Fresh vegetables on a fork with Earth in the background.

Food and Nutrition:
What Everyone Needs to Know

Part V • Food and Nutrition: What Everyone Needs to Know • Chapter 19
Chapter 19

Meat and Eggs: Are Some Choices Better Than Others?

Chapter 19: Key Themes and Abstract

Vegetables on Earth with fork illustration.
  • Meat and Cancer
  • Cage-free Eggs
  • Grass-fed vs Grain-fed Myth
  • Eggs. Cholesterol, Heart Disease
  • Regenerative Agriculture

Meat, Eggs, Cholesterol, and Nutrition Myths

This chapter explores the high intakes of animal foods like beef, pork, chicken, and eggs in Western diets, highlighting their protein, micronutrients, saturated fat, and heme iron alongside the sodium (salt), preservatives, and carcinogens found in processed meats.  It illustrates the health risks of red and processed meats, including heart disease, stroke, and colorectal (colon) cancer.  It addresses misinformation regarding the nutritional benefits and sustainability of grass-fed versus grain-fed beef, clarifying that both have a high carbon and water footprint and contribute to climate change.  It assesses the egg and blood cholesterol (high LDL) connection, reminding us that some may be sensitive to dietary cholesterol from egg yolks.  Finally, it examines eggs (cage-free, free-range, pasture-raised, regenerative agriculture, organic), noting the role of bird (avian) flu on egg prices and urging eaters to read labels to understand environmental sustainability and ethical concerns in egg and meat production (and ditch the jerky).

Guiding Questions

  • What nutritional benefits does animal meat offer?
  • Do red and processed meats like bacon, ham, and hotdogs really cause colon cancer?
  • Is grass-fed beef healthier and more sustainable than grain-fed?
  • Do eggs cause high blood cholesterol and heart disease—or should you opt for an egg-white omelet?
  • Is cage-free all it’s cracked up to be—or are greener eggs out there?

Meat and Eggs, Explained

Empower informed choices with science-backed evidence on meat and egg production and how it impacts your health and our environment; this chapter inspires informed debate in class and compelling media coverage behind food industry hype and political theatre. 

how to buy food and nutrition

Bookshop.org is an excellent way to support your favorite bookstore if you can't get to it in person.  Other purchase options follow, with direct links to the book.  Please reach out for bulk orders.