Meat Consumption Improves Health Outcomes in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Multiple studies, experts, and international organizations agree that nutrient-dense meat, dairy, and eggs are essential in healthy diets.

It’s a fact that as people have more access to meat and other animal-sourced foods, they live longer, healthier lives. There are zero studies showing that removing meat from the diet will improve health or growth.

Studies Against Meat are Weak

The studies vilifying meat as unhealthy are based on observational research, which can only show associations and are riddled with flaws. For example, the fact that people who frequent airports tend to drink coffee doesn’t mean that airports cause coffee consumption. When adjusted for factors like fresh vegetable consumption (something we can all get behind), and lifestyle factors like smoking, drinking, sleep and movement, there is no difference in all-cause mortality between omnivores and vegetarians. 

Image source: Spurious Correlations

Randomized control trials are the gold standard in nutrition research because, unlike observational studies that can only show associations, RCTs can show a direct cause. 

Only one randomized control trial looked at variations in meat consumption, and it showed that children who received more meat had improvements in growth, cognitive and behavioral outcomes, compared to their counterparts who received no meat supplement. There are no studies showing that removing meat from the diet will improve health or growth.

Another study: "UN OEUF" (ONE EGG): IMPROVING NUTRITION IN CHILDREN UNDER TWO THROUGH INCREASED EGG CONSUMPTION IN BURKINA FASO showed that when mothers received training on the importance of egg consumption for their children, acute malnutrition was significantly reversed.

Less Meat Means More Nutrient Deficiencies

Taking meat away from those already receiving too little will increase the devastating health consequences already being experienced, especially for women and children in low- and middle-income  countries (LMIC). Iron and B12 are two of the most common nutrient deficiencies worldwide, and meat is the best source of these nutrients. 

Meat is also important for health in high-income countries

While malnutrition may not be as critical of an issue for most in high income countries, food insecurity still impacts over 10% of the population of the US, and nutrient deficiencies and insuffencies in the “overfed yet undernourished” populations are prevalent. Nearly 10% of women and about 7% of children are iron deficient in America. Meat is the most absorbable source of iron. The solution to the most common deficiencies is nutrient-dense meat, dairy, and eggs are critical sources of essential nutrients, which are particularly important for women, children, and aging populations. Yet, there’s a perception that we’re eating “too much meat” however, meat is one of the lowest calorie and most bioavailable forms of the most common nutrient deficiencies, and meat consumption in many high-income countries has been on the decline. In the United States, beef consumption is less than 2oz per person per day. 

By comparison, ultra-processed foods in the form of refined grains, oils and added sugars are high in calories and low in nutrients and their consumption is at an all time high. These hyperpalatable foods lead to overconsumption of calories. Reduction of these foods should be the real focus of our efforts, not a global reduction in consumption of nutrient-dense foods. 

Reducing Meat Won’t Make a Meaningful Impact on GHG Emissions

There is no strong evidence that shows a reduction in or elimination of animal-sourced foods would lead to healthier people or substantially less emissions. One study modeled what would happen if the United States eliminated all animal agriculture and found that there would only be a 2.5% decrease in total GHG emissions. At the same time, nutrient deficiencies would increase (with overall calorie and carbohydrate consumption increasing) and the US food system would become “imbalanced.” Additionally, not all plant-based foods have a low carbon footprint when considering their perishability and transportation. In many wealthier parts of the world, little fresh produce is produced in the winter, so the idea that eating only plants is necessarily a better option for climate change is illogical. Additionally, meat substitutes also can have substantially more GHG emissions than consuming local animal-sourced foods. 

Meat, dairy, and eggs cannot be scapegoated for unhealthy diets

Demonizing meat consumption for the general overconsumption of calories in some countries is illogical and not supported by evidence. Let’s focus on improving nutrient intake and reducing our overconsumption of nutrient-poor foods, which are the main villain in our food system.