The Demonization of Meat: Fact or Fiction?

The DANGERS of Meat are obvious…

But maybe they are not the most dangerous food out there!!!

Sugar… sweet, sumptuous…. deadly?

Sugar… sweet, sumptuous…. deadly?

            This is the story of two men… the two men each worked hard, both worked together at the same company, in the same town, and both had wonderful homes in which their beautiful families lived.  These men, their wives, their children… their families were all friendly with one another.

            Despite all of the similarities, there was one major difference that would come to pass…

            Despite both men exercising, being non-smokers, and both regularly attending doctor visits, one of these men died at the aged of 42 due to an unexpected heart attack, and one was still going strong well into his eighties, and he has gone on to do great things in his life after he finished mourning the loss of his friend.

            The difference?  One of them was a heavy meat eater, and once was not.

            Of course, this led to a number of studies, studies that went on and concurred that the man who died faced a heart attack because of a combination of different factors:

·       High cholesterol…

·       Increased blood lipid levels…

·       Elevated blood pressure…

·       Inflammation of the heart muscle…

·       An overstimulated liver…

·       And there were other secondary and tertiary factors that were considered…

            Of course, the people that knew him well were surprised.  Comments began to come out from family members, friends, neighbors, and coworkers that expressed surprise at this.

            Afterall, this man was NOT a heavy meat eater… in fact, he went out of his way to ensure that the majority of his diet came from healthy carbohydrates, from fruits and vegetables, and yes, the occasional piece of fish or lean white meat chicken or turkey.

            A neighborhood in tears simply began to understand that this must have been related to poor genetics… a poor throw of the dice that could happen to anyone…

            And for years, even decades, the world has regarded this as fact; if you do not eat a lot of meat, then you are going to experience a long life because you have a massively reduced risk of any heart issues.

            While this has the potential to be true… what aren’t they telling you?

            That is, why is this man’s friend, who is in his 80’s, still going strong while his friend passed on unexpectedly?

            Do we want to believe that this is simply due to “bad luck” and there is nothing that this man could have done to prevent this issue?

            Do we simply “buy in” to the ideas put forth by the medical community?

            The answer to this, as a general population, is YES

            But now ask yourself one question…

Why do we accept this as Gospel?

            OK, maybe referring to the idea of a low fat, low cholesterol, high carb diet as “gospel” is not appropriate, but if you think about it, most of us listen to this advice in the same manner that we would follow religious text.

            Let’s step away from our two dear friends and their families, just for a moment or so…

            Now, we all know that there was a heart attack case that occurred that caused the medical community to determine that saturated fat, cholesterol, blood lipids, and all that jazz were solely responsible for the increasing number of heart attacks that were occurring.

            WHAT IF we told you that the medical community had to seek funding for this study?

            It’s true… most medical professionals do not conduct a study without some type of financial backing.  Simply put, they cannot afford to run these on their own!

            Bearing that point in mind… WHAT IF…

            We told you that it was not an unbiased party that funded this study?

            AND WHAT IF we told you that this study has a reason to want to demonize meat, butchering, and all things not related to its own product?

            What if the terrifying truth was that this study was funded by one entity, one business, and one cash crop that was rapidly growing and trying to expand its reach at this time?

            If you have not guessed it, this study was funded by the sugar industry!

            YES, “big sugar” worked hard to promote the fact that meat was a bad option for people, and the idea was that this would force people to eat more foods that required higher amounts of sugar.

            If you think about it, it is brilliant.  And it is so because:

·       Sugar has less calories per gram than fat (meaning you need to eat more of it!)

·       Sugar spikes your glycemic index, meaning you are not satisfied as fast as if you were eating natural fats and proteins

·       Sugar is cheaper per pound than meat… and this study was done during a time when every penny mattered (literally!)

            Overall, the idea was simple; “big sugar” was going to convince people that they could get foods that they enjoyed as much as meat (if not more), and they could do is cheaper, and healthier, and you would feel “lighter” afterwards (a result of the “high” you get from overconsumption of simple carbohydrates!).

            For a long time this worked… no one questioned the medical community, and as a result of increasing our sugar intake we kept getting heavier…

            We kept getting sicker…

            And the instances of heart attacks INCREASED!

            If we go back and look at the study that occurred with our dear friends and their families… something very interesting happened.

            The doctors were given permission by the family to study the man and how this could have happened.  After all, they were good people…

            If this was preventable, they wanted to help others avoid this fate!

            What they learned was shocking, because our friend who died at 42 was not a heavy meat eater…

            And by and large he did eat healthy.

            However, what no one saw at home, in the neighborhood, or within his circle of friends was his diet at the office.

            No one saw his six pack of Coke per day, or his regular visits to the vending machine for a chocolate bar….

            …or the bag of hard candies he kept in his desk (that was replaced multiple times per week)…

            …and no one knew how often he would sneak doughnuts left over from morning meetings.

            Sure… these foods had fats in them in most cases… but they all had a major thing in common, and that was one key thing:

SUGAR

            Our meat-eating friend lasted well into his 80’s eating a heavy meat diet, but watching his sugar intake… while his friend passed away because of the opposite eating plan.

            What do we learn from this?  Well, that should be simple…

            His friend lived by eating the healthy, natural diet that has been around for literally eons, while he subjected himself to the fallacy presented in “science” paid for that was meant to encourage one thing:

To force us to eat an unnatural diet!

            Meat was demonized by sugar in the 20th Century because the sugar wanted to have a larger piece of profit… and just now we are beginning to realize that meat, fat, cholesterol, and lipids are not the enemy in and of themselves…

            But when they are combined with other types of unnatural consumption, that is where the problems come in.

            If our dear friend in our story was educated, if we as a population were more educated, and we were educated properly, the instances of heat attacks would decrease… and so would other heart-related conditions.

            Understanding what is natural and normal is how we have become human, and it is how we live longer lives as humans.

            Now… this is not saying to give up all sugar, or to give up vegetables, or to given up healthy grains…

            Far from it…

            Use these items, eat a balanced diet, but do not fault meat for the damage caused by processed, refined, and bleached sugars… and live into your 80s as a happy, healthy, and well fed man (or woman).