It Does What?! 10 Reasons Eating Meat is Bad

Do you know the real impact eating meat does to your health and the environment? Maybe if you knew the true damage, you would make some small changes to help our planet

Read this blog to learn more about the damage of the meat industry and how it is not only bad for the environment, but also bad for your health. Please share and comment your thoughts, thank you!

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1. Increases greenhouse emissions

Almost one quarter of global emissions are caused by the meat industry and the use of land for food purposes. 

Livestock produce CO2 and methane. Methane is up to 34 times more damaging to the environment than CO2 and meat such as beef produces the most greenhouse gas emissions, however its not just red meet that is the problem.

2. Intensive farming factories

It's not just the emissions that are damaging the environment it is the intensive factories and farms that are used for production. The meat companies such as JBS, produce half the carbon emissions fossil fuel giants do. The meat industry need masses of land to maintain itself and this is causing deforestation. Industrial meat uses over a quarter of the world's land for farm factories or to grow animal food. If we switched to a plant-based diet, we would need 75% less farmland than we use today. This shows how inefficient and wasteful the meat industry is, we could save so much land, forests, energy and emissions without intensive meat farming.

Animals are squashed into small spaces like the photos above. 95% of chickens are produced in factories like these and 3 million chickens are eaten everyday and that is just in the UK. This isn't sustainable and it is cruel. Remember how it felt being stuck at home in lockdown? Imagine how distressing it is for these animals living like this.

3. Burning forests

Forest fires are escalating global warming, by releasing tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Not only that, but it kills and injures animals in the process, and destroys their habitats, contributing to extinction. Furthermore, this is putting the Amazon rainforest at risk. The Amazon rainforest produces its own rainfall and sustains itself. The damage to the forest is making it more difficult to maintain itself and this could lead to less rainfall which will affect available drinking water across South America and impact climate patterns across the world.

4. KILLING wildlife

The rapid rate of deforestation is killing wildlife through destruction of habitats, causing thousands of species to become extinct. The use of pesticides to grow animal food is also toxic to wildlife and species are dying before even being discovered. Additionally, we need trees to absorb carbon from the atmosphere and reduce climate change. Without trees we will struggle to fight against the climate crisis. We depend on a healthy environment, we need a healthy bio diversity for our food, clean water and medicines. The meat industry is threatening our existence. Click Here to see the rate of deforestation

5. Innocent DEATHS

Meat production giants such as JBS provide terrible working conditions for their employees. Additionally soya producers and cattle ranchers in Brazil have a history of profiting from modern day slavery. Security forces in Brazil, harassed, detained, and shot members of the community who were fighting to protect the forests and prevent illegal land invasions which often become violent and result in deaths. The release of carbon and smoke from the forest fires are polluting local areas and turning the skies black, even for cities more than 2,700km away.

6. More pandemics?!

Deforestation causes infectious diseases like covid-19. The destruction of habitats bring animals into close contact with humans, increasing the risk of passing on infectious diseases. Factory farms are also increasing the spread of disease as animals are squashed together in small spaces which mean the spread is quicker and their immune systems are weaker which makes them more prone to catching disease. This then consequences in viruses developing rapidly and being passed on to humans, causing pandemics like covid-19.

So how is meat bad for your health?

7. Increases risk of heart disease

Eating meat increases your blood pressure and increases your cholesterol levels. This means there is a higher risk of heart disease or heart attacks when eating lots of meat. It has been widely thought that white meat is a good substitute for red meat however, many studies have shown that consuming BOTH white and red meat, increases cholesterol compared to  non -meat diets. 

8. Higher risk of cancer

Processed meat such as ham, bacon, sausage and red meat such as beef, pork and lamb, are all causes of cancer. This is because there are chemicals found in these meats and some are added during production or created when cooking. These chemicals damage our cells, which cause cancer.

9. Unhealthy source of protein

Meat may have protein, however a diet full of different plants can still give you the vitamins and nutrients you need. Many studies have shown that using plants as a source of protein is more healthier than using meat as your source. This is because plants provide more nutrients for less calories and meat has saturated fats. There are many sources of protein from plants such as:

• Beans
• Nuts
• Soybean products such as tofu and edamame
• Quinoa
• Wheat
• Wild rice
• Chia and hemp seeds
• Legumes
• Nutritional yeast
• Ezekiel bread
• Buckwheat
• Spirulina

10. Lower energy levels

Meat has more calories than vegetables and has higher levels of cholesterol meaning it takes more energy to break it down, using up more energy. Vegetables and fruit are a bigger source of energy.

The evidence for the damage meat does to your health and the environment is overwhelming however, I know meat isn't so easily dropped by many of you. BUT there are studies that have found even reducing your meat intake can help. So if you try two days a week vegetarian, you can still make an impact, and maybe overtime you can increase it and you'll realise it isn't as hard and scary as you think. Small changes from everyone can make a huge impact on our world, lets work together to save our dying planet.

Still not convinced? Or want to learn more about the impacts of meat? Check out my blog, for my recommended eco films and documentaries, to learn more about meat diets and the meat industry.

Thanks for reading, please share this to friends and family, and let me know your thoughts in the comments!

Sources:

BBC 

Greenpeace

Greenpeace

Cancer Research

Harvard Health

Popular Science

Health Line