Good health
Regarding “Beef lovers call bull on meatless edict” (Page A1, Thursday), as someone with a background in nutrition science and food policy who has done extensive personal research into plant-based eating, I feel the need to comment on the WeWork decision described in “Beef lovers call bull on meatless edict.”
WeWork isn’t saying, “You can’t eat meat,” but rather, “If you eat meat, we’re not paying for it.” WeWork is asserting an ethical, evidenced boundary, for which the company should be praised. (And anyone wishing to campaign for a similar policy at a worksite, school, or hospital should check out the work being done at Balanced.org.)
Predictably, the meat industry’s response is as reactionary as it is clichéd. Trying to paint vegetarianism as “firstworld privilege” whitewashes the fact that indigenous food cultures across the world are, in most cases, almost exclusively plant-based by design. To imply that these food cultures are inherently deficient or inferior and that everyone living in the “third world” is clamoring to give up indigenous diets for the Standard American Diet (”SAD”) is absurdly eurocentric and presumptuous. Indeed, it’s a continuation of the cavalier, colonial mindset that Western culture is a heroic and civilizing force that must be propagated through the forcing-open of international markets.
Empirically, plantcentered diets are more conducive to good health throughout the lifecycle. There’s a reason why chronic diseases originating in poor diet and lifestyle are virtually unheard of in many socalled “developing” countries. Meanwhile, men in America have a 1-in-2 lifetime risk of developing cancer, two-thirds of us are obese or overweight, and the number one killer is preventible cardiovascular disease. That’s a lot of needless suffering that would largely be avoided if we could overcome our knee-jerk impulse to sneer at the thought of displacing a handful of animal products with the hundreds of varieties of beans, vegetables, whole grains, fruits and nuts.
M. Bennett, Friendswood