On Food and Cooking

requirements for day-to-day good health.
Most people in the West had plenty of food,
and life expectancy had risen to seven or eight
decades. Medical research then began to
concentrate on the role of nutrition in the
diseases that cut the good life short, mainly
heart disease and cancer. And here meat and
its strong appeal turned out to have a
significant disadvantage: a diet high in meat
is associated with a higher risk of developing
heart disease and cancer. In our postindustrial
life of physical inactivity and essentially
unlimited ability to indulge our taste for meat,
meat’s otherwise valuable endowment of
energy contributes to obesity, which increases
the risk of various diseases. The saturated fats
typical of meats raise blood cholesterol levels
and can contribute to heart disease. And to the
extent that meat displaces from our diet the
vegetables and fruits that help fight heart
disease and cancer (p. 255), it increases our
vulnerability to both.