Dr. Fred Provenza_VGLC 2022

Human health is linked with the diets of livestock through the chemical features of the plants that livestock eat. That includes not only energy, protein, minerals, and vitamins plants contain, but the tens of thousands of other compounds plants produce, collectively termed phytochemicals. This rich pool of compounds is increasingly recognized as responsible-as a complex whole-when trying to understand how plants promote health in herbivores or omnivorous humans who eat plants and meat. Through their many properties-that include anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-parasitic, and immunomodulatory effects-phytochemicals bolster health and protect animals against diseases and pathogens.
As an outsider to human nutrition research, and after reading all the epidemiological studies that allege eating red meat is bad for human health, I'm amazed by two things: 1) First, people assume meat = meat = meat, ignoring the fact that the phytochemical richness of the diets of animals has a huge effect on their health and on the phytochemical/biochemical richness of the meat we eat. 2) Nobody has done clinical trials to assess the likely health benefits to humans of eating meat from animals who are eating phytochemically rich diets. That goes not only for cattle, sheep, and goats, but for pigs and chickens as well. The implications of this research are huge regarding health.
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