Meat Sparingly
The quick answer: Eat less meat—as in “sparingly”—but better. "Better" means pastured or wild-caught, with very little cured/processed meat.
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Meat Sparingly
A famous tome on eating—The Original Fannie Farmer 1896 Cook Book—included a month of dinner menus. Study shows the ideal 1896 meal consisted of meat in the center of the plate, accompanied by potatoes and gravy, an occasional vegetable, and a dessert. We were a meat-and-potato-eating nation with a growing appetite for sugar and an aversion to vegetables.
When fast food came along the main change was that meat came from a feedlot, potatoes were deep fat fried, and the sugar was in the drink. Ouch—trouble was on the horizon.
The Word of Wisdom prescribes a better meal: seasonal vegetables in the center of the plate, flavored by a little meat, washed down with water. It’s way healthier, and a better value.
Meat and Disease
The main killers of our time are heart disease and cancer. Is meat to blame? First of all, these diseases are multi-factorial—they have more than one cause, beginning with too much sugar. But meat is a factor as shown by these studies:
- A Harvard meta-analysis (a statistical methodology that combines the sum of many studies) put the biggest blame on processed meats (bacon, sausage, etc.). Each 50-gram daily intake of processed meat added 42% to your risk of heart disease.
- The long-term NIH-AARP study (focused on whites>50 years old) found a 20-60% greater risk for lung, colo-rectal, and other cancers from eating processed and red meats.
- Though we worry about pesticides on fruits and vegetables, meat is the primary source of harmful toxic dietary chemicals. Meat is especially harmful when charred, as often happens with BBQ.
- It’s not just about the meat. There seems to be a “meat-eaters” syndrome—meat eaters eat fewer fruits and vegetables, exercise less, are more likely to be overweight, etc.
The Meat Prescription
Science has revealed that you do need a little meat in your diet. Meat products contain nutrients not found in other foods:
- Omega-3 fats: These are essential fats (meaning your body must have them) and come in two groups: Short-chain (found in green plants, on land or sea) and long-chain (found in the creatures who eat plants such as pastured animals but especially cold-water fish). Your body can convert some short-chain to the long-chain forms but only a little, for good health you need meat products.
- Vitamin B-12: This vitamin (actually a group of cobalt-based vitamins) is essential to every cell in your body, especially the brain. Insufficiency of B-12 is common, especially in older people, and a factor in dementia, depression, and fatigue. B-12 is symbiotically produced by bacteria and found in animal products.
- Vitamin K-2: This family of vitamins, essential to processes like bone formation, is also found in animal product (bacteria produce it from K-1). It’s in hard cheeses, fowl and beef (especially in organ foods, including liver pate), and egg yolks. K-2 helps avoid osteoporosis.
Enjoy meat products sparingly, it’s good for your health and improves the taste of food. But do minimize intake of processed (or cured) meats. We love BLTs but probably average just one per month; ditto for sausage and cured hams.
What is "sparing"? I love this term because you have room for your own preferences. We keep animal protein under 5% of calories, 3-4 servings a week, including 1-2 fish portions. We also look for sources of pastured animal products and wild-caught fish.
Whole Food Plant Based
Depending on how you read the Word of Wisdom, meat intake can be “sparing,” mainly in winter, or only in times of famine (which may never happen in the U. S.). This brings us to a new book by Jane Birch, Discovering the Word of Wisdom. Birch’s book looks at the W of W from a “whole food, plant-based” perspective. The phrase “whole food, plant-based” usually means avoiding all meat products, what used to be called “vegan.” (You could be vegan and eat a lot of processed food so WFPB means whole foods.)
If you’re attracted to very little or no animal products in your diet, you might read Birch’s book, she has real passion for the subject.
Healthy Change #9
You can review the last two posts and the many reader comments here for 2012 and 2013.
Please comment: Share the ways you feature meat in your diet. Where do you find healthy meat? How do you use it as a condiment, rather than the main course? What do you do to show reverence for the Creation of animals?
Tuesday, February 25, 2014 at 9:36AM | by Skip Hellewell | 11 Comments | 9 References | Share Article | Email Article 
Reader Comments (11)
Thanks for mentioning Birch's new book. I found that our library just ordered it so I'm first in line to get it!
In our family 3 out of 4 don't eat meat, so it is automatically less-featured for the one who eats it. I've been eating a plant-based diet for just over 3 years and haven't missed it at all. I'll admit omega-3's and B-12 are harder to get without animal products so I hope to find reassurance that I'm doing ok.
Hi Skip, just a quick question, is it your understanding that we need to consume K-2 in the diet? I thought that our supply of K2 was primarily from endogenous production, with it being converted from K1 (primarily by bacteria in the gut, just as in other mammals, which is why it's found in animal products). However, my information may be outdated!
I am also interested in how it is used as a condiment.
Great post! A few years ago when I was first starting to study nutrition seriously I ate "whole foods plant based" for about a month because that seemed like the right thing to do. Even though I was doing all the right things and getting lots of plant protein and healthy fats, I started to feel awful very quickly, with tinging in my hands and legs and anxiety. I had classic B-vitamin deficiency symptoms. I was breast feeding at the time and I think that's why I developed the deficiency symptoms so quickly. I really feel that a vegan diet is not safe for pregnant and breast feeding women or children; it just doesn't provide the nutrients needed for building. The WoW mentions "excess of hunger" and as I read that, I feel like it would include pregnancy and breast-feeding.
