The two main killers in meat, eggs and milk products are saturated fats and cholesterol. What many people do not realize, however, is that cholesterol is lurking in lean cuts of meat (chicken, beef, pork, turkey). Removing the fat content does not remove the cholesterol. The cholesterol is in the muscle tissue that you roast and eat. The bone marrow might actually be the best part of the animal to eat (see bone marrow as food).
Chicken and turkey have about the same amount of cholesterol as beef or pork. Whole eggs have cholesterol levels of 350mg/100g, which is 4 to 6 times higher than meat (57 to 92 mg/100g). Fortunately, removing the yolk does eliminate the cholesterol from egg products, so Egg Beaters or similar substitutes are much lower in cholesterol (reduced from 352 to 1 mg/100g) and calories (reduced 12.2 to 3.3 mg/100g or lower).
Whole milk cheddar cheese has very high fat content (105 mg/100g) with cholesterol levels equivalent to meat. Nonfat or skim milk cheddar or colby cheese has 80% of the cholesterol of whole milk cheddar cheese (21 mg/100g) and fat content reduced to 7 mg/100g or less.
The Third Killer: Mercury, PCBs and Other Contaminants
Because meat, dairy, milk, and fish products are higher up on the food chain, poisons tend to accumulate and become concentrated in these foods. Mercury, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs), and other contaminants could be considered the third killer found in non-vegetarian diets. While these contaminants could occur in vegetable products, occurrence or accumulation to concentrated levels that effect health is less likely. One exception is highly-processed foods such as corn syrup, in which elevated levels of mercury have been found.
A vegan diet is the healthiest because it contains no animal products or by-products such as milk, cheese or eggs. A vegetarian diet can contain some animal products; for example, lacto-ovo vegetarians would eat milk and cheese (lacto) products and eggs (ova). Pescetarianism would apply to vegetarians that include some fish in their diets. Personally, I follow more of a lacto-ovo-pesce vegetarian diet. If I eat eggs, then I eat the cholesterol free products – most of the time. I consume some fish oil for the omega-3 content. I also try to stick to eating non-fat milk and cheese products – except when people bring in cheese and crackers for afternoon snack time. My daughter follows a strict vegan diet, but maintaining a purely vegan diet can be very difficult.
When people talk about what's for dinner, they often just state the meat (hence ad lines like, "Beef It's What's for Dinner" ) because much of our food-culture is centered upon meat-eating. In addition, food technology has found ways to turn animal by-products into many animal based food ingredients or additives, which find there way into our foods, cosmetics and drugs.
Editor's Note: This is Part 2 in a multi-part series. Part 1 ran last week, and Part 3 will run next week.
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