Part 1:
Health:
Photo by Jared Rice on Unsplash
Givens, D. I. "Milk and meat in our diet: good or bad for health?." Animal 4.12 (2010): 1941-1952.
D.I. Givens writes about the increase in chronic illnesses amongst elderly and obese people amongst most Western diets, specifically targeting milk, meat, and their products. This article focuses on the positive and negative evidence in relation to consumption of milk/dairy products and meat while also highlighting opportunities to create economic benefits and long-term health. Givens is able to provide evidence that while animal products provide many nutrients we cannot obtain otherwise, milk appears to have enormous mismatch between both the advice given on milk/dairy foods by various authorities and public perceptions of harm from the consumption of milk and dairy products, and the evidence from long-term prospective cohort studies. Givens does determine that overall more research is needed as certain animal-derived foods may have negative effects on long-term health however, they do need to be put into a whole diet context and considered alongside other risk factors to long-term health such as obesity, smoking and alcohol consumption. The article highlights important short term findings such as red meat leading to colorectal cancer, increased susceptibility to vascular disease, and milk providing too many fatty acids in a typical diet. This article compares different regions who consume the products, providing an array of information to further enhance the study.
Marrone, Giulia, et al. "Vegan diet health benefits in metabolic syndrome." Nutrients 13.3 (2021): 817.
Radnitz, Cynthia, Bonnie Beezhold, and Julie DiMatteo. "Investigation of lifestyle choices of individuals following a vegan diet for health and ethical reasons." Appetite 90 (2015): 31-36.
Shah, Binita, et al. "Anti‐inflammatory effects of a vegan diet versus the American heart association–recommended diet in coronary artery disease trial." Journal of the American Heart Association 7.23 (2018): e011367.
“You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment”, Limited Season, Episodes 1-4, Netflix, 2024, https://www.netflix.com/title/81133260
In this Netflix series, nutrition scientist Christopher Gardner of Stanford University invites 21 sets of identical twins to follow strict diets for 8 weeks. Twin A is placed on a healthy vegan diet and Twin B is on a healthy omnivore diet. Within the first 4 weeks, each twin is provided meals for their convention and the second 4 weeks they must cook to their diet. For accurate results, various tests including blood samples, body compositions, sexual activity, and more are taken before and after the 8 week period. The strength in this study comes from the fact it is purely informative as viewers are not being persuaded to become vegan. The experiment is compelling because, being genetically identical, the health of each twin is very similar before the trial. The main results showed the vegan twins had decreased risk of Alzheimer's and stroke, decreased LDL cholesterol and TMAO, increased healthy gut bacteria called increased their lifespan by repairing telomeres. Ultimately, the omnivore group was not necessarily deemed unhealthy, however the vegan group saw significant benefits to their overall longevity of aging. This study could become increasingly strong if these twins were studied for the rest of their life, determining how the vegan and omnivore diet affects years of aging rather than only 8 weeks.
Wang, Tian, et al. "Vegetarian and vegan diets: benefits and drawbacks." European heart journal 44.36 (2023): 3423-3439.
This article begins by highlighting the increased growth in vegan and vegetarian diets due to their increased benefits in reducing risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, dementia, and cancer. An important highlight of Wang’s work is when he states that an unhealthy vegan diet will not equal healthy as there is risk for lack of important vitamins and nutrients if consuming highly processed, refined flours, hydrogenated oils, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), sucrose, artificial sweeteners, salt, and preservatives. Through cross-sectional and prospective studies, Consuming vegetarian diets rich in minimally processed plant foods has been associated with a reduced risk of developing multiple chronic diseases including CVD, diabetes, hypertension, cancer, and dementia. Data from randomized clinical trials have confirmed a protective effect of vegetarian diets for the prevention of diabetes, hypercholesterolaemia, hypertension, and overweight, but to date, no data are available for acute coronary syndrome, heart failure, stroke, cognitive impairment, and dementia, and there are very limited data for cancer. Overall, more studies must be conducted overtime to determine these limitations, however Wang is able to confirm an array of advantages of a healthy vegan diet to stop or limit health problems before they occur.
“101: Reversing the Aging Process with a Whole Food, Plant-Based, Vegan Diet”, Plant Based Eating for Health, Spotify, July 2022,
This podcast dives into the various health benefits that Linda Middlesworth experienced when introducing a healthy plant based diet into her lifestyle. Obesity, cancer, and high blood pressure were just a few things she lived with an active lifestyle, but it was all reversed after picking up a copy of “The McDougall Plan: 12 Days to Dynamic Health”. Now at 78 years old, Linda still lives an active lifestyle, feels the youngest she’s ever felt, and promotes her lifestyle to those who search for health. In the podcast, Linda talks about her personal experience, how she has helped other people, and the dangers of animal products. She understands that transitioning from an omnivore diet to a vegan diet can be hard, but for those interested in their health, the environment, and animal sustainability, she offers advice to take it slow and think of the “why”. This podcast is very strong evidence of a vegan lifestyle being beneficial because of the personal experience of both Linda and the host of the podcast. While we do not know what caused Linda’s illnesses, we know that she used food as her medicine and was able to improve her living.
