Anemia Will Rise in a Meatless Society by Climate Obsessed – Watts Up With That?

By Vijay Jayaraj

Iron deficiency—and the anemia it causes—remains a persistent global health problem that is only likely to be exacerbated by the war on meat waged by climate change alarmists, whose hostility to animal protein is a manifestation of an anti-humanist ideology.

Growing up in South Asia, I observed a diet in India where doctors prescribe moderate consumption of red meat for people with severe anemia, especially women during pregnancy. According to the World Health Organization, more than 40% Children and pregnant women in India and some parts of sub-Saharan Africa suffer from anemia.

Most popular symptom Anemia is a persistent fatigue condition that results from iron deficiency in red blood cells, which do not deliver enough oxygen to the body. The cardiovascular system is significantly strained by this condition.

Study in 204 countries from 1990 to 2019 found that the most common cause of iron deficiency was a diet lacking in heme iron, a form of the element found in meat.

“Meat is recognized as an important source of iron due to the heme iron content in meat, which is more easily absorbed than non-heme iron from plants,” says one report. article published in the UK, where anemia is a long-standing problem among the elderly, girls and women of childbearing age. According to the study, the heme iron in meat also promotes the absorption of non-heme iron from foods eaten at the same meal.

Cooked beef has the highest heme iron content, followed by lamb, pork and chicken.

According to 2021 data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, anemia rates are worst in sub-Saharan West Africa, where 47% of the population suffers from the condition. Other severely affected regions are South Asia and sub-Saharan Central Africa, both with rates of around 36%. By contrast, anemia rates are lower than 7% in North America, Western Europe, and Australia, where red meat consumption higher

However, red meat, especially beef, is not popular with climate obsessives, who argue that methane, a byproduct of cow digestion, threatens to warm the atmosphere to dangerous levels—a warning without scientific basis.

There is a lot of evidence that climate change fears are based on over-exaggeration of the warming potential of methane, as well as nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide, the latter being a vital plant gas without which life could not exist.

Even some people interested A report on the man-made climate emergency has admitted that methane emissions from livestock are not a significant factor. But that hasn’t stopped councils in several Melbourne suburbs from encouraging a switch to “plant-based diets” to help stem the “looming climate and ecological crisis”.

“There is substantial evidence that emissions associated with current diets – particularly high and increasing rates of animal product consumption – are likely to make limiting global warming impossible,” Yarra City Council warned in an 81-page document.

The hot air passing over even the largest herd of cattle could not be more uncomfortable than the air created by that nonsense.

Methane in the atmosphere has a short lifespan of just 12 years. Through a natural process, it is converted into carbon dioxide, which is used as food by plants through photosynthesis. Eventually, the methane emitted by cows is recycled back to them in the form of grass and other animal feed. The warming effect of any addition of the gas—whether from animals, decomposing vegetation, or industrial activity—is so small that it is undetectable.

It has taken human civilization centuries to perfect the art of agriculture and animal husbandry to the point where it can produce enough iron-rich food for a world of 8 billion people. Having achieved this remarkable feat, some would impose a meatless society free of malnutrition in response to a non-existent climate crisis.

Of course, this is unacceptable.

This commentary was first published at BizPac Review on July 20, 2024.

Vijay Jayaraj is a research associate at CO2 AllianceArlington, Virginia. He holds a master’s degree in environmental science from the University of East Anglia, UK and a postgraduate degree in energy management from Robert Gordon University, UK.