Yours confused

[andyswarbs]

I just received an email from HealthUnlocked talking about heart healthy recipes from the British Heart Foundation. I click the link and then follow through to the heart foundation website and navigate to recipes. I type in the word beef. What do I get lots and lots of recipes with beef as a major ingredient.

How on earth can a charity for heart conditions promote recipes with beef in them. I mean just take a look at one page on the world health organisations website.

who.int/features/qa/cancer-...

I mean the world health organisation say red meat is Group 2A, probably carcinogenic. How on earth can this be promoted as a healthy food.

More on focus with heart disease read webmd.com/heart-disease/new...

[rvmasalvad]

is it a spam then?

[andyswarbs in reply to rvmasalvad]

no its not spam. HU are probably thinking this is a no-brainer - promoting healthy food by one of our target charities has to be a good thing.

I have uploaded the email to my googledrive so you can see the original

drive.google.com/open?id=0B...

[rvmasalvad]

i am also confused

[benwl]

You raise a good point.

It must be difficult for charities and public health educators generally though. Eating meat and animal products has become so normalised in western cultures that coming straight out and advocating a plant based diet risks generating a howl of outrage from the well funded food industries, not to mention people crying 'nanny state', and the general perception that such diets are too extreme to be generally adopted - so they tend to stick to the balanced diet idea and just encourage some reduction of the worst foods.

[Pallpootine]

Are you trolling? The fact that you actively looked for Beef recipes just to make this ridiculous comment makes me think you are.

You will also find a recipe on there for Carbonara. You know that contains Bacon right? AND white pasta, man, that could kill a Diabetic!!

The recipes themselves are still considered to be healthy. If you plan and moderate your food in take, you have a better chance of staying healthy. That's how it works. That's how being a RESPONSIBLE ADULT works.

You're scare-mongering. You have your opinion, that's great., but it's just that and for every WHO article (or whatever medical website) white paper you can find saying X is bad for you, I could probably find one that contradicts it.

[andyswarbs in reply to Pallpootine]

Pallpootine, trolling is a very strong word. Not sure what you are implying by that, but I suggest we move on.

Having found beef it does not surprise me that you can find bacon which in my opinion is equally as bad. Your point about opposite perspectives is a good one. However to find out what is good for you look at the science. That is what the World Health Organisation did. It is just a very big shame that the British Heart Foundation chooses to ignore the science.

Again, it is my opinion, but given the rate of increase of heart attacks, cancer and so forth in modern society then people should be scared. They are being sold the idea from every street corner that eating a MacBurger is good for them with advertising especially aimed to children. "Get them young and you'll have them for life..." The meat industry is incredibly heavily subsidised by government and controls government speak via extremely powerful lobbying.

And yes, white pasta is not as good for you a wholemeal pasta, but in my book they are both processed foods.

I'll finish on one note. I am not expecting that society will change overnight. What I hope from contributing to this forum is that there will be a healthy debate with disagreements and agreements and other view points. And that through that debate each of us may choose better foods.

Let me underline that, all I hope is that each of us looks at what we eat and migrates slowly with better health choices. The human body is addicted to high-calorific foods and eating meat is embedded into our whole social being. That does not mean it is good for us.

[ceejayblue]

I have the BHF Magazine delivered to me and its full of helpful advice and recipes. The main thing is to have everything in moderation, if you are a vegetarian or vegan I'm sure there are recipes there for you too. We have evolved to eat all kinds of food, meat, vegetables, seeds, beans everything its all case of eating it in moderation. Meat gives us lots of essential vitamins and minerals and although you my not agree with it there is no real health reason to stop eating it altogether.

As in most research, you will find that a few weeks or months after a positive research on a food, there will always come a negative one. Just eat in moderation and you will be fine!

[andyswarbs in reply to ceejayblue]

I remember when I started down the dietary route to solve my 40-year long struggle with arthritis. Everyone I talked to for advice, friends, family, dieticians, doctor and rheumies, charities talked about "moderation" or even the Mediterranean diet.

If I had stuck with that prolific advice I can categorically say I would not be free of arthritis today because I simply would not have found out the foods that caused my RA or helped relieve it. I am now in such control of my CRP (C-reactive protein) that I can raise it or lower it at will. Where I want it to be is close to zero because that means pain, inflammation free with a healing body.

