10 ms·
Antibiotics in Meat Could Be Damaging Our Guts
- coldseattle 8y agoI'm more worried about the Disease Resistant Bacteria than a blanket claim from a grass-fed organic beef producer that it's causing obesity, etc. Perhaps he figures that "causes obesity" would get more people concerned that about the risks of resistant infections.
- always_good 8y agoI wonder what the perfect diet ends up being once you consider things like antibiotics, heavy metals, pesticides, and other contaminants and not just macro/micro nutrition.
- mratzloff 8y agoWhole foods, mostly vegetables, grown organically and without antibiotics, prepared at home.
- JacobJans 8y agoAdded to that, I like Valter Longo's recommendation of focusing on (healthy) foods that your ancestors ate; your body is more likely to be adapted to doing well on those foods.
- vegcel 8y agoThe answer is most definitely a whole food plant-based diet. See the book How Not to Die for more here: https://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Die-Discover-Scientifically/dp/1250066115 https://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Die-Discover-Scientifically/d...
- StriverGuy 8y agoI would reword plant-based to be plant-centric. Vegan/Vegetarian diets have many many issues (xenoestrogen, B12 deficiency, reduced sex hormone levels just to name a few) and are not a normal consumption pattern for genetic omnivores like us humans.
- Sawamara 8y agoOmnivore does not mean "should eat meat along plants. It just means you are allowed to digest it (although our gut is NOT evolved to digest either herbs OR meat).
- mabase 8y agoAnd most of those are actually misinformation. B12 being the only real one, but that isn't an issue because you can just supplement it. The B12 from meat comes from supplements anyways, so there is no difference. Just cutting out the middleman.
- sachdevap 8y agoAnd B12 is found in soil bacteria, which before our filtered and cleaned food supply, would probably have usually found its way into our guts. Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4765460/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4765460/
- chillingeffect 8y agoOr as dr. Gregor says, "cut out the middle moo." ;)
- shafyy 8y agoExactly this. It's mind-blowing what kind of questions my well-educated ask about being a vegetarian. "Where do you get proteins from?" or "What about iron?". Really?! The only real thing missing is B12 and of that the body needs so tiny amounts that every idiot can supplement it easily.
- noir_lord 8y ago
- cfmcdonald 8y agoUm, you're still going to die, no matter what you eat. Sorry.
- manibatra 8y agoAfter getting worked up in the past about all the things that you mentioned and trying every diet under the sun a whole food plants based diet has done wonders for me. Been on it for two years now and never felt better. I am not in the camp that says that a diet like keto is bad for you. But in my experience it is exponentially harder to get quality meat products than quality (or least bad) plant based foods. Wrote a blog post a while back about my thoughts on diet if you want to give it a read: https://medium.com/@manibatra23/2016-a-reflection-diet-30c15970e7f7 https://medium.com/@manibatra23/2016-a-reflection-diet-30c15...
- manmal 8y agoI‘ve done Slow-Carb and Leangains for muscle gains, eating LOTS of meat in the process, but I‘ve never felt as good as now, eating little meat and lots of raw vegetables (salads, whole carrots, you get the idea). Of course, I‘ve lost a lot of muscle, but I currently don’t really care.
- xyzzy_plugh 8y agoSome FUD, but farmers definitely abuse antibiotics. But of course they do, since they buy them in bulk at the store. I have a lot of veterinarian friends, and the fact of the matter is farmers purchase antibiotics like any other supplies. Farmers get to skirt the process most other animal owners go through, and in most states and jurisdictions don't need to go through a licensed veterinarian to obtain antibiotics. Most veterinarians I know think it's ridiculous, and causes more harm than good. But farmers have lobbied for these freedoms. Many veterinarian friends complain that many farmers are entitled, and feel that they should be able to do whatever they want with their herd. If you ask me, Farming is one profession that needs to have stronger regulations that are actually enforced e.g. antibiotics, humane treatment, etc. It's a grey area for sure -- do I let my sick animals suffer so I can sell them? Or do I give them medicine that makes them ineligible for certain consumption categories.
- hutzlibu 8y ago"do I let my sick animals suffer so I can sell them?" Erm, isn't the point that they use antibiotics en masse to prevent illness? I don't think anybody ever complained about treating (serious) diseases with antibiotics, but the preventive use big scale. This is just madness, among other things in the meat industry. .
