Less Meat, Better Health

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By Marge Perry

Choose protein from nonanimal sources, and you'll cut fat, trim calories, and reduce your risk of heart attack. Here's how to do it deliciously.

Remember when being a vegetarian was a political statement? These days, it’s a vote for a healthier heart. “Most women who develop coronary heart disease do so by age 45,” says cardiologist Elsa-Grace Giardina, M.D., director of the Center for Women’s Health at Columbia University. “A diet where most of the protein comes from nonanimal sources may help jump-start you on the road to health.”
           
A large Harvard study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in 2004 found that women who ate eight or more servings a day of fruits and vegetables were 30 percent less likely to have a heart attack or stroke than those who ate fewer than 1-1⁄2 servings a day.
           
And when unsaturated fats—derived from plants—were eaten in place of carbohydrates, they helped reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol and increase HDL (good) cholesterol. For every extra serving of fruits and vegetables participants added to their diets, their risk of heart disease dropped by 4 percent. Cutting back on red meat after age 45 makes sense: Meat is a good source of protein, zinc, vitamin B12, and selenium, but you can also get those nutrients from plants. Red meat is also high in saturated fat, which clearly contributes to heart disease. And it’s a source of calories. As your metabolism slows and your caloric needs decrease, eating less meat helps keep your weight down.
           
Finally, it may be easier to eat less beef now because of your changing tastes. “Fewer people over 45 that I see in my practice choose red meat,” Giardina says. “When I ask what they have for dinner, they say fish or chicken, not a burger or rib-eye steak. There must be a physiological reason that these preferences change. It may be it’s harder to digest, or there’s something different with our enzyme system.”
           
If the thought of never eating beef again leaves you in dietary despair, hold on. We’re grown-ups, and we eat to enhance our well-being; that means consuming not just foods with antioxidants and other preventive elements, but also those that make us feel good because they satisfy our senses and make our toes curl in pleasure.
           
“If you want steak, have it,” says John La Puma, M.D., medical director of the Santa Barbara Institute for Medical Nutrition and Healthy Weight and a coauthor of The Realage Diet (HarperCollins, 2002). “There is a place in a healthy diet for red meat.”
           
La Puma believes that if you’re healthy, you can eat a 3- to 4-ounce serving of red meat once a week, but if you want to lose weight, you should limit it to once a month because of its calorie density. If you have risk factors for heart disease, including elevated cholesterol, he suggests eating red meat a maximum of once a month.
           
Whether you choose to cut back on your meat intake occasionally or altogether, the suggestions that follow can make the transition easier. For optimal nutrition over one week, La Puma recommends that you aim to have four dinners based on legumes or soy, two based on fish, and one on poultry or red meat. And don’t forget grain-based meals; high-protein grains, such quinoa and brown rice (which offers a complete array of proteins when paired with beans), are satisfying substitutes. “People who eat the most whole grains have the least heart disease,” La Puma says.