Also, my friend had a really interesting thought on the definition of "sparingly." She feels like that means that we should use the entire animal (white meat, dark meat, bones, organ meats, and fat). That seems really wise to me; I know in Nourishing Traditions she says that eating bone stock stretches the protein and requires you to eat less and also that organ meats are the most nutritious. It seems like God would want us to use the whole animal, that He created all the parts for a reason. White meat chicken breast can't be the only reason for a chicken ;)
I would love to see a post on probiotic foods, that is certainly traditional food and something that science is finally starting to see the benefits of!
Hi Sheela
There is growing evidence that vitamin K-2 is 1) essential to calcium metabolism and 2) we don't get enough. K-2 helps calcium get into teeth and bones so is preventative of cavities and osteoporosis. It thus helps prevent calcification (calcium deposits in the wrong places like soft tissues, especially coronary arteries and valves). Coronary calcification is the leading indicator of heart disease.
Can we make our own K-2 from the K-1 in our diet? Yes, but not enough. That's the answer that is emerging from current research. Until more is known, experts recommend animal sources of K-2. For more, read here: http://chriskresser.com/vitamin-k2-the-missing-nutrient
Hi Nicole
One traditional use of meat as a condiment is the making of stock (usually done with bones with residual attached meat). Home made stock went out of fashion in the last century but many cooks are returning to the practice as it provides flavor, thickening, and essential minerals and nutrients from the bone and marrow.
When you make a stew with chunks of beef, or black beans with a ham hock, or sausage-flavored dishes, this is using meat as a condiment. Chinese dishes often use meat in this way.
The idea is not to make meat the center of the dinner plate—that's the essence of "sparing"—but to use it for flavor, something to "chew", and for the nutrients. This allows the use of all the animal, as noted by Lindsey above and seems (to me, at least) to meet the need for "prudence" and "thanksgiving".
Thanks for your question.
Hi Lindsey
Thanks for your thoughtful comment. Two essential vitamins are produced by the action of bacteria in mammals, vitamin K-2 and B-12. Both are more recently discovered so not well understood. The evidence indicates that many eating the modern factory diet are deficient of these vitamins. There's a lot of ignorance; we're still learning. I don't know anyone who has been tested for either, but the evidence of their importance continues to grow.
There are likely many more benefits from bacteria-produced nutrients so the subject of probiotics deserves attention. When we eat sourdough bread, the bacteria in sourdough starter leavens the bread but it also makes the gluten more tolerable by breaking it down. We will address sourdough fermentation in HC#37 and that should lead to discussion of other benefits of probiotics.
As a people, we're still learning to live with bacteria. From the time of Louis Pasteur we've made war on bacteria. We're learning now that we need most of them though a few are harmful. This is all part of the food reformation and worthy of attention. Best to you.
Jane Birch's book inspired me to begin a Whole Food Plant Based diet! I already knew about the diet but wasn't sure if it was aligned with the Word of Wisdom. Jane's insights and readable style of writing convinced me that this way of eating is pleasing to God. And GUESS WHAT... I've lost 45 lbs so far!!!
Thanks for sharing Discovering the Word of Wisdom: Surprising Insights From a Whole Food Plant Based Perspective. I love it!!
http://discoveringthewordofwisdom.com/buy-book/
I too love the word 'sparing'. But it gets confusing sometimes on what I should be doing and what works for me and mine. We tried the plant based diet with only 1-2 nights a week having meat. It worked pretty well for the first three months. Then I developed ulcers in my intestines because my body wasn't able to handle it. It took a year to fix that on steroids and other meds and going back to my old diet for a time. Now I'm more careful about how much raw veggies I take in. There are some foods I absolutely cannot eat raw. Spinach & broccoli for example. I can only have beans once or twice a week. I can only have a certain amount of whole grains in a day. That means filling in the blanks with meat.
I felt bad about it at first. I wanted to eat sparing and for a while I thought that meant eating very little. I was miserable thinking that I couldn't follow it. But then I read in D&C 49:18-19 and to me it helped open a door. I learned that it's okay that I'm not going to be a vegetarian or vegan. My needs are different. But it doesn't mean I can't follow other good advice about eating meat.
In short, I finally figured out that the 'eat less but better' approach is perfect. We have smaller portions of meat but of good quality.
Always excellent posts Skip. I haven't commented in a while (felt prompted to it today) but my husband and I still read regularly and love it all!
I agree with you and Rill about eating sparingly. In looking for recipes for following the WoW (plant centered) I often buy books that suggest being a vegetarian or vegan. At times they come really close to convincing me that I shouldn't eat meat at all. I try it for a while but it never feels right because D&C 49:18-19 comes to my mind. The world would have us be over zealous either way, meat at every meal or not at all. Certainly God knows what's best for us, so we should follow His counsel. It can be hard though. My family always groans when I inform them that warm weather means I won't be cooking with meat for a few months (except the occasional fish).
Thanks for the articles! I love all the information you share!
Yesterday I viewed FORKS OVER KNIVES. I'm through with meat. ccc