Meat and More Twaddle

Via NickM over at Counting Cats, we are drawn to the latest “research” carried out on behalf of Friends of the Earth.

Eating no more than three pieces of meat a week could prevent around 45,000 early deaths and save the NHS £1.2 billion each year, according to new research.

My instant reaction to this stuff, having been exposed to it for so long now, is to think “oh, yeah?” As Nick points out – what do they mean by early death? And how does this correlate to people who do eat a diet approved by Friends of the Earth and keel over early as well? And, besides, how does an early death cost the NHS more given that once expired, we no longer need its services. On the other hand, living to a ripe old age, senile, incontinent and no longer solvent due the the state having swallowed all of our meagre assets to pay for our care, we continue to be a drain as we wait for God does cost.

The University of Oxford study said processed products, such as cheap burgers or sausages, were particularly bad for people’s health because of high levels of salt and fat.

Ah, yes, the old salt and fat thing. Firstly, in moderation neither are a problem. Secondly, in the case of salt, unless one is already prone to hypertension, it isn’t a problem. The body excretes excess salt. On the other hand, too little can lead to all sorts of problems, such as cellular breakdown, which can lead to… an early death.

Researchers analysed the health of a people on a range of different diets. They found that lower-meat diets could cut deaths from heart disease by around 31,000, deaths from cancer by 9,000 and deaths from strokes by 5,000 each year.

I see that the ministry of made up statistics has been working overtime again. Isn’t it about time their budget was cut? I agree with Nick (ahem) they are just a bit too specific. Not least given that they can only ever be a guess, given the chaotic nature of the raw data in the first place. Human beings just aren’t that orderly, we do not sit neatly in little pigeon holes. People who eat burgers, don’t necessarily do so every day – and, again, who is to say that those who do like a Big Mac are binging on fatty foods the rest of the time? And Salt isn’t a problem unless you are already prone to hypertension, whereas a low salt diet is dangerous. Did I say that already?

At the moment, the average Briton eats one large beef steak, two portions of chicken breast, two pork chops as well as milk and cheese every day during the week.

All of that every day? Shome mishtake, shurely. Where do they get this claptrap from? Oh, yeah, the ministry of made up statistics. I eat some meat every day, but I’d never pig out like that and I don’t know anyone else who does. That’s the trouble with research such as this – it’s all based on flawed information. Sure there may be some people who eat that much every day, but I’ll be damned if I’ve met any of them. Most of the folk I know grab a light breakfast, a sandwich at lunchtime and a main meal in the evening.

The research, commissioned by Friends of the Earth, found processed meat is particularly unhealthy. An average supermarket chicken today contains 2.7 times as much fat as in 1970 and 30 per cent less protein.

Firstly, I take anything that has been commissioned by a lobby group with a mountain of salt, frankly. Also, bearing in mind that these people now consider bacon to be processed meat, they are spreading their net rather wide.

Naturally, the luvvies get in on the act.

Vegetarian celebrities, including Sir Paul McCartney, advocate ‘meat-free Mondays’ while Lord Stern and the United Nations have also called on the rich world to cut down on meat.

If that is what they want to do, who am I to stop them? I wouldn’t dream of it. I merely expect them to be equally tolerant of my choices. Oh, no, wait…

Helen Baxendale, the Friends actress and mother of three, said she has already changed her family’s diet.

She called for new legislation to encourage more people to cut down on meat and cut subsidies to ‘factory farmers’ in favour of farms where animals are put out to graze.

They want to use the violence of the state to force me into compliance. And why is it that once someone gets famous for singing and dancing or pretending to be someone else, their vapid ideas are treated with a gravitas they do not deserve?

I’ll leave the last word to Nick:

It wouldn’t surprise me if the resultant loss of food production and resultant starvation this results in is a feature not a bug to them. The Baxendales and the plebs scared by this health threat who are steered into “action” are the useful idiots here. The same cannot be said about the Likes of Stern and Porritt. They are Chairman and Mrs Mao wrapped in matching “sustainable” ethnically patterned sarongs to make them look “nice”. They are not. They are evil. The greatest trick they ever pulled was to look otherwise.

Indeed.