The question to explore here is: Why do we all believe that we must eat meat to get enough protein?

Let us go back many years ago to the year 1914.

In 1914, two men by the names of Osborn and Mendel experimented with rats. They discovered that rats grew faster when they ate protein from animal foods than when they ate protein from plant foods.

Based on this information, these two men classified meat protein as class “A” protein and plant protein as class “B” protein. Those classifications automatically categorized animal protein as superior to plant protein. To this day, many Americans still believe that animal protein is superior to plant protein.

From these experiments on rats, these two men made the assumption that rats and human beings required the same amino acids or proteins for growth. In fact, it was later discovered that rats and human beings have different requirements for protein.

In other words, just because rats grew faster with animal protein, didn’t mean that people would also.

Fast forward to the 1940s. More experiments were conducted on rats. The conclusion was made once again that rats grew faster eating animal protein, specifically from eggs, than from eating plant protein.

The egg industry got wind of these experiments and made the assumption that if eggs and all animal products were the best sources of protein for rats, then they must be the best sources of protein for human beings. Now mind you, the researchers still regarded these experiments as only theory, not fact. But the egg industry didn’t care if the information was fact or fiction.

As the saying goes, the rest is history.

Even though there was not one shred of evidence that human beings required outside sources of protein from animal products, the egg, dairy, and meat industries banned together. They lobbied the United States Department of Agriculture, and, in 1956, convinced the government to officially endorse the birth of the one and only: Four Food Groups. Protein found in meat was officially declared by the government to be superior to the protein found in plants.

And as we all know, the “Four Food Groups” consists of meat, dairy products, refined grains, and fruits and vegetables; the fruits and vegetables are thrown together into one category—relegated to a minor role or a side dish in our meals.

Today, the World Health Organization and many experts in the field of human nutrition tell us that human beings only need 4.5% protein in their diets and that protein can be sourced by plant foods alone.

After all, even oranges have 8% protein, Romaine lettuce 36% protein, and brown rice 8% protein.

The experts also tell us that animal protein is not superior to plant protein. In fact, animal protein is related to many chronic, debilitating diseases that end life prematurely.

The infamous “Four Food Groups” is without a doubt the fattest food lie of them all that we were raised to believe and most of us still believe to this day.

Our government endorsed the “Four Food Groups.” Our teachers taught it. Remember in grade school those shiny, colorful posters and materials that displayed the “Four Food Groups?” Those materials were donated to the schools by the National Dairy Council.

Our doctors adamantly stood behind the “Four Food Groups.”

And our mothers were tickled with the “Four Food Groups.”

Why? Because that is exactly what they were already feeding their families. They could now go to bed at night feeling comforted that they were feeding their families, and had always had been feeding their families, according to recommendations by all those smart experts and by the accepted cultural standard.

How were we to know that all of us had been duped? The very foods that had been intricately woven into our culture and our habits and our beliefs, and had been the law of the land for decades and decades, were some of the very foods that sabotage our health and our lives.

It was Adolf Hitler who said, “If you tell a lie long enough, it will be believed as truth.”

We have been told the tale of the infamous “Four Food Groups” for so long that we believe it as truth. And because we have grown up with these foods, because we are so emotionally attached to these foods, and because they are so woven into our meals and our traditions, the last thing we want to do is give them up.

It is time to throw away the infamous four with which we were raised and contributed and still contribute to the premature disability, diseases, and death that strike so many of us.

It is time to embrace the real four food groups that are critical to our health, fitness, and lifelong well-being—whole fresh fruits, whole fresh vegetables, whole grains, and whole legumes.

By the way, remember those rat experiments close to 100 years ago, rats did grow faster when fed animal protein, but they also died quicker of chronic, degenerative diseases.

Dr. Leslie Van Romer is a health motivational speaker, writer, and lifestyle coach. Visit http://www.DrLeslieVanRomer.com for more inspiration.

 

Related Quotes

"If you step back and look at the data, the optimum amount of red meat you eat should be zero." ~Dr. Walter Willet

"The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined. If beef is your idea of "real food for real people" you'd better live real close to a real good hospital." ~Neal Barnard, M.D.

"I find that low protein diets often contribute to improvement in patients with immune system problems ... In fact, it would be hard to become deficient in protein in our country even if you tried." ~Andrew Weil, M.D.

"It is absolutely healthier to replace red meat in the diet with fruits and vegetables."~Steven Ferrel C.N.

 Life Dynamix Comment

Americans have been mislead by the beef and dairy industries for long enough. The dairy industry designed the original food pyramid, not health minded nutritionists or doctors. Red meat should contain the following warning on the label: "Red meat contributes to heart disease and some forms of cancer." It is absolutely healthier to replace red meat in the diet with organic fruits and vegetables - Period! 

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