By Dr George Jacobs
Around the world, there are all sorts of ‘Days’. There is a Smokeout Day, when people are urged to breathe easier, even a Dog Swimming Day, when people are encouraged to take their dogs swimming, and many, many more.
The purpose of this article is to propose for your consideration whether Singapore should have a day once a week when people are requested to think about eating from the wide range of plant based foods available. In other words, should we do a Plant-Based Food Day?
A Bit of History (not much because it’s a very short history)
One type of day that has gained a small amount of popularity on various continents, including Asia, is a weekly day in which people go meat-free. Although the idea isn’t entirely new, it received renewed attention in 2009, when the city government of Ghent, Belgium urged its citizens to make Thursday the day every week to find alternatives to meat. Since then, cities as far apart as Sao Paulo, Brazil and San Francisco, USA have taken similar steps, not to mention here in Singapore where NUS adopted Thursdays as meatless days. Late last month, the City Council of Washington, DC passed a ceremonial resolution calling for residents to “abstain from animal products on Mondays” (see photos of the event here).
What’s behind this minor movement? In Ghent, the government talks about the environmental costs and the health risks associated with high meat consumption. Tom Balthazar, a Ghent city councillor, says that taking a weekly break from meat, “is good for the climate, your health and your taste buds. A balanced vegetarian meal is not only sustainable, but also a healthy meal,” he said. “We eat too much meat in Flanders and too little fruit and that has disastrous consequences for our health, as too much eating meat increases the cholesterol and the risk of some cancers, diabetes and obesity.”
Are the Rationales Rational?
But is there good science behind the claims that moving towards plant food would also mean moving towards a healthier environment and better human health? Let’s take a quick look. Earlier this year, the International Panel of Sustainable Resource Management stated that to feed the almost 7 billion people in the world and at the same time slow climate change, we must use our fingers, chopsticks, forks and spoons to reach for more plant-based foods.
Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, stated, “The Panel have reviewed all the available science and concluded that two broad areas are currently having a disproportionately high impact on people and the planet’s life support systems — these are energy in the form of fossil fuels and agriculture, especially the raising of livestock for meat and dairy products”.
As to health, here are recommendations from a website of the U.S. government’s National Institutes of Health, “Most fruits and vegetables are part of a heart-healthy diet. They are good sources of fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Most are low in fat, calories, sodium, and cholesterol. Eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day”, and “For the main entree, use less meat or have meatless meals a few times a week.” Our own Health Minister, Khaw Boon Wan, has adopted a plant-based diet.
Is this conclusive? Can we be sure of the validity of the environment and health rationales for a weekly plant based food day? No, we cannot be sure. A fundamental tenet of science is to always be looking to disprove the current orthodoxy. Right now, the current orthodoxy seems to be that global warming is real, that meat production worsens global warming, and that a diet high in meat, such as that eaten in SG and other developed countries, negatively impacts our health. However, let’s imagine that the preponderance of current scientific evidence is wrong, and we go plant-based once a week based on what turns out to be inaccurate evidence. Would it be so bad? As hundreds of millions of people, including those with successful careers in many areas, even billionaires, have not only gone meatless once a week but have gone meatless every day for years, even their entire lives, it can’t be too bad, can it?
Grow Your Own
Please see the companion article, ‘How a Weekly Plant Based Food Day Might Work’ (editor’s note: will be published next week) for some just a few ideas on how to implement this idea. There is no shortage of possibilities. The average person eats at least three meals a day. In food-crazy Singapore, it may even be six daily meals, counting morning tea, afternoon tea and supper. Three to six meals a day times seven days a week equals a least 21 meals each week.
Even if people baulk at an entire day of plant based foods, they can start with just one plant-based meal a week. Breakfast can be especially easy. Anyone can devise their own system. They are all good.
For instance, here are two people who have come up with their own ways to reduce meat consumption. Graham Hill of Treehugger – a discovery company, espouses plant-based weekdays, with weekends open to meat eating (read story here). Mark Bittman, cookbook author, runner and food writer for the New York Times, meanwhile advocates a plant-based diet daily till 6pm (read more here).
About ten years back, there was a Carfree Day, with lots of publicity but seemingly little success (read about the fiasco here) – maybe we can learn from that. With meat consumption rising, along with the attendant environmental and health consequences, the time for a Plant-Based Food Day most certainly is here – now let’s make it happen!
_________________________________________
Dr George Jacobs is the president of the Vegetarian Society (Singapore) – a non-profit, non-religious charity
_____________________________________________________
we can’t even eat a proper rice and want us to skip meat on top of that? singaporeans will die soon even before they collect their cpf
why not? i will support no-meat day anytime!
Absolutely not. Singapore has more important things to worry about than to tell everyone what kind of diet they should be eating.
There is nothing to stop you from having your own meat free day.
Vegans like to point out the China Study to demonstrate that a plant-based diet is healthy.
Unfortunately, that is very very far from true.
As they say, a man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. For the rest of you who are reading the internet for genuine information that will have dramatic impact upon your life, it’ll do you good to read the following carefully: it could save your life!
http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/
Here are some key points to take away: meat consumption has no effect on most diseases (plant protein consumption has actually more positive correlation with diseases than meat protein, though none of it is statistically significant). Wheat consumption is actually strongly correlated (with statistical significance) with most diseases. There is something inherently bad about wheat, but on top of that, the climate of wheat growing places is less favorable for good health.
Stop eating wheat, stop eating sugar, reduce carbs significantly, and stop thinking of meat as the enemy!
I think a plant-based food day will work better in Singapore relative to promoting an all-out vegetarianism, than to other countries.
