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 Doing the Right Thing: A Convergence of Health and
Energy
By Rotarian Anne
Hazelton MD, MSPH
As I watched the Inauguration of our
new President, I began asking myself what I could personally do to
help our world. Soon afterward I heard a radio program talking
about how what we eat impacts the planet. The idea is that
resource-intensive foods (such as animals) use more energy in
growing, processing and transporting than produce, especially those
raised near where they will be consumed. I had heard of local
Farmers’ Markets providing fresher, potentially more nutritious
foods that use less fuel because of shorter delivery distances.
(Search for one near you at the USDA website,
http://apps.ams.usda.gov/FarmersMarkets/) But I had not
considered how much our food choices affect the earth’s well-being
and our “Carbon Footprint.” In addition to buying local fruits and
vegetables, it also makes sense to eat less meat.
 WHAT IS A “FLEXITARIAN”? AND WHY DO THEY LOOK
GREAT?
A recent useful term is that of a “flexitarian,” who
is “a vegetarian who occasionally eats meat.” You can choose
to be more careful about eating animals, focusing instead on produce
and whole grains and some other plant foods. This means that
you might consume more fish (but be careful about pollutants) and
very little or no beef, and limit chicken. Thomas Jefferson
famously said that meats should be the “condiment” at a meal.
Some figures suggests that vegetarians live on average 3.6 years
longer than others, and switching to a mostly vegetarian diet could
drop up to 10-30 pounds per year (if you need to lose weight),
without changing much else. Flexitarians likely will enjoy nearly
the same health benefits, but they will have an easier time living
in a carnivorous world.
GOOD FOR THE PLANET, GOOD FOR YOU
The Ah-Ha moment was that all this talk about
eating less meat and more fruits and vegetables sounds very much
like what doctors are promoting for well-being. A healthier
diet should lead to weight loss (even without exercising, but I
still believe you need both). Blood pressure can be reduced
with even a modest improvement in obesity, cholesterol can improve
with a better diet, and aging joints may last longer if they are not
supporting massive weight. Many cancers and heart disease are
also linked to being overweight. The list goes on.
A
vicious cycle is set up when we eat today’s portion sizes that are
too large (see
http://hp2010.nhlbihin.net/portion/ for a nice quiz about how
our much-larger servings compare with those of 20 years ago).
We tend to drive our cars to get our fast food, which gives us less
exercise and more weight gain, which leads us to an even more
sedentary life and larger girth. Obesity is becoming the Root
of Many Evils for adults and, even more alarmingly, for kids.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the price per ounce of unhealthy food
INCREASED as the portion size went up so that the Huge Helping was
much more expensive than a reasonable amount? This change
could help the family budget in our tight economy too. (One
could argue that splitting one large, inexpensive portion with
another person is the answer, but most folks don’t do that. I’d
prefer to eat most of what is on a smaller plate than half of the
“Monster Meal” that shows up.)
HIDDEN COSTS IN THAT BURGER
Raising beef instead of broccoli leads to a huge
environmental cost. It produces more pollution (animal waste
and methane gas, for example); it requires more land space
(pastures) which is one of the reasons that the rain forests are
disappearing; and it uses a huge amount of vegetable matter for
animal feed. It is estimated that it takes 4.8 pounds of grain
fed to cattle to produce one pound of beef for human beings.
This would seem to be a poor choice for resources in a world with
hunger and malnutrition. It has been noted also that beef production
alone uses more water than is consumed in growing the nation's
entire fruit and vegetable crop. One author points out that
not eating a pound of beef would save more water than not showering
for a year!
And although these numbers are presented for
beef, poultry and fish also use more resources than food that comes
directly from the ground. For example, according to a British
group that promotes sustainable food for the world, a 10-acre farm
can support 60 people by growing soybeans, 24 people by growing
wheat, 10 people from growing corn and only two if producing cattle.
JUST DO WHAT YOU CAN
It is a personal health decision
as to what you eat, and you may want to consult your doctor if you
are going to make big changes. Meat does still provide
protein, which is more difficult to consume in a vegetarian diet.
The Daily Reference Values (DRVs) from the FDA recommends 50 grams
of protein per day (for children over 4 and adults, excluding
pregnant or nursing women), which is 1.76 ounces of protein a day.
The Food Pyramid (MyPyramid.gov) recommends 2 ounces of lean “meat”
(including fish or poultry) and beans per day. (Two to three ounces
of meat is about the size of a deck of cards, so this is more than
enough protein for the entire day!) Certainly if you plan on
becoming vegan (NO meat OR dairy products) you will need to become
educated about food intake. Vegetarian diets may have some risks for
certain people, and some doctors will advise people with anemia to
eat red meat for iron supplementation. (I actually grew up in
Montana, and I’m aware that the cattle industry is working on more
environmentally friendly ideas). 
Even if you do not want to consider eating a
LOT less meat, every change counts. What I learned from the
radio program is that we kill 10 billion animals per year for food,
and that if everyone substituted one or two meals a week with
vegetarian menus instead of meat, we could reduce that number by
about 10% (1 billion fewer animals!). Another concept is that
if everyone ate smaller portions, even by 10%, we could accomplish
the same reduction.
So food and energy are linked.
A calorie is a unit of energy that measure how much fuel food
provides to our bodies. Today, “energy” is a big buzz word,
not only because of our slumping economy and our desire to be
independent from oil-producing countries, but also because energy
use affects global warming and climate change. By eating
smarter, we would not only be doing something good for ourselves and
our families, we would be helping the world, too.
About the author: Anne Hazelton
has a degree in chemical engineering, worked as a biomedical
engineer (plus grad school), then received MD from UC Davis; later a
Master of Science of Public Health; Board Certified in Preventive
Medicine. She is a member of Rotary Club of Denver Southeast,
District 5450 and a Paul Harris Fellow.
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