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To: Organic Issues <organic@lists.iatp.org>
From: mritchie@iatp.org
Date: 2003-04-23 10:42:25
Subject: Campaign says retreat from meat for a day
Campaign says retreat from meat for a day
'Health is focus' in schools' effort ----------
By Arthur Hirsch
Baltimore Sun Staff
Originally published April 23, 2003 "Monday, Monday, sometimes it just turns out that way ... " - John Phillips Pick a day, any day, really. For folks bent on public impact, the day is a
question of alliterative appeal, a quest for something snappy to break
through a cacophony of nutrition and health studies. The tag line of this national campaign, then, is "Meatless Monday,"
although the folks at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
would be just as happy if you set aside Tuesday or Thursday to eschew beef
for some alternative, perhaps taking a moment to consider the advantages of
foodstuffs that never walked the earth. Hopkins is taking the lead with 28 other schools of public health to press
a simple message: For the sake of health, eat a bit less meat. There's
nothing radical here. There's no extreme deprivation, nothing complicated
or especially new, really, except the slogan and the packaging. "Health is the focus," says Sid Lerner, who chairs the campaign, the goal
of which is to reduce consumption of saturated fat by at least 15 percent
by 2010. The Meatless Monday Web site featuring recipes, celebrity testimonials,
health tips and coupons just went up this month, the effort's first volley
in what is planned as a sustained public-education campaign. The project
also will offer grants to graduate students who design community-education
projects, with particular effort made toward reaching low-income people. Lerner, a former advertising man - he says he worked on the old "Mr.
Whipple" toilet-paper campaign - joined this effort as he became more
concerned about his own rising blood pressure. He was working on another
project with Hopkins and pursued the possibility of a public-education
effort, bearing in mind a mantra: Keep it simple, stupid. "One message is clear," says Lerner. "We eat too much meat, not enough
fruit and vegetables. Meat has made itself the center of every plate we see
these days." With food, exactly how much of anything is too much is not always easily
established. When the question involves the connection between nutrition
and health, things can get especially murky. The American Heart Association recommends limiting average cholesterol
consumption to 300 milligrams a day for healthy people, 200 milligrams for
those with a history of heart disease. That means keeping an eye on
consumption of animal products - dairy, eggs, meat - that contain
cholesterol. Fruit, vegetables, grains and any other foods from plants
contain no cholesterol. A 3-ounce cooked serving of red meat, for example, contains about 80
milligrams of cholesterol. The same amount of skinless chicken breast
contains 70; the same portion of fish contains between 20 and 80
milligrams, depending on the fish. Then, of course, there's the argument that a hunk of beef contains both
"bad" and "good" cholesterol - low-density lipoproteins and high-density
lipoproteins, respectively - the effects of which cancel each other out to
a certain degree. And some of the saturated fat in beef is stearic acid,
which has beneficial effects on cholesterol. High levels of LDL have been associated with increased heart disease risk,
while high levels of HDL seem to protect against heart attack, says the
American Heart Association. For nearly a century, researchers have been trying to nail down the link
between diet and heart disease, with particular focus on cholesterol and
coronary heart disease. Caused by constriction of the arteries that feed
the heart, coronary heart disease kills more Americans than any other
single illness: about half a million men and women a year. While no absolutely certain, direct causal link has been discovered, the
weight of research connects diets low in saturated fat, which carries
low-density lipoproteins, and reduced heart disease. The Nov. 27, 2002, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association
included an article by Dr. Frank B. Hu and Dr. Walter C. Willett of the
Harvard School of Public Health, counted among the most prominent figures
in research on the link between diet and heart disease. Their review of clinical studies found "evidence is now clear" that
"significant protection against" coronary heart disease can be derived from
diets relying on unsaturated fats - olive oil, canola oil, for example -
whole grains and lots of fruit and vegetables. Eating this way, exercising
regularly, keeping weight down and avoiding smoking "may prevent the
majority of cardiovascular disease in Western populations," the article said. Dr. Robert S. Lawrence of the Bloomberg School of Public Health says the
unquestionable effectiveness of cholesterol drugs in reducing LDL and heart
disease is further evidence of a connection. That point, however, raises
the question of whether the effect of a drug can be equated with the effect
of a diet. "Is the drug doing something else?" Lawrence asks. Lawrence acknowledges
"it's a complex story," even as the campaign he supports attempts to convey
a simple message: Eat less meat. Food-consumption statistics suggest that the organization is rowing against
the tide. While Americans are eating less beef today than they did 30 years
ago, they have more than made up the difference in poultry. According to the American Meat Institute, chicken consumption rose from 25
to 54 pounds per person from 1970 to 1999. In the same period, beef
consumption fell, rose a bit and leveled off - from a high of 89 pounds per
person in 1976 to 66 pounds in 1999. Around the world, meat consumption has been rising steadily for 50 years,
which alarms the Worldwatch Institute and others concerned about the
environmental impact of meat production, and the relatively inefficiency of
it as a food compared with, say, grain products. In other words, it takes
more grain to feed an animal to produce a certain amount of meat than it
takes to produce a grain-based food. Lawrence, who directs Hopkins' Center for a Livable Future, considers that
dimension of meat moderation as well. But that's complicating matters again. Lerner, the former ad man, would rather keep it simple: Pick a day, any
day, and abstain from meat. Try something else, it might be enjoyable. "We're trying not to feature the negative side, the hair shirt," says
Lerner. "We're not killjoys. Just lighten up on the meat." The Meatless Monday Web site is www.meatless monday.com. Copyright © 2003, The Baltimore Sun
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