TL;DR: You don’t have to choose between plant vs meat. A balanced approach using of more plant foods and well controlled portions of animal foods can still provide you optimal nutrition and a healthy eating without extremes.
“Plant-based diets are superior to animal-based diets because animal-based diets destroy the environment”. Another says “animal-based diets are definitely needed for the complete nutrients”
It’s ok to argue. But what if the answer is more about finding a balance rather than choosing extremes?
In this article, you’ll discover how balanced eating is a more grounded approach to sustaining your health through your food choices.
Plant diets that focus mainly on food derived from plants. Which means, in some cases, someone could still eat some animal foods but most of their food is from plants.
Most studies say plant-based diets have a less negative effect on the environment. For instance, this research led by Sabate says producing 1kg of protein from kidney beans requires approximately 10 times less water than 1kg of protein from beef.
Plant-based diets also have many health benefits like lower risks of heart disease, hypertension, and certain cancers.
Note that the emphasis here is on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes, rather than (ultra)processed plant-based diets.
Fair enough. But intensive farming of plants, such as prolonged monoculture has damaged soil biodiversity and causes leaching of heavy pesticides into water bodies.
Not so much is said about the amount of resources (including water) used to produced (ultra)processed plant-based foods.
Neither do people talk about the reduced nutrients in fresh produce from big industrial agriculture. Plus imbalanced consumption of plant-based food leads to nutrient deficiencies, and in some severe speculated cases, death!
b. Animal foods
Animal-based diets do have some plant components but they’are heavy on the animal side. These diets provide essential nutrients that you can’t easily get from plant foods – vitamin B12, omega-3 fatty acids and heme iron.
Moreover, livestock are essential in many agricultural systems. They contribute to soil health, biodiversity and ecological balance through activities like rotational grazing, manure production and nutrient cycling.
Animal products are also a core part of many traditional diets and cuisines worldwide. And some communities thrive on animal husbandry for livelihood.
This makes a shift to plant-based diets somewhat impractical and potentially disruptive.
On the flip side, intensive industrial animal farming does not favor animal health, antibiotic resistance from industrial livestock practices is increasing, deforestation for grazing land and feed production, as well as water pollution from concentrated animal feeding operations, not to talk of excessive consumption of animal-based foods causing critical health issues.
These and more make animal-based foods unfavourable.
How about a balanced eating approach?
The principle of balance is a timeless concept found in various philosophical traditions.
Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean advocates for moderation and balance between extremes. In Eastern philosophy, Taoism emphasizes harmony and balance with nature.
Similarly, ecology dwells on interconnection and balance within ecosystems. And this report by Prof. Mark Lawrence explains balance, moderation and variety as the basis of a healthy and sustainable diet.
Consider this case study
A farmer tends to corn fields alongside goats and chickens. He uses manure from animals, and mulch to enrich the soil and nourish young corn plants. When he harvests the corn, he uses some to feed the animals.
The farmer intercrops groundnuts, beans and peppers between the corn. He also uses pesticides, fertilizer and antibiotics, just enough to maintain plant health rather than forcefully induce growth.
This system creates a stable natural cycle. And research does confirm its benefits. There’s better biodiversity, cleaner food and long-term sustenance.
While this perfect system may seem out of reach, that’s how it was a few years back and still so in some places. People got food from the corn fields and animals, that’s, something from the plants and something from the animals, while they maintain the cycle.
There are bigger systemic challenges with this “perfect” system. For example, such a system may not support the growing population. (“May” because most people are not producing even a drop of their own food).
But it looks like the current system though feeding the growing population, has led to poorer quality of life, with diseases like diabetes and obesity being the order of the day.
So maybe we should be talking about a middle ground rather than leaning towards extremes. For instance, how we can scale this traditional system and operate it at an optimum efficiency without using forceful methods. Maybe that would be a better approach.
