Is Beef Safe to Eat? Risks to Consider Before Consumption - Essay Sample

Introduction

Beef is a source of high-quality protein and nutrients and is obtained from cattle. While some parts of beef skeletal muscle are cut into several pieces to be prepared, some other cuts are processed. However, research has shown that the consumption of beef may lead to impotence, heart diseases, and other illnesses (Nilsson, 2018). According to some studies, vegetarians are 40% less likely to have cancer when compared to meat-eaters (Nilsson, 2018). Consumers should avoid eating beef due to reasons such as protecting their health and the environment, economic damage, and going against animal rights.

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Health and Environment

Beef is categorized as red meat. Red meat is a term used to refer to flesh from mammals which contain a higher level of iron as compared to chicken or fish. Studies have linked the consumption of beef products to heart disease whereby the heart and blood vessels may be affected (Troy, Tiwari, & Joo, 2016). Heart diseases also include stroke, high blood pressure, and heart attack. Many health-conscious individuals avoid red meat since it is perceived to be unhealthy. One of the hypotheses regarding beef is that the fat contained in it may get saturated thereby increasing the chances of a heart attack since cholesterol levels in the blood rise to significant levels. Consumption of beef is also associated with cancer; colon cancer is one of the common types. Some components of red meat that are known to cause cancer include heme iron, heterocyclic amines, and other compounds added to processed beef. Heterocyclic amines are carcinogenic substances produced by beef when placed under high temperatures, for instance, while cooking. Beef may also contain parasites like tapeworms which lead to weight loss, and abdominal pain. Iron overload in the body after consumption of excessive beef may lead to heart diseases and liver problems.

There are various environmental impacts on beef production on the environment. Some of the unfortunate occurrences include pollution due to the usage of fossil fuel, animal methane, and water and land consumption. Intensive cattle production required a lot of farming land, and the animals need large quantities of harvested feeds (Ahlberg, Allwardt, Broocks, Bruno, McPhillips, Taylor, & DeSilva, 2018). The establishment of ranches may also lead to deforestation and the loss of unique plant and animal species. Production of cattle leads to the decline of the quality of the land.

Animal Rights

Animal rights are the beliefs that animals should be protected from human use and abuse. However, there is considerable confusion regarding the animal rights issue. According to these rights, animals also suffer similarly as humans do, and they can feel the torture and pain too (Garner, 2016). Human beings are obligated to consider anything done to the animals that could interfere with their needs. In this case, to get beef, cattle must be killed and slaughtered. The slaughtering of these animals is a process that will cause physical and emotional pain, and therefore should be avoided. However, new technologies have devised ways of killing animals less painfully by stunning them so that they fall unconscious before being slaughtered. Even with such methods, cattle should not be harmed in any manner regardless of the purpose, in this case being the production of beef for consumption. Some religious beliefs explain that beef production is not a justification for inflicting pain and harm to the cattle (Garner, 2016). Slaughtering animals leads to stress during the preparation stages, excruciating pain during and after the neck cutting. The animals also suffer during the period between death and preparation, and there is a prolonged time of loss of brain function.

Economic Damage

The consumption of beef may lead to economic damage in several ways. Some elements like environmental, health, and animal welfare factors all lead to the substantial costs caused by beef consumption. Cattle rearing is known to cause greenhouse emissions that lead to the greenhouse effect leading to high temperatures among other consequences (Quinton, Hely, Amer, Byrne, & Cromie, 2018). Cutting back on the amounts of beef and its products would wipe off the vast amounts of money for fighting climate change put aside by various governments in the world. In the past years, climate experts have warned people regarding the high carbon cost of meat. Beef particularly is damaging. The methane produced from manure emits the greenhouse gas (Ahlberg et al., 2018). The forage required to feed these cattle is produced in large amounts; therefore, costing farmers huge amounts of money. For instance, producing one kilogram of beef may require about fifteen kilograms of grain and thirty kilograms of forage which are energy intensive to produce since fertilizer is aloe pensive (Ogino, Sommart, Subepang, Mitsumori, Hayashi, Yamashita, & Tanaka, 2016). Research also indicates that eating fewer amounts of beef and more beans could reduce the number of deaths by approximately 5-7%.

Conclusion

Consumers should avoid eating beef due to the protein's effects. The consumption of beef is harmful to our health and the environment, it is against human rights, and it causes economic damage. Some of the effects of beef on health include increased risk of heart attack, damaged blood vessels, and colon cancer. Regarding the environment, cattle production leads to the decline of land quality and the emission of greenhouse gases. Slaughtering animals is against animal rights since the act inflicts pain and suffering upon the animal. Lastly, the production of cattle causes economic damage through the death of consumers, and the destruction of the environment and a lot of money is used to fight climate change.

Recommendations

Consumers should look for alternative sources of proteins and stop consuming beef due to the reasons explained above. Plant protein is also rich in nutrients and could be a perfect substitute. These proteins include beans, green and chicken peas among others (Vainio, Niva, Jallinoja, & Latvala, 2016).

References

Ahlberg, C. M., Allwardt, K., Broocks, A., Bruno, K., McPhillips, L., Taylor, A., ... & DeSilva, U. (2018). Environmental effects on water intake and water intake prediction in growing beef cattle. Journal of animal science, 96(10), 4368-4384.

Garner, R. (Ed.). (2016). Animal rights: The changing debate. Springer.

Nilsson, L. M. (2018). Food, Nutrition, and Health in Sapmi. In Nutritional and Health Aspects of Food in Nordic Countries (pp. 179-195). Academic Press.

Ogino, A., Sommart, K., Subepang, S., Mitsumori, M., Hayashi, K., Yamashita, T., & Tanaka, Y. (2016). Environmental impacts of extensive and intensive beef production systems in Thailand evaluated by life cycle assessment. Journal of cleaner production, 112, 22-31.

Quinton, C. D., Hely, F. S., Amer, P. R., Byrne, T. J., & Cromie, A. R. (2018). Prediction of effects of beef selection indexes on greenhouse gas emissions. animal, 12(5), 889-897.

Troy, D. J., Tiwari, B. K., & Joo, S. T. (2016). Health implications of beef intramuscular fat consumption. Korean journal for food science of animal resources, 36(5), 577.

Vainio, A., Niva, M., Jallinoja, P., & Latvala, T. (2016). From beef to beans: Eating motives and the replacement of animal proteins with plant proteins among Finnish consumers. Appetite, 106, 92-100.