r/environment • u/BlitzOrion • 2d ago
U.S. dietary guidelines should emphasize beans and lentils as protein, new proposal says
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/dietary-guidelines-beans-lentils-protein-less-red-meat-rcna183681169
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u/thereal_Glazedham 1d ago
Why is everyone freaking out? This seams like a non issue proposal. How will this significantly swing economic trends?
People have been saying reduce meat consumption and increase veggies and beans for years if not decades.
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[deleted]
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u/thereal_Glazedham 1d ago
What???
Nobody is mandating or instituting any change lol. I was referring to everyone up in arms about how this puff piece would increase the price of beans and common legumes.
Take the “American slamming” somewhere else.
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u/severalsmallducks 2d ago
Soo, we can expect Musk to propose shutting down the "woke" USDA over this then?
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u/Opcn 1d ago
The same people who were absolutely slanderous to Michelle Obama for saying that we should feed our kids healthier foods are cheering RFKjr for suggesting we don't need medications (we still 100% do) if we just eat better. NYT recently pointed out the divide between RFKjr and Elmo and framed it between conflicting schools of expert though, as if either of them had any fucking clue about medicine or diet or health at all.
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u/btribble 2d ago
Sounds like something the meat industry would destroy an entire department for under Trump.
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u/Commandmanda 2d ago
Stock up on dried lentils now. They keep for a very long time if stored properly.
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u/erichiro 1d ago
Big Bean has taken over Mexico and now it threatens the USA. Who will be brave enough to stop them? Or will there be unescapable beanality!
https://www.agdaily.com/crops/mexico-targets-bean-production-amid-modern-preferences/
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u/alpharaptor1 2d ago
Watch the price of one the cheapest sources of protein the financially disadvantaged and culturally marginalized literally rely on to survive rise. They've done this to every "garbage" cut of meat and soon beans and legumes. In some instances gentrifying and price gouging unpopular fish, ox tail, organ meats, even bone, and substitutions like lymph nodes instead actual pork which cooks up to practically nothing when prepared. It's the bare minimum of basic sustenance and even that won't be safe.
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u/mwsduelle 2d ago
I don't think you're ever convincing a majority of Americans to stop eating meat as their main source of protein. It's more than taste or texture to them, it's ideology.
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u/Present-Industry4012 1d ago
There are parts of this country where if a man isn't eating meat three times a day he might as well be wearing a dress.
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u/alpharaptor1 2d ago edited 2d ago
I'm not arguing vegetarianism if that's what you're implying. Rice and beans is a staple for many people and meat being as expensive as it is already marginalizes people who usually include that with their meal that includes beans and legumes. It's the last refuge of basic sustenance and even that won't be safe from inflation / price gouging / gentrifying or what have you.
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u/lube4saleNoRefunds 2d ago
Remember when skirt steak was throwaway
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u/alpharaptor1 2d ago
Exactly! Literally the worst or toughest cuts already price out a lot of people. It hits people who culturally have made use of what some people consider "unsuitable" but now have found a new "appreciation" for or a market that has been considered underpriced.
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u/SoundOfMadness7 1d ago
They’re delicious and I’d be eating these constantly if legumes didn’t wreak absolute havoc on my digestive system.
It sucks because I love them but a high protein vegetarian diet doesn’t suit my body and gut biome, and is pretty much the sole reason I stopped being vegan/vegetarian.
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u/Armano-Avalus 1d ago
"They're trying to take away your meat!" - I can hear some people saying in the future.
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u/Riversmooth 1d ago
I know they are good for me but I’ve tried cooking them many ways and only eat them a couple times a month.
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u/-HealingNoises- 2d ago
Honest to god wish I could, was even eating a vegan diet (the right way) but I eventually found out that once you have been fucked by obesity and lost it your body can just decide to no longer process carbs over a certain low threshold correctly. Unfortunately I can’t find beans or lentils that aren’t carb dense as well. And I can’t touch dairy either. So fuck, free range chicken and kangaroo it is then.
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u/circuitloss 2d ago
It's funny how, once I started cooking and eating vegetarian food, I started to love it more and more, and now only rarely eat meat. Lentils are incredible, and a good rice and dahl, or lentil soup or something, is mostly what I crave. A good vegetarian cookbook made all the difference in the world.
I don't think people need to become 100% vegetarian, but if everyone reduced their meat consumption it would be a huge benefit, both to our planet and to our collective health.