Sustainability:
Backus, G. B. C., C. P. A. Van Wagenberg, and N. Verdoes. "Environmental impact of pig meat production." Meat science 49 (1998): S65-S72.
This article examines the environmental effects of pig production and the possibilities at farm level to limit these effects. The four main effects on the environment, according to the public, are location of the building (noise, smell, appearance), run-off manure application (production of nitrates, oxygen absorption in flowing water, leaching of organic compounds, nitrogen and phosphorus), inadequate manure storage capacity (suboptimal application times) and atmospheric emission of ammonia (acidification of the environment). Based on the region where these take place, Backus says there are government environmental policies trying to take action, which still include a high level of harmful gasses and emissions. Backus scientifically explains some solutions to lowering these levels of emissions, however he states the adjustments are hard, time consuming, and not possible on all farms. Other aspects of emissions will go up such as transportation as manure must be relocated to new areas. Overall, the author attempts to provide solutions to pig farming and how farmer’s can be more environmentally sustainable, but nothing would compare to putting an end to pig farming. This is a strength of the article as their is an honest attempt to find a solution to the economy and society do not have to make a change, however this is sadly not possible.
Castañé, Sílvia, and Assumpció Antón. "Assessment of the nutritional quality and environmental impact of two food diets: A Mediterranean and a vegan diet." Journal of cleaner production 167 (2017): 929-937
Mangels, Reed. "Vegan Diet Has Lowest Impact on the Environment." Vegan Journal, vol. 42, no. 3, July-Sept. 2023, p. 12. Gale In Context: Environmental Studies, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A758068572/GRNR?u=usocal_main&sid=bookmark-GRNR&xid=e11ce0d3. Accessed 19 Feb. 2024.
In this article, Mangels highlights how production, cultivation, processing, packaging, transportation, and distribution are some ways how the foods we eat affect the impact environment greatly. By determining the usage of land use, water use, and gas emissions, healthy dietary patterns of the United States concluded the vegan diet used the least land. The amount of land used solely for red meat production for each of the nonvegetarian diets was greater than the total land used to produce a vegan diet.Red meat, dairy milk, cheese, and grains were the food groups that made the largest contribution to land usage. The vegan diet also required the least amount of water, with red meat and milk largest sources of water usage. On a common theme, the vegan diet emitted the least amount of greenhouse gasses compared. Essentially, eating a vegan diet would lead to less space and material used in food production and saving the planet from excess pollution. The strength of this article comes from the fact the vegan diet is supported in all aspects of the study, comparing it to a healthy American diet and the Mediterranean diet. A weakness to this article may be the lack of length in the article, implying more research can be added to further support or challenge the claim so a counter argument can further support the author’s findings.
NowThis Impact, “How Meat Production Contributes to Climate Change”, Youtube, uploaded by @nowthisnews, 5 November 2021,
This clip from YouTube may be short but the information within it takes evidence from the United Nations, saying animal agriculture is responsible for nearly 15% of greenhouse gas emissions. Author of “Clean Meat: How Growing Meat Without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner and the World”, Paul Shaprio, highlights this is more than all cars, planes, trains, and boats combined. This clip contains images of animals being stuffed in small factories that produce their emissions from land use, deforestation, water use, irrigation, transportation, commercial trade, polluting waste, and spreading disease. He highlights that the land around farming is typically poorer communities who must live through the health risks of breathing highly contaminated air everyday. The solution… producing meat with no animals. While the speaker could come off as biased since he owns a company called The Better Meat Co, he makes valid points as to why plant based meats should become a trend in our diets. Rather than eating what typical vegans consume, he says a plant based meat will still meet the needs of craving a burger or steak without the global destruction.
“What The Health”, Food Documentary, Netflix, 2017, https://www.netflix.com/title/80174177
“The Top 3 Reasons To Go Vegan”, How To Vegan, Spotify, January 2018,
This podcast highlights all three reasons as to why people go vegan: health, sustainability, and ethical issues. She begins the episode by talking about the common health problems people all around the world, but especially the United States, face and how they can be easily avoided with a whole food plant based diet. She claims these illnesses can even be reversed through this diet! The next section talks about the sustainability of the planet through a vegan diet, or more specifically animal farming for meat and dairy products is destructive. Lastly, she highlights most of her information and reason for going vegan being based on animal cruelty. From how animals live, sleep, and eat to how they are skinned, burned, and killed, the author gets emotional trying to understand why someone would want to do this. The strength of this podcast comes from the fact that all of this information is research based and the author encourages people to do their own research. The downfall of this podcast is that the author appears to have no sympathy for those who eat a healthy omnivore diet and does not try to incentivize people to convert but almost rather demands it. While this may not be a bad thing, it certainly will not encourage listeners on the fence of trying to go vegan if they base it solely off how she tries to convert people instead of the facts.
