A Demographic Time Bomb Is About to Hit the Beef Industry

jeffw@lemmy.worldmod to News@lemmy.world – 150 points –
A Demographic Time Bomb Is About to Hit the Beef Industry
wired.com
72

You are viewing a single comment

I've found a lot of people in my generation (Millennial) don't eat red meat, not because they don't want to but because they can't. It gives me incredible heartburn, and many of my friends become physically ill if they eat it.

Wasn’t there a disease going around that made people sick when eating red meat?

Tick bites can cause it. Something about your body building immunity to a protein transferred by the tick that closely matches those found in beef or something like that.

There’s a kind of tick that, once it bites you, causes you to be deathly allergic to red meat from that point forward.

Not always! Last I heard, it can and does wear off. Might take 6-months, might take years. I gather the effect is so rare we don't have a ton of data.

But I'm often full of shit! Look it up yourself.

You are probably full of shit every day. Until you visit the loo. So don't hold it against yourself!

For a non-tick response- Prion contamination resulting in Mad Cow Disease. One meal and your brain eventually rots in moldy cheese.

Yep, there is, it spreads though tic bites, and once bitten you will allways get sick after eating red meat.

Alpha-gal syndrome. It's not that common that it will affect entire populations.

6 more...

Millennial here and I've had a similar experience. I ate a ton of red meat growing up, but once I got to my early-to-mid 30s, I noticed beef would give me a lot of stomach issues. I switched to eating chicken and sometimes (depending on the dish) substituting the meat entirely for black beans and found my stomach issues got a lot better. And it's still just as tasty to me, so I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.

I’ll usually find that burgers/steaks etc at restaurants are what usually bother me more than if i go and buy/season/cook myself. Not sure if it’s just over seasoned meat, or the type/quality. Even then, I usually prefer chicken or turkey-based (lower fat) alternatives or mixes (like a turkey ground chuck).

I haven’t really gotten into plant-based alternatives, though I’m not opposed to it…as long as it tastes good! Lol

The two go hand in hand. Food service-grade ingredients are notoriously bad and cheap. They then compensate for this by heavily seasoning it so you don't notice how bad it is. In the rare case that a restaurant uses high quality ingredients (e.g. serving prime rib), they are unlikely to season it as heavily.

When I had Celiac undiagnosed, all I could figure out was that I felt awful after meals. My theory was I needed to eat more healthy. I started eating whole and organic foods, which didn't help, then became a vegetarian, which didn't help (and some people sure were dicks about it). But yeah, anything that leads to eating more veggies and fiber can help with certain digestive issues and overall health.

I don't get heartburn, but I also don't poop for a few days.

I don't not eat beef/meat, but I also don't really eat it either.

6 more...