All human beings are omnivores meaning they can eat plants (vegetables) and meat. Those who chose not to eat meat are known as vegetarian while those who eat meat are known as non-vegetarian. While being a meat eating omnivore has its benefits such as getting all the essential nutrients and vitamins that an individual needs to survive and be healthy, the consumption of red meat has a negative effect on our health thus its intake should be controlled or banned at all. Red meat is linked to colorectal cancer, bowel cancer, breast cancer, stroke, heart disease.

Consumption of red meat is a great source of protein and essential nutrients such as iron, vitamin B12. Red meat includes pork, mice, and processed meat such as sausages and bacon. As there is always two sides to a coin, eating red meat also has a downside, it is high in saturated fat that leads to cardiovascular diseases such as Ischemic heart disease, stroke, acute coronary syndrome and it has shown a significant relationship between red meat and CHD in women. Ischemic heart disease (coronary artery disease) is a hardening of arteries. It is caused because of a high level of cholesterol that builds up in the arteries of the heart and causes not enough blood flow and oxygen to reach heart which results in heart attack. “90% of the heart attacks are due to smoking” (Public Health (Ischemic Heart Disease and Agent Orange-) and high cholesterol and since red meat such as bacon and sausages have more saturated fat than tofu. Even cheese isn’t good for you as it’s also high in saturated fat. The department of Heath advised people who eat more than 90grams of red meat to cut it down to 70grams.

In particular, processed meat like bacon or sausages. Processed meat is defined as “meat preserved by smoking, curing or salting, or addition of chemical preservatives” that includes bacon, salami, hot dogs, pepperoni, corned beef, sausages, deli meats that are related to the cause of colorectal cancer. Just like the case with red meat, processed meat in small amount doesn’t affect the health greatly, but over time, it does have severe effects. Smoked meat contains PAHs- Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon. PAH is produced naturally but it can be man-made. PAHs are produced from cocal, oil, gas, and garbage are burned but it’s not completely burnt. PAHs can enter the body through breathing contaminated air. PAHs affect our health because they can be breathed in through the air and eating food that has used PAHs to preserve color and flavor which over time causes tumors. It can be very dangerous to pregnant women as it will cause reproductive problems such as birth defects and a decrease in the body weight. It also affects the skin, body fluids, and weakens the immune system which increases your chances of cancer and other diseases. One can get tested for PAHs amount in your body using urine at a special laboratory.

Intake of red meat is closely related to cancer. There are many types of cancer that it causes from slight relation of red meat to breast cancer, bowel cancer and colorectal cancer. Cancer is caused by this natural sugar, Neu5c that is only present in animals, not humans thus when we consume red meat that has Neu5c eventually builds up causing a tumor. An experiment was conducted at the University of California where mice, who just like us humans don’t contain that sugar as we don’t were fed red meat and they quickly developed a tumor. “This is the first time we have directly shown that mimicking the exact situation in humans’ increases spontaneous cancers in mice,” said Dr. Ajit Varki, Professor of Medicine and Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of California. Another research was conducted at the Harvard School of Medicine where they had healthy European participant. The people who ate red meat the most about more than 5 ounces a day were about a third more likely to develop colon cancer than those who ate less red meat on a daily basis.

Red meat doesn’t only have an effect on our health but it also has an effect on the food industry and environment. It affects the environment because growing beef impacts dwarfs of other meat such as chicken or pork and it produces more carbon footprints in comparison with cars. It also uses more resources to grow beef, takes more land, water, and nitrogen fertilizer and still ends in five times more climate emissions. It takes twenty-eight times more land to grow beef than it does to grow chicken and pork. Thus, cutting the intake of red meat would save us resources that can be used to grow more chicken, pork, beans, and legumes. It could be also used to build houses for homeless population and build a school for educating children. There are so many things that can be done in the land where beef is being grown. In an article, "Giving up beef will reduce carbon footprint more than cars" where they compared beef to staple food like wheat or rice and how it much land it takes and still produces more greenhouse gases.

Whereas cutting back on red meat gives an individual longer life span. A diet that has less red meat a day can save more deaths from heart attacks and cancer. The healthy substitute that can be used in place of red meat are fish, chicken, turkey, beans, nuts, tofu, low-fat dairy products, and whole grains e.g. legumes, rice and wheat. Humans need protein that is easily accessible from meat but to get proteins from plants, such as beans, legumes, and grains, one needs to take a combination of whole grains to get all the proteins, e.g. simply add Bulgur and lentils to get a complete protein intake. Substitute packaged deli meat with fresh chicken or fish, instead of bacon try vegetarian spicy sausages. Replace sausage in chili and sauce with beans like kidney beans, chickpeas and lentils. Use herbs and spices, fennel seed and chili flakes to add flavor to your dish. I know that I don’t have the power to change people’s diet and that’s what Prof. Eshel of New York State University believes that the government should stay out of it as well and instead suggests to remove, “artificial support given to livestock industry and the rising prices will do the rest”.

Further cutting back on red meat can reduce obesity, which is one of the biggest growing health issues in the United States as everyone is eating fast food highly saturated food. Eating plant based proteins tend to help maintain lower body weight and body mass index (BMI) because some plant based diet is rich in fiber that is not found in the meat. Cutting back on red meat or even meat, in general, can help an individual financially.

There are many negative sides of red meat to be consuming it in great amount. It not only affects one’s health by causing cancer and high cholesterol but also harms the environment and uses a huge amount of resources for little production of beef. It uses more land, water, nitrogen based fertilizer. I believe these reasons are enough for anyone to give up meat or at least reduce the intake of red meat. One can start giving up red meat by starting "Meatless Monday" because even going meatless for one day can reduce the risk of developing any type of chronic preventable conditions e.g. cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity.

Also it can help reduce carbon footprint and save resources like fossil fuels, land, and fresh water. Meatless Monday can reduce heart disease and stroke, limit cancer risk, fight diabetes, obesity, live longer, improvement in your diet, help one financially, and help the environment by lowering the usage of water, lessening greenhouse gases, and reduce fuel dependence as the meat industry uses so much energy to produce beef than livestock that if we instead of using meat to feed the population we use vegetarian diet which would be enough erase hunger from the world and be healthy at the same time. As it is clearly stated, there are many negative impacts of eating red meat thus one should avoid it completely. Changing ones diet from having red meat then not is not be an easy task but after looking at all the problems it causes to our health and the environment, we should try to make healthy choices little by little.