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Western diet in question
• MARTIN Davies does not appear to have read the Camden Sustainability Task Force’s draft report on food (Mixed Grill on Menu, April 17).
The task force is recommending a reduction in the amount of meat and dairy available on sites controlled directly or indirectly by Camden Council.
We are not advocating vegetarianism.
Cllr Davies, the executive member for health, appears to have absolutely no grasp over the health implications of what’s come to be known as the western diet – that is large amounts of meat and dairy.
This is a key factor in the obesity epidemic, particularly when the meat is fried. On present trends half of all British children will be clinically obese by 2020 because they eat too many poor quality burgers and other junk food, and because they do not exercise enough.
There are other health issues to consider as well as obesity. A report by the World Cancer Research Fund argued that eating red meat and processed meat are “convincing or probable causes of some cancers.”
The largest ever epidemiological study of older women, the Harvard Nurses Study, concluded that women drinking two glasses of whole milk a day had 67 per cent more risk of heart disease than those drinking no whole milk.
Vegetables, fruit, seeds, nuts, grains and pulses can provide all the protein, vitamins and nutrients that humans need. Indeed for most of their existence humans have primarily lived off this sort of diet. It’s only in the last 50 years that we have massively increased the quantity of meat and dairy we consume.
And of course we now eat poor quality meat, often stuffed with antibiotics, growth promoters and other chemicals, and we prepare it badly as well. There’s no getting away from it, large quantities of cheese burgers and pepperoni pizzas are simply not good for you.
That is one of the main reasons why in 1990 the World Health Organisation recommended a change in agricultural practices away from meat and dairy and towards plant foods.
Our final recommendation says we should provide less meat and dairy, and that when we do provide meat it should be better quality, less carbon-intensive meat, subject to higher animal welfare standards.
Cllr Alexis Rowell
Camden Eco Champion and Chair, Camden Sustainability Task Force
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