Vegetarian article reflects meat biases

In The Daily Free Press’ Science Tuesday section, I usually see some interesting article about the world of science, medicine, and technology.

However, I came across an article (“What’s the beef with meat?” March 27) that was such a poorly researched and biased article that it made me laugh.

The real enemy in heart disease and high cholesterol is the simple carbohydrate, not the fat contained in meats. In the early 1900s, cardiovascular disease and cancer were virtually unheard of. If meat is the cause of the high cholesterol and the demise of our hearts, then why were our hearts so much healthier back then when we ate the same amounts of meat?

I’m glad I asked. At the turn of the last century, the average consumption of sugar was only five pounds per person per year. Today, the average American consumes over 130 pounds per year. Refined sugars lack vitamins and minerals, so in order to be metabolized, they draw upon the nutrients stored in your body. When these stores are depleted, the metabolism of fatty acids and cholesterol are impeded, contributing to higher cholesterol and fat storage. This increased fat storage leads to obesity and a lower metabolic rate that further increases cholesterol levels and feelings of fatigue or lack of energy.

That’s why more and more doctors are putting their patients with cholesterol problems on low-carbohydrate diets. Since the body is not ingesting such a high caloric intake of carbohydrates, the saturated fat in meats is used as energy and not as fatty acids or cholesterol. In effect, LDL, or bad cholesterol, is lowered and HDL, or good cholesterol, is raised quite significantly. Studies have shown since the 1970s that better results are obtained from a low-carb diet than low-fat ones.

Critics often mislead the public and journalists, who further mislead the public, into thinking low-carb diets are unhealthy. They are simply wrong. With my limited space I’ll tell you that there is a ton of more information available online if you are interested. It’s unsettling how we’ve been misled for so long. Sure, many doctors, such as Dr. Esselstyn, still believe in the old myths about meats. They still perform studies that have no real scientific importance. Although, it is true that a strict vegetarian diet is good for your heart, I bet you didn’t realize that the bagel and coffee you had this morning isn’t part of that diet. A strict vegetarian diet means leafy green vegetables and complex carbohydrates, not that box of Girl Scout cookies.

Performing a study comparing a strict vegetarian diet to the “average” American diet simply has no scientific meaning. In the 1930s, tribes in the Arctic and Africa who ate 95 percent meat were studied and found to have perfect heart health. In fact, the earliest studies that associated high cholesterol levels with fat intake were performed on rabbits and mice-both of which are vegetarians! When fed large amounts of fat, these animals had dramatic increases in their cholesterol levels. (Duh!) This effect was then extrapolated to humans, ignoring the fact that for most of human evolution our ancestors ate mostly meat and few carbohydrates.

I’m not telling you to give up sugar and simple carbohydrates. I’m just making you aware that meat is not the culprit, and vegetarianism might not be the answer if you’re looking to eat healthy. Most vegetarians I know dine only on pasta, breads and sugar. If you think this is healthier than eating meat, you’re just fooling yourself. Don’t let yourself be scared away from delicious meat by vegetarian propaganda.

Also, the information about Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease given in the aforementioned article is misleading. This condition has been for a very long time and is not caused by mad cow disease. The human deaths linked to mad cow disease are “Human Variant CJD,” which is different.

Chad Goodrich CAS ’01