By Vijay Jayaraj
Iron deficiency — and the anemia it causes — remains a persistent global health issue that can only be exacerbated by a war on meat waged by climate alarmists, whose hostility to animal protein is a manifestation of an anti-human ideology.
Growing up in South Asia, I observed a dietary practice in India where moderate consumption of red meat was prescribed by doctors for individuals with severe anemia, especially women during pregnancy. According to the World Health Organization, more than 40% of children and pregnant women in India and parts of Sub-Saharan Africa are anemic.
The most common symptom of anemia is persistent fatigue, a product of the inability of iron-starved red blood cells to adequately supply oxygen to the body. The cardiovascular system is stressed significantly by the condition.
Studies in 204 countries between 1990 and 2019 show that the most prevalent cause of iron deficiency is a dietary lack of heme iron, a form of the element found in meat.
“Meat is acknowledged as a vital iron source due to its heme iron content, which is more readily absorbed than non-heme iron from plants,” reports an article published in the U.K., where anemia is said to be a long-standing problem for the elderly, teenage girls and women of child-bearing age. Meat’s heme iron also boosts the absorption of non-heme iron from foods eaten during the same meal, according to research.
Cooked beef has the highest heme iron content, followed by lamb, pork and chicken.
According 2021 data from the Institute for Health Metric and Evaluation, anemia rates were worst in Western sub-Saharan Africa, where 47% of the population suffered from the condition. Other severely affected regions were South Asia and Central sub-Saharan Africa, both with incidence rates of about 36%. Conversely, the incidence of anemia was less then 7% in North America, Western Europe and Australasia, where the consumption of red meat was higher.
However, red meat, especially beef, gets no love from the climate obsessed, who claim that methane, a byproduct of a cow’s digestion, threatens to warm the atmosphere to dangerous levels — an alarm that has no scientific basis.
The evidence is overwhelming that the climate scare is supported by a gross exaggeration of the warming potential of methane as well as that of nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide, the last being a critical plant food without which no life could exist.
Even some of those concerned about a manmade climate emergency acknowledge that methane emissions from animal husbandry are not a significant factor. Yet, that didn’t stop the governing council of certain Melbourne suburbs to encourage a switch to “plant-based diets” to avert a “looming climate and ecological crisis.”
“There is substantial evidence to suggest that the emissions associated with current dietary patterns—particularly the high and increasing rate of consumption of animal products—are likely to make it impossible to limit global heating,” warned the Yarra City Council in an 81-page document.
The hot air passed by even the largest herd of cattle could not be more offensive than that produced by such poppycock.
Atmospheric methane has a short lifespan of just 12 years. Through a natural process, it is converted to carbon dioxide, which is utilized as plant food by way of photosynthesis. Eventually, methane emitted by cows circulates back to them in the form of grass and other forage. The warming effect of any additions of the gas — whether from animals, decaying vegetation or industrial activity — is so small as to be undetectable.
Human civilization took many centuries to perfect the art of agriculture and animal husbandry to the point that enough iron-rich food can be produced for a world of 8 billion people. Having accomplished this remarkable feat, some would impose a meatless dystopia of malnutrition in response to a non-existent climate crisis.
This is, of course, intolerable.
This commentary was first published at BizPac Review on July 20, 2024.
Vijay Jayaraj is a Research Associate at the CO2 Coalition, Arlington, Virginia. He holds a master’s degree in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia, U.K., and a postgraduate degree in energy management from Robert Gordon University, U.K.
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Vegans and PETA type animal rights activists basically hate people. “A rat is a dog is a boy” acts to reduce people to the status of rats, in practice.
https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Human-Supremacy-Derrick-Jensen/dp/1609806786
Yes, we know you think that you are no more than a mindless slug… and have a visceral hatred of humankind, especially western civilisation..
What is your point?
Jensen is a radical Malthusian activist, that lives in his own twisted little anti-human mind, with very little link to reality.
He also wrote “The Culture of Make Believe,” which describes the huge bubble of inner FEAR that you live with every day of your demented life.
Just the sort of cretin you would worship.
_________________________________________________________
Uh huh, so how small is “so small as to be undetectable“? Business as usual I get about 0.04°C by 2100. If anyone can say it’s any more than that, they should pipe up and show how much along with their source and work.
The Global Warming Potential numbers are mostly a function of concentration and have nothing to do with the infrared absorption spectrums of greenhouse gases.
Close to zero is probably the correct qualitative answer. No math needed.
The physics issue isn’t methane residency time.
It is that in the lab in a dry atmosphere, methane’s two IR absorption bands are narrow. In the real world with about 2% specific humidity, these are both narrow and puny (not much methane compared to water vapor), completely overlapped by two much broader and stronger water vapor IR absorption bands.
IR absorption by IR active molecules is just one of the many ways energy is transferred in the atmosphere.
There is no evidence it can cause any warming in an atmosphere controlled by the gas laws.
The comments about water vapor overlapping methane’s IR absorption is true in the lower troposphere, but may not be the case in the stratosphere. OTOH, the lower pressure in the stratosphere will likely make the methane lines even narrower.
Extending these excellent points about human health to the industrial health of the West – we are severely anemic in steel production. We need a massive dose of fossil fuel energy to bring iron smelting and steelmaking back to a safe level for our own good.
Anemia has several ‘definitions’ depending on severity. In predominantly Hindu India (low beef consumption per sacred cow religion) the ‘moderate anemia’ prevalence among children and menstruating females is a shocking about 60%. Just looked it up. 170th out of 182 in the world by prevelance (the even lower ranked rest are all low population small island nations with mainly fish protein).
