http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellbeing/nutrition/human-health-and-the-mythology-of-meat-20170428-gvuiym.html
It's no secret that people living to 100 or more in longevity hot spots like Sardinia and Okinawa have something in common: they eat mostly plants. So why do we cling to the notion that meat is central to a healthy diet?
For one thing, we're stuck on the idea that it takes animal protein to build muscle and – thanks to Paleo – some of us also think our health depends on eating like our hunter-gatherer ancestors.
These beliefs come under scrutiny in The Reducetarian Solution, a new book on why reducing meat is healthy for humans and the planet. Edited by Brian Kateman, co-founder of the Reducetarian movement, this book – like the movement – doesn't demand a meat-free diet. But it does offer good reasons from a range of experts, including doctors, scientists and food writers, for eating less and it demolishes a few myths.
Let's start with muscle.
"Meat is not required to build muscle," says Dr David Katz, director of Yale University's Prevention Research Centre. "Rather, animal muscle can be built from any fuel that animal is adapted to burn – and we humans are adapted to both plant and animal food."
If meat protein is so essential for building muscle, how come some of the world's elite athletes are vegan, he asks. Why is it that a race horse can build so much muscle by munching on plants – and why do gorillas acquire massive muscle on a diet that's 97 per cent vegetarian with a few caterpillars and termites tossed in?
