The Plant-Based Puzzle (Part 3): Finding the Middle Way
Part 3 of 3
“The Shared Bounty” © D. Yael Bernhard
Part 1 and Part 2 of this article explored the different nutrients in plant and animal foods, with a special focus on protein. Now let’s take a look at carbohydrates and fats in vegan and omnivore diets.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that carbohydrates make up 45% to 65% of our total daily calories. If you eat 2,000 calories a day, that means 225 to 325 grams of carbs.1 But for optimal weight and health, progressive nutritionists recommend far less: 100 to 200g/day for people who do not need to lose weight, and less for those who do.2
Carbohydrates have a direct impact on cholesterol. What you eat with your main source of protein affects how your body assimilates fat. Triglycerides aren’t produced by eating fat – they’re made in the liver when you eat sugar, starch, flour, fructose, and alcohol. The foods you eat work together to create the systems in your body on a daily and hourly basis. When you eat a high carb diet, the body interrupts fat metabolism to prioritize eliminating sugar, which in turn increases blood lipids and turns on fat storage. Thus, dropping carbs quickly lowers triglycerides3 and makes it easier to lose weight.
Personally, I consume less than 70g of carbs each day. I eat a modified ketogenic diet: high fat, moderate protein, low carbs. I eat as much as I want, and don’t gain weight – but I’m mindful of when I eat carbs (especially in relation to exercise), what I eat them with, and in what order. Nutrient-dense fat and protein are more satiating than sugars and starches, and help curb my appetite.
As for saturated fat, the source determines the outcome. Not all meat is created equal, and not all animal fat is the same. Saturated fat has been demonized for decades, yet a 35% reduction in dairy and meat consumption for over 30 years has not resulted in less cardiovascular disease – only more diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome. This may be partially due to the fact that these proteins have been replaced by excess carbohydrates.
Sixty percent of your brain is saturated fat, especially essential fatty acids, and it also forms the basis of your cell membranes. 90% of Americans are deficient in omega-3 EFAs, necessary for cardiovascular and brain health. The best dietary sources are small-bodied oily fish such as sardines, mackerel, anchovies, herring, and salmon; as well as grass-fed beef and organ meat. A farm-raised salmon filet or factory-farmed beef burger do not have the same nutritional profile as wild-caught fish or pasture-raised meat. They may look the same on the supermarket shelf, but they do not deliver the same nutrients. Nowhere is the difference greater than in terms of fat. Grain-fed, factory-farmed meat is high in omega-6 essential fatty acids – unstable, even-chained molecules that oxidize easily and create inflammation in the animal and its meat – as well as palmitic acid, which raises LDL cholesterol and may contribute to hypertension and mitral valve prolapse. Pasture-raised meat, by contrast, is high in odd-chain omega-3 and C15 EFAs, which are anti-inflammatory and if consumed in sufficient quantity, may do more to improve cardiovascular health than statins.4
Cholesterol, too, has been unfairly maligned.5 Cholesterol forms the basis of most sex hormones, and helps to repair blood vessels and maintain their structural integrity; therefore, we need more cholesterol as we age. Again, quality is what matters. Oxidized cholesterol, inflamed by free radicals from excess insulin – the result of eating too much carbs – is dangerous, and may crack, peel, or break off to form a blockage. Cholesterol from quality fat is supple and smooth. We need healthy cholesterol!
The same is true of LDL cholesterol, the so-called “bad” cholesterol that is blamed for cardiovascular disease. Current research reveals there are two different types, and it is only small, dense LDL particles that are dangerous. The large, fluffy ones are harmless, and do not cause a build-up of arterial plaque. Mainstream doctors don’t distinguish between the two types of LDL particles, but lipid blood tests are widely available that do so, if only you ask. I consume animal fat and protein in some form every day, whether it’s meat, fish, dairy, or eggs, and my most recent lipid profile couldn’t be better. What I don’t eat is as important as what I do.
