Charles Abel • Health
Red meat rumpus rebuffed
HAVE YOUR SAY Share your views on the role of meat/dairy/veggie in the health/ environment/ climate change debate. Email: editor@ thefarmers club.com
Red meat and dairy are taking flak in health and environmental debates. But is it justified? Here Charles Abel reviews some key health issues, and over the page considers ways to better meet consumer demands Prof Alice Stanton of Ireland’s Royal College of Surgeons and Devenish Nutrition
CONTRARY to the findings of last year’s EATLancet investigation into sustainable human diets both red meat and dairy products have a vital role to play. Attention instead needs to turn to balancing the nutrient density of foods with the environmental impact taken to produce them.
The logic was that animal-sourced foods were causing damage to the planet. Eating more plantbased foods was necessary to save the planet. The public went a step further and assumed animal-sourced foods damaged human health too.
So says Alice Stanton, Professor of Cardiovascular Pharmacology at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and also Director of Human Health at Devenish Nutrition.
Health impacts of diet In Lancet’s April 2019 issue Chris Murray, one of the EAT-study authors, reported that nutritional factors were really important, with 15 key factors more important than smoking or disease when assessing human health impacts, measured in DALYs (see panel). That has big implications for human misery, health care costs and death.
EAT-Lancet suggested diets needed to shift from the UK Government’s Eatwell guide, which recommends a diet of one-third plant-based (fruit and veg), one-third cereals and one-third animal-sourced (meat, dairy etc) to twice as much fruit, veg, legumes and nuts and half the amount of animal sourced, with a 90% reduction in red meat consumption.
10 • The Farmers Club Spring 2020
Of the 15 top factors a diet low in grains scored highly, as did a salty diet, and diets deficient in vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and omega 3 fatty acids. Significantly, diets with
