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Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet

nature.com

411–420 of 577 posts

Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet

#411
post #392

Would any vegans like to comment on how to address the lack of vitamin B12 and EPA/DHA in diets that have no animal products? Biggest issue for me, imo.

You supplement it and add it to other processed foods (like plant based milk). The B12 is only in meat because it is fed to the animal already. You just have to adjust the process. The days of natural B12 occurance in meat are long gone bacause of the almost "sterile" way cattle is kept today.

Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet

#412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eating less meat is not veganism. It's not even vegetarianism. It's not the first time that I'm seeing reactions about this report to focus on veganism. I don't understand where it comes from: the word "vegan" is absent from the article and the IPCC report doesn't recommend a any diet. I understand debate about this report and the impact of agriculture and breeding, but I don't understand why the debate is centered a…

Indeed. It is not an all or nothing kind of thing. I've been eating less meat lately for a number of reasons, but I'm far from being vegan. The Skeptical Science link doesn't seem to touch on water usage, only focusing on greenhouse gas emissions. Groundwater decline and depletion is another factor that should be kept in mind as people consider their food choices.

unfortunately, many vegans DO make it seem like an all or nothing issue. The amount of people I know who hate on Reducetarianism is infuriating and incredibly "anti-vegan" to use their own language.

Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet

#413
Increasing grains, sugars, fruits, and starchy vegetables will increase diabetes, cancer, depression, a host of other maladies. This will increase healthcare spending.

Meat and, more accurately, the animal fats that come with them, appear to be the healthiest calories we can eat. Medical practices are seeing reversal of diabetes, drastic weight loss, more energy, less depression, and cognitive benefits from healthy high fat diets (NOT seed or veggie oils). The near-constant elevation of insulin from our standard diet is doing us great harm.

Please spend five minutes reading through this Twitter account for this perspective: https://twitter.com/drjasonfung

Hyperinsulinemia info: https://twitter.com/KenDBerryMD

Other feeds that deal with depression, fasting, healthy fat diets:

https://twitter.com/bigfatsurprise https://twitter.com/foundmyfitness https://twitter.com/MikhailaAleksis https://twitter.com/lowcarbGP

Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet

#414

From https://skepticalscience.com/animal-agriculture-meat-global-... "Animal agriculture is responsible for 13–18% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions globally, and less in developed countries (e.g. 3% in the USA). Fossil fuel combustion for energy and transportation is responsible for approximately 64% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions globally, and more in developed countries (e.g. 80% in the USA)." I t…

I would also be curious to find (I can't find any stats) on how much carbon is put back into circulation when people metabolize hydrated carbon a.k.a. carbohydrates. I've done my part to stop consuming carbohydrates and it was not easy.

Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet

#415

At least in the USA, this could in principle be fixed by ending the corporate welfare state. Old news, but All major industries like the beef industry get huge tax breaks, free water and other giveaways at the general taxpayer’s expense. Fixing the corruption (both democratic and republican parties) in our our political would end up helping the environment a lot. That said, we have zero chance of fixing our corrupt p…

> I have mixed feelings about Beyond Meat: my wife and I love the hot Italian sausage and burgers, but it is really not that healthy. I totally get this, and have similar feelings. But I try to remind my self what Beyond Meat and Impossible Burger are competing with: meat. They have similar saturated fat profiles to their "real" alternatives. I look at these meat alternatives as mostly beneficial for: 1. Meat eaters…

Why do you guys think saturated fat is bad for you? Certainly when fried it's much much healthier as it doesn't decompose into cancerous aldehydes. The science on this is very tainted so I would be very careful about assumptions here. Are there other things apart from saturated fat you are worried about?

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3t902pqt3C7nGN99hV...

Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet

#416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This post demonstrates the success of marketing "protein is meat". Such that when someone mentions reducing meat consumption, someone else thinks they are referring to a low-to-no protein diet.

Protein in terms of protein / calorie ratio of food tilts protein sources to meat and dairy. Easy way to compare foods and meals is to compare grams protein per 100cal of a given item. Things like meat, cottage cheese, yogurt, etc., top the charts. So if you want to maximize for protein consumption without putting on fat mass, you tend to look for meat, dairy, and things derived from them (whey protein isolate).

I think you may be missing the point.

The controversy is about whether humans need gargantuan amounts of protein.

Your post is assuming protein is very important, and thus it’s important to maximize protein per calorie.

The post you’re responding to is discussing the fact that any time vegetarian or vegan diets come up, people launch into criticisms that are based on the assumption that humans needs lots more protein than occurs in vegetables.

Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet

#417

At least in the USA, this could in principle be fixed by ending the corporate welfare state. Old news, but All major industries like the beef industry get huge tax breaks, free water and other giveaways at the general taxpayer’s expense. Fixing the corruption (both democratic and republican parties) in our our political would end up helping the environment a lot. That said, we have zero chance of fixing our corrupt p…

Corporate welfare is one thing. I'd also like to direct readers to this thread from yesterday: https://twitter.com/unabanned/status/1159272783676891136 - which persuasively argues (with multiple sources) that the US meat industry depends upon massive labor exploitation of undocumented immigrants in order to 1) suppress wages and 2) maintain an otherwise intolerable working environment. This shows that the problem is…

It's also true for the agricultural industry in the US in general though.

Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet

#418

From https://skepticalscience.com/animal-agriculture-meat-global-... "Animal agriculture is responsible for 13–18% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions globally, and less in developed countries (e.g. 3% in the USA). Fossil fuel combustion for energy and transportation is responsible for approximately 64% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions globally, and more in developed countries (e.g. 80% in the USA)." I t…

With those statistics, it's funny. The solution is buses and green energy, but those cost money.

Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet

#419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This If you really want to have an impact while still eating meat, just stop eating beef/lamb altogether The amount of food and water needed to produce 1kg of beef meat is just insane Eat poultry or fish instead https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_conversion_ratio >Cattle is the worst at something like 15:1. Aquaculture, specifically tilapia and catfish, is good at under 2:1

As already mentioned in another discussion, the ratio they use for farmed fish is " where the first number is the mass of harvested fish used to feed farmed fish, and the second number is the mass of the resulting farmed fish ". Which makes it much less positive than it first appears.

> makes it much less positive than it first appears.

Take in mind that fish food for aquaculture has a small percentage of plant proteins and oils also. Is unclear if this was included or not in the claimed FIFO ratio, so some of this fish could be really soy (or maybe not). Reality is always more complex than a single numerical value.

Re: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet

#420

At least in the USA, this could in principle be fixed by ending the corporate welfare state. Old news, but All major industries like the beef industry get huge tax breaks, free water and other giveaways at the general taxpayer’s expense. Fixing the corruption (both democratic and republican parties) in our our political would end up helping the environment a lot. That said, we have zero chance of fixing our corrupt p…

Corporate welfare is one thing. I'd also like to direct readers to this thread from yesterday: https://twitter.com/unabanned/status/1159272783676891136 - which persuasively argues (with multiple sources) that the US meat industry depends upon massive labor exploitation of undocumented immigrants in order to 1) suppress wages and 2) maintain an otherwise intolerable working environment. This shows that the problem is…

What will happen to veggie prices when we go to a $15 min wage? Do other farms not benefit from illegal labor?
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