{"id":1315589,"date":"2019-10-13T15:00:01","date_gmt":"2019-10-13T21:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/doctors-tip-meat-is-heat\/"},"modified":"2019-10-13T15:00:01","modified_gmt":"2019-10-13T21:00:01","slug":"doctors-tip-meat-is-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/doctors-tip-meat-is-heat\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor\u2019s Tip: Meat is heat"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Physicians need to speak out about climate change, which is the biggest health threat of the 21st century. Heat causes illness and death \u2014 an estimated 40,000 people died as a result of the heat wave in Europe in 2003. And climate change is already contributing to respiratory disorders, spread of infectious diseases, human migration and mental health disorders.<\/p>\n

It turns out that the best diet for the health of the planet is the same one that\u2019s best for you \u2014 plant-based instead of animal-based:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Animal agribusiness generates more greenhouse gases than all forms of transportation combined \u2014 animal production accounts for at least 18 percent, versus 13.5 percent for transportation.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Farm animals produce 37 percent of the methane and 65 percent of the nitrous oxide in our atmosphere \u2014 both of which are even more powerful greenhouse gases than CO2.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Meat and dairy provide 18 percent of all calories consumed on the planet, but account for 60 percent of the greenhouse gases.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The number of kilograms of greenhouse gas resulting from production of 100 grams of various foods are: beef 50, poultry 5.7, tofu 2.<\/p>\n

Although global warming is the most serious environmental problem facing the human race today, it\u2019s important to be aware of the other environmental problems related to eating meat:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Livestock uses about 30 percent of all land worldwide. If the entire world cut out meat and dairy, global farmland would decrease by 75 percent, and the equivalent of the land mass of the U.S., China, E.U., and Australia combined would potentially go from farmland back to its natural state.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Land for meat production accounts for most of the deforestation in the world \u2014 for example 4\/5ths of the deforestation in the Amazon is linked to raising cattle.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Antibiotics and hormones used in factory and some conventional farming get into us directly by eating meat, and indirectly via contamination of our water supply.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The water footprint of meat production is huge compared to that of plant production.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Manure and urine from cattle and pig feedlots seep into our rivers, our aquifers and our water supplies.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Pesticides and other environmental toxins are stored in the muscle and fat of farm animals. If you eat meat you get 15 times and dairy 5.5 times the amount of these toxins compared to eating plants.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is this: \u201cMeat is heat,\u201d as Dr. Michael Greger says. Avoid it for your health and that of the planet. In the 1950s the population of our planet hadn\u2019t reached 2 billion, now it\u2019s 7 billion, and in 2050 it\u2019s projected to be 10 billion. The most efficient and environmentally friendly way to feed people is to eat at the bottom of the food chain by eating plants, instead of seafood and meat at the top of the food chain.<\/p>\n

Retired physician Greg Feinsinger, M.D., is author of new book \u201cEnjoy Optimal Health, 98 Health Tips From a Family Doctor,\u201d available on Amazon and in local bookstores. Profits go towards an endowment to the University of Colorado School of Medicine to add prevention and nutrition to the curriculum. He is available for free consultations about heart attack prevention, diabetes reversal, nutrition, and other health issues. Call 379-5718 for an appointment. For questions about his column, email gfeinsinger@comcast.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Physicians need to speak out about climate change, which is the biggest health threat of the 21st century. Heat causes illness and death \u2014 an estimated 40,000 people died as a result of the heat wave in Europe in 2003. And climate change is already contributing to respiratory disorders, spread of infectious diseases, human migration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1315589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 19:01:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1315589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315589\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1315589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1315589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1315589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}