Saturated fat is a major concern for many people who decide to go vegan. But is animal fat really the problem, or the diet of the animals we eat? As both a former vegetarian and meat-eater, I’ve walked both sides of the line. I’ve been a passionate student of vegetarian cuisine who mastered protein-combining and championed animals rights. After ten years of being a vegetarian, when I became pregnant with my first child, my body demanded nutrient-dense meat, fish, and dairy, and could tolerate almost nothing else. For years afterward, I continued to eat meat very sparingly. As I aged, my cravings for animal fat and protein increased, as did my understanding of why. Life led me to the other end of the spectrum, and I became a dedicated hunter, building on my knowledge of wild plants and my love of foraging to bring home wild meat. So determined was I to provide my children (including my canine “fourth child”) with organic meat – which was both unaffordable and unavailable where I lived at the time – and to boycott factory-farmed products, that I was willing to pour years of my life into learning the skills needed to successfully hunt with both bow and gun. For almost twenty years I provided my family with wild turkey, whitetail deer, snowshoe hare, and black bear meat, all of which I skinned and butchered with my own hands. This was no small undertaking. I took full responsibility for the life I consumed, allowing the animal to run free until its last breath, ensuring a swift and humane death, honoring the animal’s soul, handling the body with respect, and using the meat, bones, organs, and pelt to the greatest extent possible.
This experience taught me to fully participate in the cycle of life and death, not just buy a neatly-wrapped product at the end point of a journey that began long before it arrived in a store. Successful hunting requires blending into the forest and becoming one with it. I’ve spent thousands of hours in the woods learning the ways of my prey and contemplating my role as a predator. Like wild plants, wild meat is nutritionally richer and more complex than its cultivated counterparts. Everything an animal eats translates into its flesh. The illustration above grew out of this understanding. Painted on birchbark gathered while hunting, it shows the food chain that spins the phytonutrients of wild clover into the flesh of a deer, which in turn is passed on to the hunters that share this incredible bounty. I felt a profound intimacy with my prey that made my awareness of the food that spins my flesh that much more nuanced. To take and consume a life is no small matter – and hunters face this like no one else. We are all descended from hunters and foragers, and from a tribal mentality that prevailed for well over 300,000 years. To some degree, the decision to align oneself with our intrinsic nature as omnivores is a decision to honor our most ancient origins. Curiously, many vegans feel we do not have the right to take a life – yet the decision to throw nature overboard also takes charge of life, as if we may edit our biology as a matter of will. Who can claim moral superiority? No matter how we obtain our food or what we eat, we are all consuming and taking charge of life. As humans, we cannot escape this responsibility.
The only real choice is whether to do it consciously or not. Not everyone can hunt, but we all have choices as shoppers that are every bit as important as deciding to release an arrow. I am unalterably opposed to factory farming, both for its poor quality meat and dairy, and for the sake of the animals that are imprisoned and suffer all their lives as commodities rather than living creatures. CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) also consume a great deal of water, and pollute downstream waterways not only with animal waste but also the antibiotics, growth hormones, and other drugs the animals are shot up with. These animals are not healthy. Their bodies are inflamed and their meat is fattened up artificially. Labels on animal products are designed to mollify consumers with misleading terms such as “free range” (which does not connote any freedom to range whatsoever). You can learn to decode meat and dairy labels here.
Meat-eaters and vegans alike can join together to oppose large-scale factory farms, and to replace them with thousands of small farms across the nation. Let’s bring back small-scale farming, where both animals and plants may be raised and cultivated in a healthy manner – together with solar fields, wind mills, art studios, radio stations, and other innovations that help diversify farms and keep them afloat.
Locally-raised animals also help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of transportation, which make up 29% of the U.S. total. Livestock farming itself only constitutes 3.9%, but long-distance transportation of livestock to slaughterhouses and of animal products to their final destinations may be significantly more.6 Buying local, pasture-raised meat and dairy from small farms is a significant step toward both better food and a healthier planet. The same is true of fruits and vegetables. That bundle of kale from the opposite coast may have a cheap price tag , but there are other hidden costs for both consumers and the environment. Anyone who joins a CSA (community supported agriculture) or shops at a local farm stand can see the difference in quality and variety between vegetables directly from a farm and those in a superstore.
You can also request pasture-raised meat and dairy and wild-caught seafood in supermarkets and restaurants. Let your voice be heard. These small steps may seem minuscule, but even the world’s largest meat producer will eventually respond to consumer demand.
In conclusion:
Nutrition is one of the fastest-growing fields of science, and is continuously evolving. As time goes on, we will learn more and more about the effects of plant-based and omnivorous diets on human health, and of different foods within each diet. As of this writing, here are the main takeaways I wish to offer:
• Almost everyone would benefit from eating a diet that is mostly plant-based, constituting half of each meal – mostly vegetables, not grains, and not counting white potatoes or corn, which are starchy and high in carbohydrates.
