Q: I’ve heard that eating meat isn’t healthy. What makes it not healthy? How much is safe to eat?
– Sam in San Clemente

A: Avoiding meat is no longer fringy business. With meat linked to everything from heart disease to cancer, many people have taken the plunge and gone vegetarian. Several studies show that meat consumption, with its high amount of saturated fat and cholesterol, is positively correlated with heart disease in both men and women. People who daily eat meat have a 50% higher risk of developing heart disease compared to vegetarians. In fact, disease risk increases as both the length of time and frequency of meat consumption increases. Consequently, people who adopt a vegetarian diet early in life have a lower risk of disease than do people who wait until after age 50 to switch from meat to beans. In all fairness to meat, it may not be the harmful effects of a T-bone steak per se, but the protective effects of other foods in the vegetarian diet that is the real issue. Studies on Seventh Day Adventists, a group with a high percentage of vegetarians and much lower cancer rate than found in the general public, have found that meat was not a significant factor in the development of certain types of cancer. However, these studies did find that people who ate lots of fruits, legumes, and vegetables were at much lower risk for certain cancers, probably because they simply didn’t have as much room in their diets for other fattier foods. To add to the controversy, a published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that a little extra-lean red meat did not increase the risk for developing heart disease in a group of men and women. In addition, since meat is the very best and most absorbable source of iron, premenopausal women, teenage girls, and young children – all of which are at high risk for iron deficiency – might consider including a little meat in their diets. In short, a 3-ounce serving of extra-lean meat (7% fat by weight) a couple times a week is not a problem, but gone are the days of the 16-ounce steak! – Elizabeth Somer

Q: I heard you say on the Today show that people don’t eat wild game. As one who does, and an R.D., I think we should promote more wild game. In Colorado, wild game is still a common food! (Love your book by the way!)
– Anonymous

A: Good to hear that wild game is available and that some people still enjoy the hunting trips! Wild game also is showing up on gourmet restaurant menus and even in some supermarkets. It’s just that it is not readily available to everyone, as is seafood, and turkey and chicken breast. And if purchased, rather than caught, can be expensive. – Elizabeth Somer

Q: The Neanderthin diet advocates eating pemmican. Does drying beef impact it’s suitability for humans?
– Anonymous

A: No. You can’t alter the chemical composition of beef; whether it is roasted, dried, stewed, or deep-fat fried, it still contains saturated fat. For more than 100,000 generations, our ultra-great grandparents, all Homo sapiens, thrived on wild game, which is very lean and very low in saturated fat. Our bodies are essentially cave-dweller bodies in designer jeans. So it makes sense that saturated fat in domesticated meats like beef would be an alien substance to our systems, and why it clogs arteries, causes heart disease, contributes to colon cancer, and much more. Anyone who uses the argument that we evolved on meat therefore steak is OK, hasn’t done their research. Yes, we evolved on meat and seafood, but the meat was nutritionally more similar to nuts than to beef. Today, unless you hunt wild game, your best options are seafood, fish, and skinned breast meat of chicken or turkey. These foods most closely resemble the fat content of wild game and are the types of foods that fuel our bodies, not clog the works. – Elizabeth Somer

Q: I’ve heard that eating meat isn’t good for us. But you recommend in The Origin Diet to eat it. Does meat cause cancer and heart disease?
– Ted from Santa Fe, New Mexico

A: It’s not so much meat, but the type of meat that we are eating that is the problem. Several studies show that consumption of red meat, with its high amount of saturated fat and cholesterol, is positively correlated with heart disease in both men and women. People who daily eat meat have a 50% higher risk of developing heart disease compared to vegetarians. In fact, disease risk increases as both the length of time and frequency of meat consumption increases. Consequently, people who adopt a vegetarian diet early in life have a lower risk of disease than do people who wait until after age 50 to switch from meat to beans. On the other hand, wild game or meats that nutritionally resemble wild game, such as fish, shellfish, and poultry breast, have little saturated fat and, in the case of fish, also contain healthful fats called omega-3 fatty acids. Our bodies evolved over hundreds of thousands of years consuming these types of meats, so it’s no wonder we thrive on omega-3s, and the iron, zinc, B vitamins, and protein in meat, which are very well absorbed. The bottom line: Limit meat consumption and choose only healthful meats (chicken and turkey breast meat, seafood, and wild game) or cooked dried beans and peas. – Elizabeth Somer