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An age old question for dieticians is whether meat is essential to live a healthy life.
The simple answer is… yes. But the more complex answer is… also yes (especially if you are watching your calorie intake).
Warning: This blog contains [SPOILERS] on how to prolong a healthy life, possibly saving years of trial and error. If these facts trigger you, please look away.
If you’ve watched Breaking Bad (2008-2013), then you might remember a “happier” flashback scene where Walter White and another scientist inventory the chemistry that makes up the human body.
But, of course, we don’t just see the H,O,C, and N atoms (+ the trace elements) freely floating within our bodies. So what do they make up?
Without going too far down the rabbit hole, here is an approximate breakdown of the human body:
And so on for other internal organs, connective tissues, adipose tissues, etc.
Of these many different moving parts, our body is continuously trying to metabolize (break down) what we eat and synthesize (combine to make) other molecules we need.
The reason we say meat is essential for a healthy diet is because almost none of us (almost… not including David Goggins) are able to track our exact intake.
Our bodies rely on easy, conventional diets that help facilitate the various processes it is constantly undergoing.
Meats are nutrient-dense sources that provide rich vitamin contents, essential minerals, and other such elements.
Where we get 25-30g of protein (with a complete set of amino acids) in 100g of beef, chicken, and salmon, we only get 8-10g of protein in tofu and cooked lentils.
Almonds provide 18-20g of protein per 100g consumed, but they are not a complete protein source. They have negligible amounts of Lysine, Methionine, Threonine, and Tryptophan (which the human body cannot synthesize on its own).
Vitamin B12 (cobalamin), which is essential for multiple different processes ranging from red blood cell formation to energy metabolism, is found in negligible doses within a vegetarian diet.
Although Vitamin B12 can be synthesized within the body by gut bacteria (not by the human body, itself), it is not sufficient to meet the body’s needs.
As for iron, animal meats provide sources of Heme Iron. This is the iron that our bodies use to create hemoglobin (blood) and myoglobin (muscles). Heme Iron is readily absorbed in much higher concentrations than regular “free-floating” iron.
Iron from vegetarian diets are not bound to heme groups. These iron molecules are subject to influence by pH levels and other dietary components (such as phytates found in grains and legumes, tannins found in teas and coffees, enhancers like Vitamin C, and calcium), making it much harder (and longer) for our bodies to synthesize a usable form.
Where heme iron has a bioavailability (amount absorbed and used) close to 35%, non-heme iron only has an approximate bioavailability of 2-8%.
Which means that of every 1mg of iron ingested, only 0.02-0.08mg of iron are actually absorbed and used by the body. This can be compared to the 0.30-0.35mg of Heme Iron.
Although this is a widely debated topic of whether meat is essential to the human diet or not, the general consensus is that the human body requires efficiency.
Even if you live a healthy lifestyle, burning 1000+ excess calories, and are taking supplements for the vitamins and minerals that are essential for a healthy, functioning lifestyle that are not found in a regular vegetarian diet, incorporating meats into your diet can help increase metabolism-and-synthesis efficiency within our bodies.
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