• Fruit and nut oils such as avocado, coconut, almond and olive oil, and grass-fed animal fat such as beef tallow or butter are all healthier than vegetable and seed oils. Grain and oilseed agriculture has a significant negative impact on the environment (see my article Know Your Oils). My hope is that everyone will oppose government subsidies of these mass-produced monocrops, and will try to channel funds into vegetables and fruit instead.
• A vegan diet is not necessarily healthy or economical, as the market is increasingly flooded with substitute animal products and processed vegan junk food. Vegans must be highly proactive and diligent in their dietary choices in order to be healthy, and must rely on processed foods and supplements in order to get the nutrients they need. Vegan diets do not meet the nutritional needs of pregnant women, growing children, athletes, or aging adults.
• Goat and sheep dairy are generally healthier than cow dairy, containing proteins and fats that are less inflammatory and easier to digest. These animals are generally raised on smaller-scale farms, and are more likely to be pasture-raised and healthy.
• Quality and type of meat determines the quality and nature of saturated fat.7 Pasture-raised meat is far superior to factory-farmed meat, containing better essential fats and phytonutrients from the insects and plants the animals graze on. [Some pasture-raised meats are “grain-finished” before slaughter to fatten them up. Look for “grass-finished” instead.] Animals raised on small farms are healthier, happier, less inflamed, and better for the environment. Meat and dairy from these animals, even if not certified organic, may be a better choice.
• Wild, sustainably-caught fish is nutritionally better than farm-raised fish, which are heavily drugged with antibiotics and may be fed an unnatural diet of GMO grains. Happily, some regeneratively-farmed fish are being produced in a healthy and sustainable manner – hopefully a growing trend.
Many people explore different diets at different times in their lives. Just as a ketogenic diet or a FODMAPs diet should not be sustained indefinitely, perhaps strictly plant-based diets may be pursued for a limited time, or to different degrees. Some people are vegetarians, eating eggs and dairy, which do not kill domestic animals. Others are pescatarians, consuming only fish and eschewing mammals. Still others go for the “pegan” diet – a combination of paleo and vegan, combining the best of both.
I believe everyone would benefit from learning how to cook vegetarian meals, which are a significant part of my diet to this day. Vegetarian cooking allows for quick, flexible meals, such as a frittata or stir-fry topped with goat or sheep cheese, either of which can be made with whatever fresh vegetables are in the kitchen.
Life feeds on life, evident in nature wherever you look. As living creatures born into the web of life, we would do well to accept this. As I see it, what matters most is not which categories of food we choose to eat, but how we participate in the food chain – that is, the source, quality, and amount of foods we eat, and the context in which we eat them. A healthy diet is nutrient-dense and diverse, drawing every strand of the web into our bodies, according to our nature as creatures of the earth.
Regardless of how we eat, we are all part of the collective impact of humans on the environment. Human habitation, transportation systems, and large-scale agriculture and livestock farming all increase harmful emissions, destroy wildlife habitat, diminish diversity, and cause untold animal suffering. Vegans and omnivores alike may join hands in a shared effort to ban the use of toxins, improve our food systems, protect the lives of animals, and preserve our planet. We can also learn from each other, as I have by listening to my vegan friends, whose positive intentions and input I honor. We’re all on a journey toward better health.
To your good health –
Yael Bernhard
Certified Integrative Health & Nutrition Coach
Yael Bernhard is a writer, illustrator, book designer and fine art painter with a lifelong passion for nutrition and herbal medicine. She was certified by Duke University as an Integrative Health Coach in 2021 and by Cornell University in Nutrition & Healthy Living in 2022. For information about private health coaching or nutrition programs for schools, please respond directly to this newsletter, or email dyaelbernhard@protonmail.com. Her art newsletter, “Image of the Week,” may be found here. Visit her online gallery of illustration, fine art, and children’s books here.
Information in this newsletter is provided for educational – and inspirational – purposes only.
\https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/carbohydrates/art-20045705
https://drhyman.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Dr-Hymans-Carb-Intake-Recommendation-Chart-FINAL-copy.pdf
https://drhyman.com/blog/2023/04/26/podcast-ep710/
https://drhyman.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/The-Cholesterol-Solution_ebook_022318.pdf
See my article “The Liberated Egg”
Buston, Jane; The Great Plant-Based Con, 2022
https://drhyman.com/blog/2018/02/22/7-takeaways-meat-book-food-heck-eat/