Meat vs Vegetable Protein October 27, 2009
Posted by Dr Dan in paleo diet.Tags: Meat Eater, paleo diet, protein, Vegetarian
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I was reading some of the comments in my most controversial vegetarians vs meat eaters post. Which frankly I wish I had never wrote now because it seems you can’t show one slice of evidence in favour of eating meat without some people thinking your trying to bring down the whole vegetarian movement. However, as I was looking through some articles I found this article, which I thought was interesting and relevant. It is by Wiebe et al (1984) and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (vol 40).
This study looks at the effect of plant and animal protein on blood lipid levels in eight healthy men aged between 18 – 27 yr (scary they would be 43-52 now). All men were fed both plant and animal protein diets for a 21 day period in a cross over design. What they found was that when men ate meat proteins they showed higher HDL cholesterol proteins (good healthy fats) and did not show any difference in LDL (bad healthy fats – apparently) when compared to when eating vegetarian proteins. When eating vegetarian proteins there was also a significant increase in mean serum triyglyceride values. So this study shows that meat protein is likely to better for you than vegetarian protein. Surely.
Nice work Dr Dan. This is a very interesting topic. My wife isn’t a big fan of meat so she always tried to put a vegetarian meal on the table. Veg meals never ever satisfied me. I would always go searching for more food afterwards. Soy and Tofu always gave me the runs – no wonder. After what I have read about how disastrous they are to the human body I’m not surprised.
In the 18 months since going primal (I still eat dairy) by eliminating wheat and increasing my protein intake (read: meat), I feel stronger, have more energy, more alert and I’m headache and heartburn free (two things that I specifically attribute to wheat/gluten intake: http://theshmaltz.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-beef-with-wheat.html).
I’m 42 and I feel like I’m in my 20’s again. My wife has done the same and she has lost about 10kg – she looks awesome! No one in the family has been sick for ages. Not even a cold. And we have a young one at kinder so you can imagine the cross pollination of diseases that goes on there!
Keep it up mate. Love your work.
Shmaltzy
I do not think the most significant varied factor in this study was animal vs plant protein.
I pulled the fulltext, the plant protein diet consumed 45 grams/day of vegetable oil, while the animal protein diet consumed 45 grams/day of beef tallow.
Unless coconut or palm oil was used, the animal protein diet received at least twice as much saturated fat, which also happens to increase HDL more than monounsaturated fats.
Also, meat eaters consume less calories per nutrient then their Vegan counterpart.
Can you offer me a link to such study?
Thanks!
I can’t wait the for the vegan to come here and tell you that we evolved to eat a non-meat diet….yes, there are some out there, believe me.
^100 calories of broccoli has slightly more protein than 100 calories of beef. What are you eating?
You can find a study that suit any opinion and I can say you found one that suit yours. But let me tell you about my own experience, I am vegetarian and haven’t get flu in more than 7 years . I am 59 now and I run, lift weight etc.. . I appreciate your opinion but I think you are wrong. I would like to recommend to you a book called the ” The china study”. Any way wherever your opinion I wish you good luck with your diet.