Do we need animal products to be healthy?

We asked you for your (health-related) perspective on plant-based vs anima-based foods, and got the above-pictured spread of answers.

“Some or all of us may need small amounts of animal products” came out on top with more votes than the two more meat-eatery options combined, and the second most popular option was the hard-line “We can all live healthily and happily on just plants”.

Based on these answers, it seems our readership has quite a lot of vegans, vegetarians, and perhaps “flexitarians” who just have a little of animal products here and there.

Perhaps we should have seen this coming; the newsletter is “10almonds”, not “10 rashers of bacon”, after all.

But what does the science say?

We are carnivores and are best eating plenty of meat: True or False?

False. Let’s just rip the band-aid off for this one.

In terms of our anatomy and physiology, we are neither carnivores nor herbivores:

• We have a mid-length digestive tract (unlike carnivores and herbivores who have short and long ones, respectively)
• We have a mouthful of an assortment of teeth; molars and premolars for getting through plants from hard nuts to tough fibrous tubers, and we have incisors for cutting into flesh and (vestigial, but they’re there) canines that really serve us no purpose now but would have been a vicious bite when they were bigger, like some other modern-day primates.
• If we look at our closest living relatives, the other great apes, they are mostly frugivores (fruit-eaters) who supplement their fruity diet with a small quantity of insects and sometimes other small animals—of which they’ll often eat only the fatty organ meat and discard the rest.

And then, there’s the health risks associated with meat. We’ll not linger on this as we’ve talked about it before, but for example:

• Processed Meat Consumption and the Risk of Cancer: A Critical Evaluation of the Constraints of Current Evidence from Epidemiological Studies
• Red Meat Consumption (Heme Iron Intake) and Risk for Diabetes and Comorbidities?
• Health Risks Associated with Meat Consumption: A Review of Epidemiological Studies
• Associations of Processed Meat, Unprocessed Red Meat, Poultry, or Fish Intake With Incident Cardiovascular Disease and All-Cause Mortality
• Meat consumption: Which are the current global risks? A review of recent (2010-2020) evidences

If we avoid processed and/or red meat, that’s good enough: True or False?

True… Ish.

Really this one depends on one’s criteria for “good enough”. The above-linked studies, and plenty more like them, give the following broad picture:

• Red and/or processed meats are unequivocally terrible for the health in general
• Other mammalian meats, such as from pigs, are really not much better
• Poultry, on the other hand, the science is less clear on; the results are mixed, and thus so are the conclusions. The results are often barely statistically significant. In other words, when it comes to poultry, in the matter of health, the general consensus is that you can take it or leave it and will be fine. Some studies have found firmly for or against it, but the consensus is a collective scientific shrug.
• Fish, meanwhile, has almost universally been found to be healthful in moderation. You may have other reasons for wanting to avoid it (ethics, environmentalism, personal taste) but those things are beyond the scope of this article.

Some or all of us may need small amounts of animal products: True or False?

True! With nuances.

Let’s divide this into “some” and “all”. Firstly, some people may have health conditions and/or other mitigating circumstances that make an entirely plant-based diet untenable.

We’re going light on quotations from subscriber comments today because otherwise this article will get a bit long, but here’s a great example that’s worth quoting, from a subscriber who voted for this option:

❝I have a rare genetic disease called hereditary fructose intolerance. It means I lack the enzyme, Aldolase B, to process fructose. Eating fruits and veggies thus gives me severe hypoglycemia. I also have anemia caused by two autoimmune diseases, so I have to eat meat for the iron it supplies. I also supplement with iron pills but the pills alone can’t fix the problem entirely.❞

And, there’s the thing. Popular vegan talking-points are very good at saying “if you have this problem, this will address it; if you have that problem, that will address it”, etc. For every health-related objection to a fully plant-based diet there’s a refutation… Individually.

But actual real-world health doesn’t work like that; co-morbidities are very common, and in some cases, like our subscriber above, one problem undermines the solution to another. Add a third problem and by now you really just have to do what you need to do to survive.

For this reason, even the Vegan Society’s definition of veganism includes the clause “so far as is possible and practicable”.

Now, as for the rest of us “all”.

What if we’re really healthy and are living in optimal circumstances (easy access to a wide variety of choice of food), can we live healthily and happily just on plants?

No—on a technicality.

Vegans famously need to supplement vitamin B12, which is not found in plants. Ironically, much of the B12 in animal products comes from the animals themselves being given supplements, but that’s another matter. However, B12 can also be enjoyed from yeast. Popular options include the use of yeast extract (e.g. Marmite) and/or nutritional yeast in cooking.

Yeast is a single-celled microorganism that’s taxonomically classified as a fungus, even though in many ways it behaves like an animal (which series of words may conjure an amusing image, but we mean, biologically speaking).

However, it’s also not technically a plant, hence the “No—on a technicality”

Bottom line:

By nature, humans are quite versatile generalists when it comes to diet:

• Most of us can live healthily and happily on just plants if we so choose.
• Some people cannot, and will require varying kinds (and quantities) of animal products.
• As for red and/or processed meats, we’re not the boss of you, but from a health perspective, the science is clear: unless you have a circumstance that really necessitates it, just don’t.
  • Same goes for pork, which isn’t red and may not be processed, but metabolically it’s associated with the same problems.
• The jury is out on poultry, but it strongly appears to be optional, healthwise, without making much of a difference either way
• Fish is roundly considered healthful in moderation. Enjoy it if you want, don’t if you don’t.