Less meat = better health?
For millienia, provincial villages peppering the Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and Asian regions subsisted primarily on plant foods, such as fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds and wholegrains. This ‘peasant food’ was considered a poor man’s diet, and meat – eaten only occasionally – was a badge of wealth.
With urbanisation and increased access to meat, this status symbol was wholeheartedly embraced. In Australia, the ‘lucky country’, settlers took full advantage of its vast tracts of land for grazing cattle and sheep.
Now, Australians eat steaks, bacon and snags with gusto, and the barbeque is firmly entrenched in Aussie culture. After the United States, we are the biggest meat consumers in the world, according to the World Economic Forum.
Published by Health Agenda.
