Carnivorous or Vegetarian - Do's and Dont's Part 2
Well what about those who prefer to eat a higher amount of plant materials within their diet? As mentioned in part 1 of this blog I have no intention of questioning the ethical reasons or beliefs behind a choice to be vegetarian. However, we do need to honestly ask the question is simply eating plants and leaving out animal products going to lead to greater health?
We spoke of the affects that large scale meat production has had upon the animals and the poorer conditions this has created for nurturing and rearing animals. The demand for greater yields and larger plant crops has also created lower quality farming methods and commercial processing and distribution that affetcs the nutrient quality.
In order to meet supermarket demand many farms are encouraged to utilise vast acreage to grow crops. Some experts are concerned about the massive carbon losses that ploughing the fields creates, but perhaps more importantly we should be concerned about the affects of intensively monocropping land has upon the soil. Year after year of growing the same crops draws the same nutrients from the soil and depletes the soils of specific nutrients. This increases the need to chemically fertilise the land to bolster the lagging mineral levels. Chemical fertilser does not provide living healthy soil. Healthy topsoil will be full of millions of micro-organisms, bacteria, decomposing plant and animal matter and earthworms. Fertilser adds minerals to the soil which plants will draw on which can result in larger swollen crops, but these crops are not as nutrient dense because the soils did not have life to offer the plants in the first place. However, because they have absorbed more water from the soil in search of nutrients these larger fruits or vegetables look more appealing on the supermarket shelves. Ever eaten a large tomato that was pleasing on the eye but once eaten was bland and flavourless? This is because it is full of water and lacking in nutrients. The result of poor quality soil.
Commercial agriculture may also routinely use pesticide, fungicide and herbicide sprays to reduce the impact of bugs, disease and parasites on their valuable crops. This may seem a sensible step for the farmer to protect his crops, but these residues can remain on the plants and in the soil for long periods of time. In order to convert a farm to organic standard it is required that the farm is pesticide and herbicide free for a minimum of 3 years to allow enough time for these harmful residues to drop to acceptable levels in the soil. It is possible that when a consumer purchases a punnet of strawberries that the fruit has been exposed on 8 separate occassions during its growth to pesticide or herbicide sprays. This means that the consumer will not only be eating the strawberries but a potentially harmful concoction of chemical residues!
DDT is a well known pesticide that was widely used on crops because it was so effective, but has since been banned in many countries because of the growing body of evidence indicating very harmful effects. If you would like to look into this further the Weston A Price foundation has produced a fascinating scientific review between DDT and Polio. Although DDT is rarely used today many other chemicals are, several of which have generated some concern with regards to hormone and nervous system disruption. If you are relying on standard commercial fruit and vegetables, legumes, beans and pulses to provide the bulk of your diet then you are likely ingesting much higher levels of chemical residues than your detoxifying systems can mange. Once these systems become overloaded then these chemcials can start to have negative effects on human physiology. Remember that DDT was once considered safe!
One last thought is that if you purchase plant foods from the supermarket many of these foods will be transported in from other countries many hundreds of miles away. I won't get into the conerns regarding global summer time but direct you to Joanna Blythman's fascinating book Shopped. This means that the food has been picked unripe, it has been separated from its source of nutrients, the soil, at a vital time of its growth. The ripening process increases the nutrient levels of food many times over. If the food is separated from its nutrient source early it will prevent it from improving its nutrient density. This will lead to lower nutrient levels.
We need to seek for locally grown, organic produce where the farmer rotates his crops each season to reduce soil nutrient depletion. Organic foods will greatly reduce the use of harmful chemicals being used in food production. Good farmers will work very hard in managing an organic, living compost heap all year round to add life and nutrition to their soils. This is the vital to producing plants that will be rich in nutrients and support better health. If you are unsure refer to the Food Finder guide to seek suppliers or to more fully understand the descriptive categories.
So carnivorous or vegetarian? You decide, but make sure the foods you eat are the highest quality you can find and afford, thats the real key to good health!
