How Red Meat Became the Villain of Modern Health (and Why That’s Flawed)

Red meat has the most protein and has been shown to be able to heal and repair. But how is this possible?

Introduction:

We have been commonly told that red meat causes illnesses such as cancer and diabetes. Meat has been made out to be the villain of our lives. We’re also informed that reducing your red meat intake, improves climate change because cows are one of the main figure heads of affecting climate change. However, if it wasn’t for cows then we wouldn’t get milk, cheese, other forms of dairy products, grass-fed meat, cows graze our fields which also promote life which helps the fields to grow in order to help farm the cows, and other various cattle. Cows have been existing for as long as we can remember, as long as man in fact, and now all of a sudden, within the last 20-50 years or so, they’ve been made out to be the bad guys, the fact that they “cause a lot of our health problems”. You will start to see a common pattern when it comes to food and health, for reference, you’ll see that a vast majority of our current health problems have come within the last 50 years or so. And why do we think that is? Let’s put it this way. If you were in charge of something, whether it be on a small or big scale, and you wanted people to follow your orders down to a T, and those that don’t will be “left out to dry”, “poisoned” and not welcome, this is the narrative which has been pushed. However, those that reject the modern influences of health when it comes to food, exercising and spiritually, you will tend to find that those people are a lot better off, they are much healthier and tend to live a much more purposeful and meaning-full life, especially reverting back to the old ways, the ways of their ancestors. “It is the preservation of ashes not fire”. Anyway, I’ve gone a bit of topic here, let’s get back to the main subject.

Amino acids and Enzymes:

So red meats contains vital amino-acids and enzymes that our bodies desperatley need. When in comparison to eggs, red meat has much more greater amounts pf iron, magnesium, zinc, Vitamin B3, B1, B6, B12, Vitamin K, and Omega-3. Furthermore, beef liver also has over 50x the amount of vitamin A then eggs. Now wait, i’m not telling you to not eat eggs, on the contrary, I’m telling you to eat eggs along with red meats, even in the same meal.

Carnitine:

Meat also produce good amounts of Carnitine. But what is Carnitine? Well, Carnitine is a compound found in the food, which helps to break down fats and transfer them into energy straight to our mitochondria in order for this to be used as quick releases of energy. Particularly for our Creatine Phosphate System - This system typically involves strength training when it comes to lifting heavier weights and going for a 1RM or at least performing 1-5 reps of a heavy weight, especially when it comes to compound lifts. It’s roughly 85%< of our body weight. The mitochondria is the energy powerhouse of the body, so the fact that meats produce carnitine, and the carnitine greatly benefits the energy output from the mitochondria, this is very beneficial for us especially when it comes to working out. So, carnitine is essential for healing and repairing our tissues. 

Creatine:

Red meat also produces creatine which also gives the body energy quickly. Creatine is used for high explosive movements where you need that burst of energy. Our body also produces it’s own creatine, but not to the extent that red meat does because red meat produces the most amounts of creatine through things which we consume. We know that athletes and body builders will typically take creatine supplements to increase the usage of energy in their body in order to help them to progressively overload and to increase their muscle size and strength. However, as I just stated, red meats produce the most amounts of creatine, so you can either just eat red meat or you can have both, but don’t over-do the creatine supplementation. Preferably, I would rather consume a majority of it from meats as well as having some from supplements (creatine monohydrate), but that choice is down to you. 

Carnosine:

Meat also produces Carnosine, carnosine moderates the acid in the muscle. Carnosine also contains antioxidants and some of these antioxidants act as anti-ageing. Carnosine is important for muscle function. It is made up of beta-alanine, beta-alanine is a non-essential amino acid - so it is not used by your body to synthesise proteins. Studies have shown that carnosine reduces fatigue and improves our performance levels. Finally, beta-alanine studies have shown that it can improve our strength. Carnosine fatigue - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17690198/  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16868650/  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17136505/  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19276843/

Beta-alanine - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6092497/  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5918575/

Protein:

Meats such as beef are mainly made up of protein. The proteins in beef contain essential amino acids in order for our body to grow, amino acids are important for our health. The amino acids in meats are similar to the amino acids in our muscles. Due to the good amounts of protein meats have, the meats help our bodies to increase muscle mass after performing certain physical activity especially when it comes to strength training. 

Fat:

Beef in particular, contains high amounts of fat. Fats in the calorie sense, are far greater than carbs and proteins. Providing the meats are grass fed, treated well, and not processed, then the meats will contain their essential vitamins and minerals (micronutrients) that we so desperately need. Furthermore, meats from cows and sheep contain conjugated linoleim acid which is found in trans-fats providing they are raised and fed properly. It has been viewed to improve weight loss. 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22062051/ 

Vitamins and minerals:

Meats produce various micronutrients such as Vitamin B12, which is important for our brain and nervous system; Zinc which is good for body growth; Selenium; Iron; Niacin; Vitamin B6; Phosphorus; Creatine; Cholesterol; Conjugated Lionelic Acid (CLA); Glutathoine; Taurine and Carnitine.

 Selenium - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22381456/  Iron - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19475341/  Niacin - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23265337/ 

Creatine - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24190049/    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22101980/

Taurine - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25415270/  Glutathione - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22063662/

CLA - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19761624/

Grass-fed:

When comparing grass-fed beef to grain-fed beef, grass-fed has more antioxidants, higher Vitamin E, more ruminant fats such as CLA, more omega-3 fatty acids and healthier fatty acids.

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Conclusion & My opinion:

To conclude, red meat or meat in general, is a vital food source that we need in our everyday diets. It contains a numerous amount of vitamins and minerals which are very beneficial to us. When it comes to men, it greatly increases our testosterone levels and increases our performance/s in the gym. When it comes to women, it can be beneficial when women are pregnant due to the fact that they will be losing blood and red meats helps benefit that. Providing the fact that your meet is grass fed, pasture-raised, lived a healthy life/well looked after, and it’s not processed, then you are guaranteed to reap the rewards that it has to offer. At the end of the day, you should be doing the opposite of what the mainstream media tells you to do. They tell you to stay away from saturated fats (which include red meats), and just looking at the benefits that I have written down, you simply cannot ignore them and ultimately, they want to make you weaker, to not reach your full potential (vegan/veggie diets and ultra-processed foods). Yet our ancestors were consuming these healthy foods for generations and you rarely see any finds saying that they suffered from what we do in today’s modern society (when it comes to overall health). I also believe that you can eat meat raw, however, if you are to cook your meats, ideally have it rare because the more you cook the meats, the less vitamins and minerals will be left within the food. The same concept applies with raw milk and raw honey. If you haven’t already, check out my post on raw honey and why it is the superfood that can heal illnesses and prevent diseases.

Remember… Health is Wealth!