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Meaty meals are a staple of an American diet. And now, with the push for more, better quality food, there’s also a push for more, better quality meat.
Of course, this can’t possibly last forever, and there’s no way it’s good for us. We already know that. But a new study looks to explore exactly how bad it can really get.
A new paper, titled “The Sustainability Challenges of Our Meat And Dairy Diets,” has now been published to address all the problems that eating meat causes in our day-to-day lives, and how it will affect our future.
Right now, as Americans, and humans, get wealthier, they’re buying more meat, not less. This is already bad news for us, as research has shown that diets rich in protein can almost quadruple your cancer risk. No matter the quality of the animal protein, our bodies aren’t equipped to handle the amount of it that the average American eats every year (270 pounds!).
But this new paper argues that it’s not just bad for our health, it’s bad for our environment. And not just the earth’s environment, but the one that we live in every day: our economy, the people around us, our climate.
The livestock industry is one of the biggest drainers of freshwater of any industry in America, just to name one world-changing factor.
So what should you do about it? The authors of the paper want to turn a diet lower in meat proteins into the new anti-smoking campaign. It’s a long journey, they say, but it will be worth it for the health of the planet and ourselves. And as many countries have already shifted their focus towards plant-based diets, they hope that America will follow suit.
As for you, you don’t have to cut meat out entirely, of course. Creating a vegetarian population can't happen overnight. But cutting back slightly, such as taking the animal protein out of one of your meals every day (be sure to replace it with plant-based protein!), can be a great help to yourself and your environment.
Would you cut back on your meat intake to help yourself and the environment?
Photo Copyright © 2013 Robert Couse-Baker/Flickr
