Feds may warn people against eating meat
By Maddie Oatman, Mother Jones
Every five years, the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services get together to revise their recommendations about what Americans should eat. These guidelines influence doctors’ health advice, food labels, the ever evolving food pyramid-turned-plate, and what goes into school lunches.
In 2010, a time when more than half of adults were overweight or obese, the agencies recommended things like drinking water instead of sugary beverages, filling half your plate with fruits and veggies, cutting sodium, and just eating less in general.
It’s 2015, so time for some new advice. The guidelines draw on input from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans Committee, which will publish a report sometime this winter. So what are the hottest items under debate this year? Here’s a run-down of what to look for in the upcoming Dietary Guidelines for Americans report:
The meat vs. plants showdown: It probably comes as no surprise that Americans eat a diet lacking in fruits and vegetables and full of too many solid fats. In fact, vegetable consumption was on the decline between 2001 and 2010 even as each of us now eat 202.3 pounds of meat a year; a bit less red meat than a few years ago but more poultry than ever before. In the past, the government has warned against overdoing it with red meat and urged people to chow down on lean meats like chicken and fish instead.
But this year, for the first time, the committee might caution against overconsumption of all kinds of meat — and not just for health reasons, but also because of meat’s environmental footprint. Livestock operations now produce 15 percent of the world’s carbon emissions. Eating fewer animal-based foods “is more health promoting and is associated with a lesser environmental impact,” the committee suggested in its draft report.
Wow! A gov’t agency is actually acknowledging that raising cattle, poultry or pork isn’t sustainable and isn’t good for the planet. Now if we could get subsidies for fruits and vegies that total more than 1% of our public food subsidies dollars (-that now go to meat and grain producers), we may have a chance of not starving ourselves as a nation. Call Congress (202) 224 3121. Ask for anyone – they are all our elected officials. Call the White House (202) 456-1414 Leave a comment.
We need to put our money into what we want to eat- not what we and now the USDA, don’t want us to eat.
The last thing we need is the ever stupid government telling us what to eat.
Glad to hear about this recommendation to people cutting back on their consumption of meat. It’s not good for the health of the population, and it’s not good for the environment.
This advice by the govt. will be ignored by many but maybe a few will change their eating habits thereby helping themselves healthwise and the health of the planet.
My advice? Plant a vegetable garden and grow your own!
Grow locally and shop locally. Old Long String beans
p.s. I still enjoy a good steak every once in awhile or my neighbors smoked pork ribs.mmm good!
What a crock of sh#%#$!!
Two years ago I found out I had diabetes.
After that I more than doubled my meat/protein intake and cut my carbs to less than 100 grams per day. My blood sugar went from 345 to 108. I lost 38 pounds and 70 points off my total cholesterol count. In addition my blood pressure dropped 100 points or more.
Have you ever watched the video on how they make vegetable oil? These people are and have been killing us. The American Heart Association seal of approval is on Co-Co Puffs.
I know everyone’s bodies are different but for me the worst thing I can put in my body is grains/carbs and vegetable oils.
As to global warming stop paying people to have children and leave my meat alone!!!
A good thing to do is get livestock off public lands. Cows and sheep destroy watersheds and range when they are grazed in the concentrations used today. Welfare ranchers who get big tax breaks by destroying public lands need to become extinct. Support family owned farms that use their private property for grazing, not corporate public land grazing. Leave the public lands for wildlife. Better yet. GO VEGAN!
Hard to do, Bats, when the feds “own” 85% of the property in your state. They won’t sell it either, so that ranchers even could own private land.
Are you a vegetarian? Or do you want to pay $10 a pound for hamburger?
In the state I live in, calif, the % of federal land is 47%. In nevada the site I looked at listed 81% of federal land ownership. I dont like to eat beef, not that its any of your business…most of the federal grazing permits in nevada are in the hands of corporations, not individual land owners. Even if there was more access to federal lands for grazing good luck getting the permits away from the big ol corporate welfare (entitlements!) Recipients.