In addition to natural beef heme, vegetable heme (e.g. in spinach) absorption is aided by supplemental folate and B12. Of course, neither are readily available to poor Hindus in India.
I plan on avoiding the global warming anemia problem tonight by cooking a big ‘Cheeseburger in Paradise’ topped by fresh tomato and lettuce on a toasted sesame bun, with sides of pickles and ‘fries’—while listening to Jimmy Buffet here on the beach in Fort Lauderdale. IMO his second best song after Margaritaville with his ‘missing shaker of salt’. Come to think of it, I will also make a margarita to go with the cheeseburger. Got the lime, the tequila, and the shaker of salt. And the Jimmy Buffet.
Rud,
That spinach heme iron is very poorly absorbed by most people, and that says nothing about the high level of oxalates in spinach which can lead to numerous problems such as kidney stones!
I think I may join you in Cheeseburger Paradise tonight, though, but I’ll stick with my usual; a 1/2 lb. patty with green chile, bacon and cheese on a ciabatta roll with a side of guacamole! And a margarita, of course!
A Jimmy Buffet concert had the hardest drinking crowd I have ever seen! We poured and poured, without let up, until we ran out of margaritas!
No signs of anemia here! This evening I enjoyed a medium-rare rib eye steak, prepared on my propane-fired grill, with roasted potatoes on the side and some garden greens.
I like that this article points out the health benefits of beef but I would be eating it anyway. Last night I slow roasted a rolled roast for 4.5 hours at 165 deg C. Unbelievably tender and delicious, but I am pleased to know it is also good for me.
The burger sounds delicious, enjoy! And Jimmy Buffet on the beach, perfect. Envying you them both.
Presently, the concentration of methane in air is 1.929 ppm by volume. The reason
the concentration of methane in air is so low is due to the ignition of its combustion
by discharges of lightning. Every day there are many thousands discharges of lightning, especially in the tropics.
Methane is slightly soluble in cold water. Ice-cold polar water at 0 deg. C can hold 35 ml of methane. That is not much, but the polar oceans are immense. The methane slowly diffuses downward to the ocean floor, and due the high pressure forms methane hydrate.
There vast deposits of methane hydrate in cold polar waters.
We really do not have to worry too much about methane.
Interesting geological ‘corrections’. In the Gulf, deep methane hydrates form from natural seeps from the underlying methane natgas fields. Not abundant enough to be worth harvesting. In the Framm Strait, methane hydrates form naturally from the interaction of seawater with sea floor spreading upwelling basalt. Well known but rare chemistry.
Only in the Nanking Trough off Japan are there sufficiently abundant methane hydrates to justify a ‘mining’ exploration. Japan tried, and failed. Details in essay ‘Ice that Burns’ in ebook Blowing Smoke.
That’s interesting Harold. It would be good if we could come up with an economical way of harvesting those polar methane hydrate reserves. I have recently learnt that there is a concentration gradient of methane. In the north of the northern hemisphere the concentration is higher than in the south of the southern.
I calculated the mean difference between methane at Barrow in Alaska and Baring Head in NZ in New Zealand is about 8%.
Do you think this means methane is not well mixed in the troposphere.
An agenda as old as Plato. Feed the plebes kibble, keep them weak and stupid, while the “elites” (philosopher kings) live lavishly.
Ruminant animals have been an integral part of the human diet for hundreds of thousands of years!
All the essential amino and fatty acids that are present in meat have myriad benefits for the mind and body. Carnivore diets are being used for epilepsy and dementia, and have been found to reverse diabetes in several studies.
The low fat, high carb diet is the most destructive hoax in human history; at least until the climate hoax began! Anyone advocating against the consumption of meat is merely pushing to keep the populace lazy, fat and stupid; much easier to intimidate and indoctrinate!
George Carlin – Saving the Planet
… search for a video …
Here it is …
I’m supposed to have to take iron supplements every day to keep my red blood cells count from dropping down to anemic level.
They taste like sh1t, and make my poo look like I’m living on licorice, so that’s how I justify having steaks every other night, and beef stews, pies, lamb roasts and chops, hamburgers and beef jerky.
Me give up red meat?
“From my cold dead teeth”.
You may have lymphoma and not an iron deficiency.
I have a reasonable understanding of this since I have had lymphoma and chemo. It came back after 5 years. Recovered now. Your iron stays in your system and is processed by your marrow, unless, of course, you bleed a lot.
Overdosing on iron supplements can kill you.
Intake of iron through food will not harm.
Excuse my lecture.
I like two slices of cheese (American) on my cheese burgers and butter slathered on my rib eye.
1bn cows. 500m Km2. 2 cows per Km2. 100kg of methane per annum per cow. 10yrs in the atmosphere. 2 tonnes of cow produced methane per Km2. 10m tonnes of atmosphere per Km2.
It’s easy.
So if the cows didn’t eat the plant matter are you saying that it would never decompose and the carbon would be locked up forever? There is no natural carbon cycle, only a man-made disruptive cycle?
The push for meat-free diets is one more example of Western imperialism pushing policies that will mostly disadvantage the poor and powerless, while westerners continue to enjoy all the fruits of nature without restriction. Those of us fortunate enough to live in wealthy democratic nations have an obligation to support politicians and policies that are more aligned with what we claim to be our values of empathy, generosity, fairness and freedom. Our money and our votes are supporting this anti human nonsense.
All this meat talk makes me hungry. I’ll fire up the grill and sear a burger.
Grazing animals is the most sustainable source of food.
I’ll take mine medium rare.
What? No blood?
WHERE’S THE BEEF!