Why we should not eat meat

If you are someone who likes to enjoy a juicy steak, there is a long list of reasons why you should not according to a new research.

Although meat can be an important source of protein and nutrition, it also has a disadvantage, far more than the obvious increased risk of certain types of diseases such as colorectal cancer – and it is a worldwide problem major.

There are scientific reasons why meat is bad for our climate, our environment, our agriculture, our behavior, our ethics and even the use of antibiotics.

But the researchers say that people "do not know the scope and severity of the environmental impacts of meat", especially compared to other eating habits.

They also found that environmental sustainability is not a motivation to encourage people to stop eating meat because they are more concerned about their money and their health.

"Consumption of meat, at least when viewed from a global perspective, is one of the most environmentally damaging daily behaviors humans can have," he said. the researcher Garrett Lentz of the University of Otago.

"This is due to the wide range and severity of impacts related to animal husbandry, including land and water degradation, loss of habitat and biodiversity, pollution, oceanic dead zones and climate change.

"No matter the factor of change, whether for environmental sustainability, improving public health or animal welfare, reduced meat consumption would feed more people with fewer resources . associated environmental impacts that are seen today. "

Eating processed meat is associated with a higher risk of colorectal cancer, and processed and red meat can also increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

The new review, published in Science showed that switching from a meat-rich diet to a more plant-based diet could reduce global mortality rates by 6 to 10%.

Oxford University researchers stated that even though confounding factors such as smoking and obesity were delicate, large-scale studies of Western countries had linked between high consumption of red and processed meat.

They describe how meat production has resulted in more greenhouse gas emissions per unit energy compared to plant – based foods.

While changing the meat-eating behavior of people was difficult, the researchers said that some options had shown success.

An example was private sector or non-governmental organization-certified certification programs that provided reliable evidence on social or environmental standards.

They said that measures such as Denmark's to raise taxes on meat were also promising.

The World Cancer Research Fund recommended that people who ate red meat have less than 500g per week, while the Global Burden of Disease project suggested that people consume no more than 100g per week.