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Healthy eating doesn’t have to include meat

By Kevin Pierson
Special to The Times

As emphasis on healthy eating increases across the nation new diets and diet plans are popping up to help people lose weight and stay healthy.

One diet that is growing in popularity with residents is to cut back on the amount of meat or eliminate it completely in their diet to reduce their fat intake.

“Meat is fine, but most of us get way too much of it, which means we get too much fat,” said Joyce Brown, educator of family and consumer sciences with the Athens County office of OSU Extension Service.

For many years people were urged to eat about five to six ounces of meat a day under the food pyramid to acquire the complete proteins and amino acids meat offers.
Recent studies have found that there are ways to get complete proteins by combining a grain product with a milk or dried bean product which then has all the essential amino acids that meat provides.

“We have to have those essential amino acids coming into our body at the same time to provide our cells with the nutrients we need,” Brown said. “To not have them all at once would be like to have the eggs and the flour to make a cake and then an hour later putting in some milk and that won’t work.”

According to Brown, the only vitamin that meat provides that cannot be gained through an alternative food is vitamin B12 which requires some consumption of animal products.

There are several levels of vegetarianism, with some who will eat animal products such as milk, cheese and occasionally eggs, and the vegan, who will not eat any animal products at all.

“People don’t necessarily need meat other than for that vitamin B12 but they do need to be careful how they interrupt vegetarianism so they do get those complete proteins,” Brown said.

The reduction of red meat in people's diets is not merely a trend, according to Don Murray, owner of Brighter Day Natural Foods.

Vegetarianism is a lifelong endeavor.

"People who are vegetarians tend to commit to it early in their lives," said Murray.
While the meatless meals are becoming popular with many people, there remains a large percentage of the populace who enjoy having meat with their meals and the focus on healthy eating has helped make some healthier meat products available.
Today’s grocery stores contain lean cuts of sirloin steaks, fish and chicken to help people eat healthier.

“There’s just a variety of leaner healthier cuts of meat produced today than what there were even 10 years ago,” said Bucky Lee, co-owner of Food 4 Less in Marietta.

Despite the growing popularity of eating meals without meat, residents are not encouraged to eliminate meat totally from their diet but rather to reduce the amount of meat and eat more variety from the other food groups.

“We need a mixture of all the kinds of food in moderation,” Brown said. “Don’t be afraid of any one food group, but also don’t load up totally on any one food group.”

Austin Ross contributed.