Put it another way: it may be more difficult to convince Singaporeans to turn vegetarian as compared to other countries, but it may be easier to ask them to go meat-free just for one day a week than other countries.
Two reasons for this. First, Singaporeans are generally more pragmatic, and many vegetarians do so because of idealistic reasons (animal rights, environment etc.). Shunning meat is too much for Singaporean, but doing a little bit (once a week) is acceptable.
Second, it allows Singaporeans to contribute to the vegetarian cause (health, environment etc.) without sacrificing their favourite foods!
100% support the idea. I adopted the vegan plant-based diet a year ago when I attended a talk by the author of the book “The China Study” with a friend. Both of us experienced the same benefits within days – no more acnes, constipation, sore-throats!!
I appreciate lala’s comment. HPB is telling people about eating whole grains, such as brown rice, and I do see a bit more brown rice, but in general many people still seem to think brown rice is something only Martians would eat.
Even more depressing is the number of folks who still smoke cigarettes, when everyone, even cigarette companies, agree it’s bad.
The good thing about a Plant Based Food Day is that it’s just a small change, and maybe people who give it a try will see it’s not strange, difficult or diagreeable. At the same time, they’ll be doing a little for their health and for the env, and every little bit counts.
I am all for a veg-day.
too much meat can mean die earlier.
Sorry, I’m a Carnivore. I can’t let a day go by without at least a little meat, or lots of meat.
Eat less raw Chee Hum and Bao Her and you should be fine.
I believe our experience has taught us that campaigns are usually only successful in convincing ourselves that something is being done.
More important than a Symbolic Day, I think, would be getting Singaporeans to reconsider the amount of meat consumed per meal – for instance, whenever I line up for economy rice/nasi padang, I see sedentary office workers getting two or more portions of meat, and no vegetables.
Of course, it doesn’t help that vegetarian protein options in the typical food court are totally sad and unpleasant.
i agree with AP that a Symbolic Day isn’t much; the key is what we do to support that day.
i also agree, but not totally, that veg food could stand some upgrading. A few suggestions:
a. there’s veg food at non-veg places, such as the economy rice and nasi padang stalls
b. the veg stalls and restaurants are improving, and we can use the power of our demand to improve them more, by not buying the deep fried choices. i speak to stall/restaurant owners who say that customers want the deep fried mock meat.
Finally, too many people think that the only veg protein source is soy bean; actually other beans, nuts, seeds, whole grains and even vegetables contain protein.
I’m all out for following something that helps the environment and boosts health. But I can’t endorse a campaign founded on half truths and fallacies such as this.
“…(T)oo much eating meat(sic) increases the cholesterol and the risk of some cancers, diabetes and obesity”, so says some government guy. Does he have any data to back this up? I bet not. Meat is not the main culprit here; carbohydrates are.
Yes. All for plant-based once-day-a-week! Not all Sgporeans will want to participate, but there will be a handful out there who do. No meat really won’t die. Eat to live!
This may help us see the other side of the picture:
http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/
The China Study and its critiques deserve attention. Thanks.
The beauty of a Plant Based Food Day is that you don’t need to agree whether plant based diets should be adopted 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year.
Plant Based Food Day is just about eating more plant based food once a week. It’s a little bit like if I agree to reduce my water consumption, i don’t need to never bathe again or never drink water any more.
As to The China Study, I don’t know enough to say if I completely agree with Prof Campbell (chances are that 5 or 10 years from now, he, like most good scientists, may revise his ideas in light of new evidence). BTW, i hear he’s writing a follow-up book.
We don’t need to agree about The China Study. As you’ll see in the companion piece to the “Is Singapore ready for a plant based food day” article (to be out tomorrow in TOC), lots of folks who don’t necessarily support going 100% plant based do support eating more plant based. Thanks.
I glanced through the link on the rawfodsos.com.
From what I can see, the author seems to make some sensible arguments against the China study – by using other variables that could be possibly correlated with diseases besides animal protein.
But the fallacy of using this argument is that, if such an analysis is made, then we could very well say that none of the research papers in the world that studys correlation between variables stands.
Because if you found variables a and b to correlate, you could simply grab another variable that will (seem to) correlate with b (lets call it variable c) and and chunk it in and say that “a” may seem to cause “b”, but why doesn’t the author say that “c” can be the cause of “b” as well? Things simply don’t work this way and we know for sure there are indeed correlation between a and b.
I’ve personally met many people who survived chronic illnesses like Type 1/2 Diabetes, Cancer, Heart Disease, Lupus, etc. switching to a healthy plant-based diet, when their own doctors gave them only 6 months to live. Their doctors have nothing to say!
All the doctors I’ve visited for routine check-ups tell me I’m amongst the rare percentage of people in very good health. Diabetes and high cholesterol is starting to appear in younger and younger children – this is terrible!
Our grandparents lived on far less meat and far more whole grain foods than now and they lived strong and healthy till their old age. Now, people are already expecting heart disease and cancer much earlier. Chronic illnesses can be avoided, we’ve just lost sight of what is natural and good for us. Food addiction takes about a month to overcome – we need to give ourselves time to switch and a plant-based food day is a way to start!
It is time for people to be aware that doctors are trained to identify symptoms and prescribe medication/drugs, but have not received much education in food nutrition. I challenge any doctor to verify that they have sufficient education to prescribe a healthy diet plan! All hospitals engage dietitians to plan patient meals and not doctors! We’re in the 21st century and should educate ourselves to be more discerning!
It is time for the general public not to be led by misleading reports and by studies funded by pharmaceuticals whose main aim is profit-seeking. Do we ever ask ourselves who is behind the information and their motive?