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You can get some energy quickly from proteins like meat, but you cannot get enough energy for a day of work. Humans need to get most of the energy either from

You can get some energy quickly from proteins like meat, but you cannot get enough energy for a day of work. Humans need to get most of the energy either from fat or from carbohydrates like starch, otherwise they die. Even for the speed of obtaining energy from food, nothing beats a mixture of glucose with fructose, like long-distance runners or cyclists have to consume, if they want to win. Red meat may be very tasty, but it is not the best for any criterion. As a source of proteins, lean white meat is superior, e.g. turkey breast, chicken breast or fillet from various kinds of fish with white meat, e.g. cod or zander. As a source of energy, any food rich in starch or in oil is superior and also many times cheaper. During the last few tens of thousands of years, the humans have evolved to be much better at digesting starch than their ancestors and than most other apes or monkeys, by increasing the ability to synthesize the enzymes used in starch digestion. So our body physiology has already shifted somewhat from being best adapted to a hunter lifestyle to one where the plant seeds can satisfy most of the energy requirements. Meat still remains one of the best choices as a source of proteins, but not as a source of energy.

fakedang 2y ago
> You can get some energy quickly from proteins like meat, but you cannot get enough energy for a day of work. Humans need to get most of the energy either from fat or from carbohydrates like starch, otherwise they die. That itself is a fallacious notion. Mammals can get energy from a multitude of sources, including carbs, proteins and fats. True, carbs are the fastest source and are prioritized first by the body, and any surplus is converted to fat, which is then stored as lipids. But fats are slower than proteins to digest, which take the second order in priority. The body breaks down protein to generate energy in the absence of carbs. You could make do with eating a much lower portion of carbs and still cover your energy intake needs, as the world has moved on from an active lifestyle to a sedentary lifestyle. But you can't forgo the protein you get from meat and adequately substitute it, unless you eat exorbitant amounts of legumes. On a societal scale, it's much simpler to just have cattle around and eat on some grass, instead of allocating land to grow a bunch of legumes - one buffalo would be enough to feed a small village and some more. You're right in that white meat is superior, but white meat in the US has a much higher chance of being factory farmed than white meat. The carcinogenicity of red meat largely comes from the use of chemical preservatives used in cleaning before freezing the meat - something fresh grass fed beef doesn't have to contend with. Fish and seafood is another good source of protein, unfortunately they might be as carcinogenic as frozen red meat due to the amount of toxic chemicals we dump into our seas.

fakedang 2y ago

> You can get some energy quickly from proteins like meat, but you cannot get enough energy for a day of work. Humans need to get most of the energy either from fat or from carbohydrates like starch, otherwise they die. That itself is a fallacious notion. Mammals can get energy from a multitude of sources, including carbs, proteins and fats. True, carbs are the fastest source and are prioritized first by the body, and any surplus is converted to fat, which is then stored as lipids. But fats are slower than proteins to digest, which take the second order in priority. The body breaks down protein to generate energy in the absence of carbs. You could make do with eating a much lower portion of carbs and still cover your energy intake needs, as the world has moved on from an active lifestyle to a sedentary lifestyle. But you can't forgo the protein you get from meat and adequately substitute it, unless you eat exorbitant amounts of legumes. On a societal scale, it's much simpler to just have cattle around and eat on some grass, instead of allocating land to grow a bunch of legumes - one buffalo would be enough to feed a small village and some more. You're right in that white meat is superior, but white meat in the US has a much higher chance of being factory farmed than white meat. The carcinogenicity of red meat largely comes from the use of chemical preservatives used in cleaning before freezing the meat - something fresh grass fed beef doesn't have to contend with. Fish and seafood is another good source of protein, unfortunately they might be as carcinogenic as frozen red meat due to the amount of toxic chemicals we dump into our seas.