Hello everyone, and welcome to the Take Care of Yourself DQ. We're back again, with some shocking facts about the meat you're putting in your body, and the toll it has on our environment.
*Cue weird piano music*
With the average American consuming 156 hamburgers a year, and each burger using up 425.1 gallons of water, we can only imagine the damage we are doing to our environment. Additionally, if everyone skipped eating one burger a week for a year, we could each save 22,100 gallons of water per year. This could not only be beneficial to our environment, but also our bodies. The effects on the environment are much worse. Scientists may use different numbers, mostly because there are many different types of beef, such as grass-fed, conventional beef, and natural beef. However, an article from Business Insider, gives us the update on conventional beef, a beef frequently used, and produced by, the United States.
Here are the numbers:
Conventional beef production requires more than 485 billion liters of water, per 1 billion kilograms of beef produced, and requires 5,457 hectares of land, per 1 billion kilograms of beef, which is equal to 54.5 feet of land. The worst numbers are methane, and the carbon footprint. As a direct quote from SoCalGas, methane that is released into the atmosphere, before it is burned, is harmful to the environment. Because it is able to trap heat in the atmosphere, methane contributes to climate change. Additionally, we are using 0.126 pounds of it, or in ounces, 2.016 ounces. The carbon footprint really brings it all around though, which is equal to 4 pounds of carbon footprint.
If that wasn't enough for you to feel at least the smallest amount of guilt, this might. The effects of eating red meat on a daily basis are many, but to name a few are heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even colorectal cancer.
I can hear the cons coming in now. But what about the protein and the fiber? My answer to that is simple plant-based protein. The stars of this show are beyond meat, and are impossible foods worth over 16 billion dollars combined. The even crazier part is that one Beyond Burger patty has the same amount of protein as an Inn & Out burger patty, with 20 grams of protein.
But yes, there are cons, as many synthetic types of meat are not perfected.
The amount of sodium can be very high in Beyond Burgers, and many people are cautious of the calorie count, which is one reason I haven't tried this particular brand.
I began my vegetarian lifestyle after staying a week in the slums of Ecuador. It was a healthier choice for me, and it continued to be so throughout my stay. It was a struggle for me once I came back to the states, but I did tons of research on foods that could be healthier for me. I eventually came to the realization that I was not only doing this for myself, but rather for my environment now. I recommend this to people right now, because having the time to do something meaningful for you, and others, makes a huge difference in your mood, and also can help your body and environment.
References:
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/how-healthy-is-the-new-meatless-beyond-burger
https://www.takeextinctionoffyourplate.com/extinction_facts/pdfs/BurgerFactsheet.pdf
https://www.businessinsider.com/one-hamburger-environment-resources-2015-2