subject: How Much Meat Should You Eat a Day? [print this page] How Much Meat Should You Eat a Day? How Much Meat Should You Eat a Day?
If anyone has a stake, how many people eat meat as size of deck of card? - Almost none. Most stakes served in restaurants is about 2 to 4 times bigger then that.
One of the biggest reason why people eat meat is because of protein. From the time of birth to about a year old is the fastest growing occurring during life time. So it may be assume that naturally mother's milk have a lot of protein. In truth, mother's milk has about 6% protein. Far less then what people had assumed. Most vegetables and fruits have more protein then that.
Even for body builder who thinks lots of protein is needed to build your muscle, protein intake should be thought again. The all time body builder champion Arnold Schwarzenegger said, "Most people think they need 50-70% of protein intake to their total calorie intake in order to body build. However, that is not true. According to my formula, 1g of protein per 1 kg(1000g) body weight is enough."
Since 1 kg is about 2.2 pounds (2.2046226218 pound to be exact), If one weighs 150 pounds, 150/2.2 = 68.18kg. So one needs 68.18gram of protein. How much is that? 1 ounce is about 28.3 grams. So 68.18/28.3 = 2.4 ounces. One needs about 2.4 ounces of protein a day. USDA's recommended amount of meat intake is about 2-3 ounces per serving, which look like a deck of card.
However, plants already have that amount of protein, if you eat too much meat, which is most Americans are, you are going to make your blood acidic due to too much protein intake, which cause the calcium loss in the bone.
People usually think that human ought to eat meat because we have been always and consider themselves as omnivores. That is not true. Meat has not been major part of human diet they invented equipment to kill animals. That is not that long. Even though tens of thousands of years may be long time, it is but a short moment in the time table of evolutionarily scale.
If you look at human's diet from evolutionary scale, human are primate. All primate's diet are 95-99% raw fruits and vegetables, except human. When food is presented to children who have not yet developed addiction to food, their natural choice is fruit, even though a gourmet dish prepared by top chief is right next to it. All primates are naturally fond of fruits including human.
Of all primates, none eat meat like human do. Gorillas are 100% vegetarians. Orangutans eat small amount of insects, Bonobos eat meat, but less then 1%. Chimpanzees eat less then 5% of meat in their total diet. Despite of this, all of these primates' canines are sharper and longer then human.
While most humans are "behavioral" omnivores, when body anatomy is examined, human are certified herbivores. Herbivores and humans have to chew their food extensively with side to side mouth movement before they swallow. Carnivores and omnivores swallow their food whole without much chewing. Omnivores such as pig, when they eat fruit such as banana, they swallow the whole thing including the skin, whereas primates always peel fruits when they eat - so as human.
Among primates, you don't see diabetes, arthritis, cancer, high blood pressure. You only see that in human society. Interestingly enough, you see the same disease when you feed animal diet to herbivores. Incidentally, clinical study shows that when herbivore animals switch to human diet they get disease which modern human get, such as diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease, arthritis, and so on.
USDA's meat recommendation is about 2-3 ounce per serving. I would say proper meat intake should not exceed 5% of human diet.
