| At the time I was a relatively new vegetarian. I'd read Fast Food Nation a few months before. But I wasn't much of a foodie. At night, after working a 14 hour shift in the ICU, coworkers and I would go out to eat in Waikiki. The vegetarian options were minimal. This was vacation! Who wants to eat vegetables? The American diet, I realized, is a cult of meat. (While other tourist destinations like San Francisco or even San Diego feature plenty of vegetarian food, Waikiki seemed to be a few decades behind the rest of the U.S., kind of like some of the older casinos in Vegas that boast of all-you-can-eat steak buffets.)
That was the first time I noticed how much Americans define their meal by the meat. As a meat eater it never occurred to me, but now I watched as people ordered "the chicken" or "the lamb" - no matter what else was on the plate along with the meat (although often it was very little besides the meat), the entire meal was defined as whatever meat came with it. I realized for the first time the lack of balance in the American diet. While I, as a vegetarian, tried to eat from each of the various food groups, my co-workers thought nothing of ordering a plate full of meat.
Back in the ICU, I saw a nurse printing out a 4-page "Healthy Heart Diet" handout to give to a patient being discharged. I asked for a copy. I can't remember exactly what it said but I can tell you, if you were trying to follow such a diet, you'd starve in Waikiki. The basic gist of the diet was Michael Pollan's "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." Real food, that is. You could hardly even follow such a diet in the hospital cafeteria! How did they expect their cardiac patients to get back out into the real world and continue to follow such a diet?
There are a few reasons why I bring this story up today. One is something a friend said to me yesterday, the other is a book I'm reading (The China Study by T. Colin Campbell). Yesterday I went for a nice long hike, slightly longer than the usual 3 miles I like to do. I came home and a friend told me he worried about me eating just vegetables. I needed some protein. I told him what I'd eaten - oatmeal, coffee with milk, an orange, a few pieces of whole wheat toast with homemade strawberry jam, and half a cantaloupe. He freaked out, begging me to eat something. PLEASE, he said, eat some protein! I told him I'd eat when I was hungry, as I had eaten quite a bit after the hike and I was still feeling pretty full.
I've talked to this same friend about reducing meat consumption when he's asked me how he could lose weight and reduce his carbon footprint. He replied that he's a big guy and needs his protein. He thinks he can't get it without meat. I commented that gorillas are pretty big and they are vegetarians.
What The China Study makes clear is that our attitudes about protein are very much assumed. They are not necessarily founded in science. For millennia, meat was a luxury in the human diet. When you produce it sustainably, it still is quite a luxury. And as such, we assumed it must be good for us. It probably makes sense that somebody who has enough money to eat meat is also somebody who has enough money to eat period, and they will not suffer from diseases of poverty and malnutrition like those who historically did not have the money to afford meat.
And then there's the manliness aspect. Remember those Foster's commercials where they show a steak with a garnish of parsley and they say that it's Australian for "salad"? Plus, traditionally, some cultures have the idea that if you eat the meat of a strong animal, you will gain that animal's strength. The China Study quotes a "satirical" passage that mockingly describes vegetarian men as weak and even castrated!
In China, where The China Study was obviously done, meat is also considered a luxury. Naturally, as the Chinese become more affluent, they are eating more meat. It was a landmark in China when they achieved a higher population of pigs (the most popular meat) than people. Those who can't afford meat eat vegetables and rice. Rice is considered a food to fill empty tummies when you can't afford better food (vegetables, fruit, nuts, meat). If you are ever lucky enough to score an invitation to a Chinese banquets (one of the best culinary experiences in the world), you won't see a single grain of rice. There will be some vegetables, and an awful lot of meat from every species of animal the Chinese could figure out how to cook. That is because your hosts want to honor you by serving the most expensive foods, not something cheap like rice.
As noted in The China Study, the Chinese get a lot more physical exercise than the average American. When I visited, my Chinese friends (college students in Beijing) got around by bike and, sometimes, by bus. It was only us lazy foreigners taking cabs all over the city. Also, what is not mentioned in the book, is that dairy is not traditional in China. Now the Chinese government (which seems to be stupidly looking to America for nutrition advice) is advocating that the Chinese drink milk, but if it's catching on at all, it's catching on slowly.
The decades of research done by The China Study author, T. Colin Campbell, points to reducing animal product consumption (including eggs and dairy) as a means of reducing risk of cancer and heart disease. He does not necessarily call for veganism, but makes it clear that the standard American diet is a recipe for certain death due to the same preventable illnesses I saw in the cardiac ICU. Granted, all people will die of something, sometime, but if I can preserve my health and stave off heart disease and cancer by healthier eating, I'll gladly do it.
It seems to me that, while the exact findings of The China Study may not be absolute truths (nor does the author claim they are), a reduction in consuming animal products is necessary if we want to reduce heart disease and several kinds of cancers and reduce our carbon footprint at the same time. But in order to do that, I think we need to bust the myths about the necessity of consuming meat and the manliness of doing so. |
