As has been happening often lately, I received an email yesterday from a shoe brand doing their very best to pander to the silly mob by introducing to the world a person that in all reality should be called their “Czar of the Office Of Diverse And Equitable Inclusion Of Pretend Sustainable Practices Designed To Convince Blackrock That Woke New Yorkers’ Pension Money Should Be Invested In Us.” That’s a long name, but way more accurate than “head of ESG” or whatever.
The very first thing the shoe brand’s ESG lady said, when asked about sustainability, was, “don’t eat meat.” I'm not sure what that has to do with running footwear but, you know, in 2023, it doesn't have to make sense so long as you pander to the correct audience.
I’ll let you imagine what I muttered upon reading this woman's comment as it’s not fit for print… even for us.
What we will print, however, is this:
This idea that one ought not eat meat is an absurd position to take for both health and environmental reasons.
Nope. Not even slightly. Not eating meat is associated with deficiencies in body and brain critical nutrients like heme iron, B12, D3, K2, DHA, choline, creatine, carnosine, carnitine, and taurine, all of which are found exclusively in animal products. These nutrients are especially critical for those pursuing fitness for health, performance, and recovery. Those who are deficient in these nutrients suffer from cognitive decline, weight management issues, osteoporosis, muscle wasting, endocrine and skin problems, and other severe long-term issues that affect health, performance, and longevity... Oh, and they’re WEAK as fuck. This is supported not only by volumes of research, but also anecdotally.
Once upon long fucking time ago, in pursuit of better performance and being influenced by a dumbass documentary, I tried going vegan to see how my body would react. The results were devastating. My HRV, testosterone, REM and SWS sleep, and athletic performance decreased significantly. My RHR and estrogen increased. I also had imbalances in blood levels of critical minerals. Within a month of resuming an animal-based diet, I was back to normal. You can read about the entire, odoriferous, offensive experience here.
Now to sustainability… 1 soil-enriching, grass-fed, grass-finished, carbon sequestering cow who grazes on non-arable land, improves the general environment around it, and increases the bird, insect, and bee population around it, feeds my family of 4 a nutrient-dense diet for approximately 100 days. 1 animal dies and we eat for 100 days. To get the same amount of protein from plants, 3,750 mammals (55 per kg of protein) die cruel deaths from dismemberment by tractor and suffocation by pesticides. The process of growing these mostly mono-cropped plants also decimates the soil, the mycelium, the microbes, and insect and bee populations. That means that eating ruminants (not factory-farmed of course) is a carbon negative process and has a positive environmental impact, whereas vegan diets are responsible for untold numbers of animal deaths, are carbon positive, and have a devastating impact on the environment. One is decidedly sustainable and the other is not. The ESG lady has it more backwards than the outfits Kriss Kross wore in the 90’s, but at least those guys made you jump (jump), not nutrient deficient and sick. Her message, if homegirl wasn’t trying to pander to corporate investors who are trying to pander to woke, misinformed Californians, SHOULD be that sustainable, regenerative farming of plants and animals is the way the world has always thrived... rather than pushing a nonsensical narrative that has no basis in scientific evidence. That's IF she should be opining at all as a shoe company's diversity chief. We (The Fittest and the shoe people) both claim to love the environment, but at The Fittest we show it through action instead of pandering to audiences who don’t know better.
If you want to integrate healthy, sustainable eating into your life, email us at dominate@thefittest.com.
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