The Benefits of Meat in Your Diet – Biblical Natural Health Coaching

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It came across my desk again the other day. Someone was offering a workshop on the benefits of the carnivorous diet. Then today I ran across this article on the benefits of meat in one’s diet. (side bar is not very clean, sorry)

There seriously ARE benefits to including meat in your average diet. While many of the nutrients found in meat are present in plants, they aren’t as bioavailable so you either need to eat more than triple or more the amount of plant food versus meat to get the same level of nutrient benefit, or use supplements. Practically every single article I’ve read over the past few years on how people can successfully enjoy a vegan diet, mentions supplements! Every single one!

Iron and B12 are two of those supplements. It isn’t that these aren’t present in various plants, but how they are bound up in those plants is the issue. Bioavailability isn’t discussed much in the vegetarian/vegan space. There is the assumption that because it is present, it is available, but that isn’t true of all nutrients found in plants. This is why we boil some plant foods, pulverize other plant foods in smoothies and such, juice other foods, ferment other plant foods, etc. All these preparation methods are to get as much out of the plant as we can.

EDIT Dec 4, 2023

Essential Amino Acids are continually said to be available to the human gut from the plant kingdom. Much of the time, these proteins are stored in lectins, and more people are discovering sensitivity if not outright allergy to plant lectins. A recent study looked at the bioavailability of essential amino acids in beans and almonds versus pork and eggs. In the two age groups they tested, pork and eggs won out over beans and almonds every time. You can read that paper here.

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EDIT Feb 17, 2024

Further to the amino acid discussion, the amino acid Taurine, is only found in animal products such as seafood, red meat, dairy, poultry and eggs. Mercola wrote a very good article on Taurine, July 2023 where he states:

“… since taurine is one of the nutrients missing in plant-based diets, vegans may want to consider a high-quality taurine supplement. While your body can synthesize some taurine, it’s not going to be sufficient in the long run, especially as you get older and your body’s ability to synthesize it diminishes.”

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There are some nutrients however, that are not only far more bioavailable in meat, but are more powerful coming from meat as well. Iron and B12 are far more bioavailable coming from meat, but animal-based collagen is far more powerful coming from meat than from vegetables. We need that collagen for our hair, nails, skin elasticity, etc. My daughter was taking a sports coaching string of courses from the government when one of the instructors wrote a blog article on the benefits of collagen gelatin! They specifically mentioned bovine collagen due to how complete a nutrient profile it has. The only lady quoted in the article above that went off her vegan diet because her hair and nails began falling out, is unfortunately, what can happen. A commenter on this article never had that happen to them, but they fortunately acknowledge that what works for one won’t work for another.

This is where knowing your ancestral history comes into play, and your blood type. If you have ancestors that didn’t eat much meat, you are likely not requiring as much of it yourself. But if your ancestors existed on half to most of their diet being carnivorous, you would do well not to attempt a plant-based diet. Your blood type will have an influence on how well you do or don’t process different types of food too.

It is dangerous for governments, Bill Gates, and others to be saying everyone should be going meatless, fake meat, or lab meat as a result. Such broad stroking is dangerous to the health of those who need the more carnivorous diet.

After the Great Flood, God officially mandated the eating of meat to Noah and his sons.

Genesis 9:1-4 — (Scripture and science say “the life is in the blood”, so we are told in Scripture and in food preparation to drain the blood from the animal before preparing it for food)

There’s good reason for this! The world’s eco-system had changed. Plants could no longer be relied on for everything the human body requires, and the global ability to grow the necessary plant food for everyone was now hampered. It takes far more farmland to feed a community of vegans than it does a community of omnivores. PETA didn’t like my daughter going through the math on that when she replied to an email they sent her once. There are regions of the world, who before distribution opened up more distant supply chains, would live almost exclusively on animal products for certain times of the year, getting their plant nutrition from what was partially digested in the stomachs of the beasts they killed for food.

Will mankind go back to a strictly vegan diet in the future? We shall have to see what happens after God creates the new heaven and the new earth. But until then, meat is a necessary part of the human diet to ensure we are getting the full suite of necessary nutrients.