Animal Care:
Bramble, Ben, and Bob Fischer. “The Moral Complexities of Eating Meat.” Is It Wrong To Eat Meat From Factory Farms? If So, Why? , Google Books, books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ropmCgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT92&dq=animal%2Babuse%2Bon%2Bmeat%2Bfarms&ots=-RJx0cfsNU&sig=v2fxRgb_lIY1wsqGJsnl4cz3ENU#v=onepage&q&f=false. Accessed 19 Feb. 2024.
Donnermeyer, Joseph F. “The Routledge International Handbook of Rural Criminology.” Understanding Farm Animal Abuse , Google Google, books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=yNsRDAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT259&dq=animal%2Babuse%2Bon%2Bmeat%2Bfarms&ots=y15R9Flmtc&sig=ixFyQY_cj-JlMZKRqwDi__5YR7Q#v=onepage&q=animal%20abuse%20on%20me%20 farms&f=false. Accessed 19 Feb. 2024.
In this article, Donnermeyer highlights that while humans can be subject to victims of crime, so can animals. He brings up specific example of animals being tortured and mistreated within the farming industry, such as animals being skinned scalded while being fully alive and conscious, shovels being used to crush animals, employees using chains and metal wires to beat animals faces, and high pressure water hoses being pointed at sick cows in an effort to make them stand. While cats and dogs cannot be treated like this, the author goes into detail about the laws on why farming animals can be treated like an object. A strength this article has is that it highlights how animals are suffering, but also how they are not healthy for humans to eat as they are often injected with growth hormones, overfed unnatural diets, and perceived in disgusting ways. This gives two arguments as to why limiting consumption of animal products is ideal for our society. A weakness of this article is that it highlights only factories that mistreat animals. Even if it is the majority of cattle farming, the author could have highlighted a positive farm experience to give examples on how to fix the problem and cattle farm in a more sustainable way, if possible.
DW Documentary, “Factory Farming, Animal Welfare and the Future of Modern Agriculture”, YouTube, uploaded by DW Documentary, 12 February 2023,
This YouTube video highlights factoring farming, animal welfare, and the future of modern agriculture. While the world appears to be becoming more vegan, the demand for meat is at an all time high. In one year, more animals are killed and eaten than the number of human beings that have lived on this planet. These animals are not treated well either as they are placed in small cages and force fed specific food for the sole purpose of fattening the pig. This process is harmful to the pigs health, quality of living, and the environment. Similar to the pigs, baby chickens' quality of life is terrible as they are tortured through a beak shortening process, a clear violation of the Animal Welfare Act. This video has strengths as it puts very complex information and data into simple facts for viewers to comprehend. The 30 minute video does a great job of not only showing how animals are treated in farming and cattle raising, but it also paints a picture as to how easy this problem is to control if society limits or eliminates eating animal products. With demands so high, the only true solution to how animals are treated is to limit the amount of animals killed and eaten everyday…which to society is an unrealistic task.
Heidemann, Marina Sucha, et al. "Uncoupling meat from animal slaughter and its impacts on human-animal relationships." Frontiers in Psychology 11 (2020): 1824.
The authors of this article begin by highlighting that the slaughter rules of animals are at an extremely low bar, but there is a futuristic alternative. They begin by addressing the problems that animal cruelty is at an all time high while the demand for meat and animal products is only increasing. The alternative given is replacing conventional meat for slaughter-free meat to positively impact the environment, the animals, food security, food safety, and public health. The answer? Cell-based meat in the global meat market To produce cell-based meat, the same fundamentals of tissue engineering technology that have been perfected in the last few decades are used, including the proliferation and differentiation of specific stem cells for each tissue required to match meat compounds, such as muscle and fat. The authors go into detail of the methods and procedure, but ultimately the important part is that meat is still meat without animal cruelty. This would also allow for less land and water to be used, ultimately helping the environment and the animals. The weakness of this article comes from the fact that it is relatively a new idea that needs more research and construction to the overall plan. Questions of cost and budget also arise as scientific technology is expensive. Overall, the idea is great for positively affecting the environment, the animals, and the relationship between humans and animals, but more information is required.
Leroy, Frédéric, and Istvan Praet. "Animal killing and postdomestic meat production." Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 30 (2017): 67-86.