All I knew was when I started my dietary changes was that I was in such crippling pain that staying with the status quo was not an option. Sticking with the status quo was leading me down a very dark road. So I changed. I succeeded, and succeeded completely. In going through that process that I learnt so much.

For instance, there is much chatter about getting enough omega-3. You can hardly visit a website without seeing o3s as a headline. But what is more important is the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6. That is the more o6 in your diet (animal fats and many oils) the more o3 your body needs. Being an oil-free diet, my diet has so little o6 in it that my o3 needs are low. That said I get a lot of o3s because green salads are stuffed full of them, for instance.

[andyswarbs]

Dottie2011, I totally agree that grass-fed meat is a healthier option than factory-farmed meat. And I agree that if they stipulated grass-fed that would be a good step forward. That's not to say, from my perspective, I would advise anyone to eat grass-fed meat. But what I do recommend is people look at improving what they eat as a lifestyle choice.

[Activity2004 Administrator in reply to andyswarbs]

Perfectly said, andyswarbs . Thank you!

[Hidden]

Well.. there are so many views as to whats good & whats not so good.

Few tips:

We have evolved from a Hunter gatherer ancestors.

The best food we can have is a varied food & that too home made.

Packaged food is best avoided.

Have home cooked food for BF .. for eg.. eggs or any other vegetarian food if one so desires

but having some packaged cereals are not so good as its highly processed & has lots of junk added

We need animal origin fats & proteins even if its from milk & milk products for a vegetarian...

A good exercise regimen even if its a simple one like walking is beneficial

Positive outlook is another good way to lead a healthy life...

Reduction of Stress.. which is easier said than done is also needed,..

[andyswarbs in reply to Hidden]

Hi Shashikantiyengar. Did you see the recent research showing our ancestors is much more complex than just assuming they were hunter gatherers. In Spain for instance it has been shown that Neanderthals lived on an entirely vegetarian diet. If you want to read more see latimes.com/science/science.... These days Spain is known as a meat-loving country. So how did that about turn happen?

I dispute entirely that animal fats and proteins are needed by humans. If so the vegans would be a demonstrably ill group of people who die early, whereas the opposite is true. There is such a prolific amount of scientific research over many decades showing they have longer and healthier lives than meat-eating counterparts.

In the past people seem to have bulked out with animal protein to help build muscle if they exercise a lot, and especially if they are sports people who wish to reach the top of their field. The tide on this is turning. Did you know that Carl Lewis one of the most famous runners in the world went vegan and found that he never performed better. You can watch an interview with him at youtube.com/watch?v=bOTETXw...(Not working as expected?).

Here in the UK an entire football team has gone vegan. theguardian.com/football/sh.... Their progress will be interesting to watch.

[Hidden in reply to andyswarbs]

There are class 1 proteins and essential fatty acids

These are obtained from various sources . . Plant and animal.

Many of the vegetarian communities always took milk products

In India we are mostly vegetarians but take milk butter ghee paneer

So this provides that animal origin fats and proteins will delay

[andyswarbs in reply to Hidden]

In my opinion there is a large myth around proteins. One is the amount of protein needed for a healthy life, the other is different classes of proteins. The amount of protein needed for human body stems from "research" in the 1800s. Over time this amount was doubled for safety reasons, and then later the US meat industry lobbied for it to be doubled again. I simply ask how many times have you seen a case of protein deficiency in modern society!

As to different classes of proteins, as a long term vegetarian I had this myth inside my brain from the 1980s. But the truth is anyone eating a whole food plant based diet gets enough protein without any concern over what types or classes of proteins they are eating.

Here is one useful article for anyone wanting to know more about protein myths drmcdougall.com/misc/2007nl... is a very interesting read.

[Hidden in reply to andyswarbs]

My personal opinion:

I believe in old research as then they were done by many individuals who were rich and no junk food industries influence

We humans need a varied diet depending on our genetics also

McDougall is pushing some starch solution and a franchise and making money

However we are entitled to our decisions

All the best

[andyswarbs in reply to Hidden]

He certainly is pushing a starch solution which I believe is based on his lifetime medical career as a qualified doctor in healing people. Not sure that any franchise exists - be very interested to see any links you can provide to support that.

all the best.