EDIT Aug 10, 2024

When a veternarian’s research on why the US Navy’s dolphins were healthier than their wild counterparts, leads to discoveries around a fat found in dairy products such as milk, butter, kefir and cheese having a direct impact on human health as well. I bring this up at the end of the article here, because many who choose to go vegan, swear off ALL animal products, not just red meat. Doing so may actually be causing them long-term low-level harm in ways they perhaps had not anticipated. Mercola writes:

“C15:0, also known as pentadecanoic acid, is an odd-chain saturated fat primarily found in dairy products, some ¦sh, and certain plants.”

“Dr. Venn-Watson’s research suggests that when your C15:0 levels drop below 0.2% of total fatty acids in your cell membranes, you enter a state she calls “Cellular Fragility Syndrome.” This syndrome is characterized by fragile red blood cells, anemia, iron overload in the liver, and increased risk of conditions like Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and fatty liver disease. It’s a domino effect that starts at the cellular level and cascades into systemic health issues”

“C15:0 meets the criteria for an essential fat in several ways. For starters, your dietary intake directly correlates with circulating levels in your body, indicating that it’s primarily obtained through diet. Low levels are also consistently associated with increased risk of chronic diseases, suggesting its crucial role in maintaining health”

“…a meta-analysis of 33 prospective cohort studies found that people with higher C15:0 levels had a lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

This is particularly significant given the global diabetes epidemic we’re currently facing. Lower C15:0 levels were also associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease in multiple studies, adding another layer to our understanding of heart health. Additionally, people with NAFLD tend to have lower plasma C15:0 concentrations, suggesting a potential role for this fatty acid in liver health.”

I am one of those people telling you that you DO need your FATS! The still-current modern fascination with low-fat diets is literally killing people and mainstream doctors, nutritionists and dietitians continue to refuse to connect the dots! It is always encouraging when I meet nutritionists and dietitians who have seen the light and switched to the other side! Animal food products contain the highest levels of the fats your body needs to function.

Mercola has a useful list you can compare against your grocery list as follows:

“Here are some practical ways to increase C15:0 in your diet:

Embrace full-fat dairy products, especially from grass fed cows. A cup of whole milk contains about 100 mg of C15:0.

Include grass fed beef in your diet. It contains more C15:0 than grain-fed beef.

Eat certain types of ¦sh, particularly mullet and cat¦sh, which have C15:0 content similar to milkfat.

Consider lamb, especially Australian lamb, which is high in C15:0.

Choose butter over margarine, preferably from grass fed cows.

Incorporate full-fat cheese made with animal rennet into your diet.

Opt for organic pasture-raised eggs. Explore traditional fermented dairy products like kefir or cultured butter”

EDIT February 18, 2025

Further to the animal-sourced saturated fat discussion above, a guest writer for Dr Mercola wrote further on the C15:0 discussion here. Ashley Armstrong says that oxidative stress damage in the body can be reversed over time (minimum of 2yrs if you have heavily eaten foods containing PUFA’s on the daily) by regularly switching to grass-fed animal-based fat sources.

She says:

“As a stable saturated fat, C15:0 is incorporated into cellular membranes, making them more resistant to peroxidation and reducing inflammatory stress. By strengthening cellular resilience, C15:0 indirectly protects linoleic acid and other polyunsaturated fats from oxidation, thus mitigating some of the harmful effects associated with high PUFA intake.”

Reading that damage caused by PUFA’s can be reversed, is very good news!

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For additional information and research see the following list of links and follow their additional references:

TVA Found in Red Meat Shown to Aid Fight Against Cancer

Vitamin B12 sources and bioavailability

Bioavailability of vitamin B12 in cows’ milk

Protein Bioavailability: Absorption Explained

Bioavailability of iron, zinc, and other trace minerals from vegetarian diets

Bioavailability Matters: Plants vs Animals

Bioavailability of nutrients from animal vs plant foods

Microblog: Meat vs. Plant – The Bioavailability