Martyn, Monika. “Animal Cruelty in Factory Farm Statistics - Harrowing Truth Behind Meat & Dairy Industry! .” WAF, 18 Nov. 2023, worldanimalfoundation.org/advocate/factory-farming-statistics/.
This article introduces why factory farming was invented and how the demand of food for our growing population has increased its usage. 90% of farms today are factory farms, almost all fish farms are industrialized this way and 74% of farmed land is used like this. The article talks about the insane statistics factory farming puts up; however, this is not beneficial for the animals lives, the environment, or those who consume their products. While the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) is aware of this, there simply are no laws that protect animals from the torture they face in their very short lifespan. The strength of this article is how the author compiles information from multiple sources and trustworthy sites. The sheer amount of factual information and statistics in this article back up the cons of factory farming, the only pro appears to be animal products being developed faster for consumption and more money for these farms. The cons of this article could include no positivity towards factory farming, however the paper is not bias as it is statistical evidence our society is not taught about.
@HuddyReactions, “725 million chickens died to provide wings for the Super Bowl 😳😅Do you feel bad for eating them? #greenscreenvideo #greenscreen #superbowl #wings #nfl #fyp” TikTok, 11 February 2024,
Part 2:
There is nothing more frustrating than doing something wrong after you thought it was right. To my surprise, the research found in these articles all responded positively for a healthy vegan diet and either neutral or negatively for a healthy omnivore diet. I always knew the typical American diet was unhealthy due to the lack of whole whole foods, processed snacks, and so much more. What I did not expect was a healthy omnivore diet to be so fatal for life span, cholesterol, diabetes, cardiovascular health… the list goes on. Why does no one tell you these things?
Health and wellness had become a popular topic amongst young people the past couple years, especially with the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic. Audiences all over the world could revisit their health and wellness regimes due to an infinite amount of time for physical activity, accompanied by nutrition and cooking at home. During COVID, I took initiative to my own health with the help of social media and the internet. I followed TikTok and YouTube videos of influencers who posted workout videos (we all remember Chloe Ting) and this developed into cooking videos with “healthy” recipes high in protein for muscle building. I thought chicken, rice, and broccoli was the healthiest meal ever! After reading the research articles and informative clip listed in Part 1, thinking about eating animal products and meat again gives me the shivers. I had no idea food marketed as healthy and protein rich (such as chicken, yogurt, and milk) would actually be full of harmful chemicals, processed fats, and life threatening in the aging process. Food may be fuel, but food is also medicine. Consumer’s can eat whatever they want and appear to be thriving in their younger years of life, but I learned to live a long life without pills, pains, and sickness, limiting or eliminating animal products is the best solution.
If my own health was not enough, I was shocked to understand how greatly global warming, deforestation, and gas emissions were negatively affected by cattle farming and animal product production. The fact that producing, transporting, and killing animals for people to eat puts more emissions into the air than cars, boats, and planes combined blew me away. How could producing a rotisserie chicken and some cheese play such a huge factor in our air quality, water quality, and weather? As someone who currently lives in Los Angeles, I can confirm the air and water quality here is deteriorating, but this is nothing compared to those who live next to animal farms. These poorer communities suffer great health conditions that often lead to early death due to animal manure being spread across fields to “dispose of”. Surrounding land does not benefit from contaminated soil, but it does not matter because the land has already been cleared from trees, plants, flowers, etc…for the space of the animal containment. There quite literally is no benefit sustainably to produce an omnivore diet.
“At least the animals are well kept and cute like we see on the televisions” is what I thought to myself however, I was wrong. While there may be ranches and farms out there that treat their animals with respect, over 90% of the world’s farmed animals are housed in factory farms that abuse their animals (Animal Cruelty in Factory Farms Statistics). Hurting the animals while being fully conscious and functioning, injecting them with growth hormones, impregnating animals for more reproduction, and over feeding the animals with nutrient deficient foods that lead to fat growth over muscle are just a few instances I learned about in my research. During my research, there was little evidence that farming is sustainable for the animals, they are solely grown and killed for consumers to eat.
Overall, my view on meat and dairy products is horrifying. I went into this research project attempting to find pros and cons of both diets, however with the information found it is hard to find many cons of a vegan diet and many pros of an omnivore diet. Vegans may have the potential to consume less protein and less vitamins, but the healthy omnivore diet appears to have complicated health problems, sustainability degrading, and tortures animals. As a whole, I am shocked by how much information is known about the omnivore diet but not communicated to the public. I would love to follow along on these studies as more research becomes available on the aging process of both diets and determine if there is a sole winner for health reasons. In terms of the animal and the environment, well good luck finding beneficial evidence in the future.