- kuschku 8y agoBut that’s not what they’re used for. Because antibiotics affect the gut flora of the animals, they tend to get fatter faster. Which is good for a farmer trying to make as much money in as little time as possible. This is what they’re mostly used for, sadly.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- sampo 8y agoConstant feeding of low, sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics boosts animal growth. Apparently, without antibiotics, some part of the energy in the food is consumed by the gut microbes, not the animal. Antibiotics tame down the gut microbes, so more of the energy in the feed goes to the animal. The farmer needs less feed, and the animals grow faster. I would guess that with antibiotics, meat production can be like 20% more efficient, maybe somewhat more. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibiotic_use_in_livestock#Drugs_and_growth_stimulation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibiotic_use_in_livestock#Dr...
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- JeanMarcS 8y agoAnd what about antibiotic résistance for human induced by that ? We ask out doctors to try to avoid giving antibiotics if it can be avoided, but there are sole cases where animals are massively dosed with it.
- Havoc 8y agoOne of the reasons why I'm trying to cut down meat consumption. Evidence seems to be mounting that it's not the greatest plan...
- coldtea 8y agoI don't think regular plants with all kinds of pesticides, or GMO plants with all kinds of non-long-term-tested gene modifications to improve sale-ability and profit margins, would be much better...
- kranner 8y agoSo buy organic. And I’m guessing any GMO plants will be much safer than antibiotic-laced alternatives.
- coldtea 8y ago>And I’m guessing any GMO plants will be much safer than antibiotic-laced alternatives. Would they? For one, there's nothing about GMOs that says they can't also lace them with all kinds of crap. And it's mostly profit-driven amateur magicians engineers driving them, not actual scientists interested in improving learning and testing them long term. So I'd trust their safety guarantees as much as I trust tobacco or drug companies...
- steven2012 8y agoOrganic doesn't mean they're not using pesticides at all, and no fertilizer and singing kumbaya to their crops every night. The problem with the term "organic" is that it means different things to different agencies.
- TangoTrotFox 8y agoGiven the strong congressional lobby against labeling, organic doesn't mean much in and of itself. The problem with genetically engineered foodstuffs is not necessarily the foodstuff itself but that in practice it's mostly synonymous with herbicide resistance. And that herbicide is mostly synonymous with glyphosate which is looking to also be really screwing with our gut biome on top of being a probable carcinogen. On the topic of glyphosate there was an interesting submission here [1]. [1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17043629 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17043629
- ouid 8y agoWe give antibiotics to cattle to get them to absorb more energy from grain and get fat. We eat those antibiotics. We eat grain and get fat.
- open-source-ux 8y agoThis 2011 chart shows antibiotic use in livestock in countries around the world, including New Zealand, the US and the EU. The use of antibiotics varies hugely between countries. If anyone has more recent figures, please post: https://amr-review.org/sites/default/files/Info%204%20bar%20chart%20white.jpg https://amr-review.org/sites/default/files/Info%204%20bar%20...
- viburnum 8y agoWhat do you mean "our?"
- chiefalchemist 8y agoWe use unnatural tricks to lower the cost of production, the production of a luxury (read: not a necessity at the levels being consumed) that is very natural resources intensive to produce; to say nothing of the pollution produced by production. The lower cost increases consumption; using more resources, producing more pollution. That is contributing to health issues in those who consume it. The lower peoduction coat is eaten up by medical coats. It sounds like a terrorist plot.
- qrbLPHiKpiux 8y agoI'll say it, although this isn't popular. The world has too many people. We had to engineer our food supply to keep up with what is needed to feed everyone.
- manmal 8y ago„Too many“ for what?
- jonnycomputer 8y agoHow about, "too many to sustain and give a lifestyle that maximizes human potential"?
- fjsolwmv 8y agoWhat is "human potential"? What if my life goals are to enjoy tasty food?
- jobigoud 8y ago> We had to engineer our food supply to keep up with what is needed to feed everyone. Nah, not needed. It's only because people eat so much meat.
- Noumenon72 8y agoHowever, meat is a complement to vegetables because it restores what they take out of the soil, so it's not as inefficient as it seems. https://twitter.com/SarahTaber_bww/status/993309884711129088 https://twitter.com/SarahTaber_bww/status/993309884711129088
- fjsolwmv 8y agoWhere do cows get their nutrients from?
- 8y ago