) of a pound of meat a day (8 ounces). In Africa people eat 1/16 (0.0625) of a pound of meat a day (1 ounce).  In certain quantities meat is healthy, however in the quantities that many Americans eat it in is dangerous to the body.  Red meat can lead to heart problems and diabetes, and animal products in general are really high in sodium - which is important to help regulate water but too much of can cause a high blood pressure.
• The global production of pigs and poultry has quadrupled since 1980.  The number of cows, sheep, and goats has doubled. 
• 70% of the world's farmland is used for livestock production.
• The conditions in which major suppliers of meat produce raise the animals are so unsanitary that it is likely the meat is contaminated with disease or waste in some way.  The animals are so packed in that the animals' feces can get on the animals and wind up in the meat that is bought at the store.  Cases of meat with E. coli or salmonella have resulted in deaths.
• The raising of these immense numbers of livestock contributes to climate change.  Livestock creates around 18% of the planet's green house gas emissions.  From the processing, packaging, transportation, to cow gas, it all contributes to green house gases and global warming.

I'm not saying that everyone should become a vegetarian or a vegan and I like a hamburger as much as the next person, I'm just saying that the amount of meat people that most people in the United States (as well as some people in other countries) is really harmful to people's health.  I just think that we need to scale back on what we are eating and how much of it we are eating.

 

 A meat processing plant

 

Chickens being raised for slaughter

 

 Information from Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating (by Mark Bittman), BBC News, The New York Times, and Time Magazine

Image Sources: Meat processing plant
                        Chickens
                        Another picture to consider looking at, I find it a little bit gross though