ARGENTINA-HEALTH: Where’s the Beef?

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Mar 5 1997 (IPS) - The sight of diners tucking into a huge steak, usually one that covers a dinner plate, in restaurants throughout Argentina is gradually becoming a thing of the past.

Argentineans, among the biggest consumers of beef in the world, are steadily changing their habit of a lifetime and now eat more chicken, fish, vegetables and fruit. Likewise the intake of wine at the dinner table has dropped considerably, with mineral water soaring in popularity.

Despite the change in diet, however, heart disease continues to be the foremost cause of death among adults in Argentina, a grim statistic that caused the stampede away from beef in the first place.

What is even more surprising for Argentina’s cardiologists is that heart attacks are now common among people under the age of 40. This new phenomenon is attributed to the stresses of work, excessive smoking and hyper-tension.

Latest statistics from Argentina’s Secretariat for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries show that this country and Uruguay are still among the world’s biggest meat eaters, although the average consumption has dropped considerably.

In the 1960s, each Argentinian consumed 198 pounds of beef per year. In 1990 this figure had fallen to 156 pounds per person, and declined to 145 pounds two years later. Figures for 1996 showed the average beef intake for both Argentineans and Uruguayans was 123 pounds, the secretariat reported.

Nutritionists attribute the decline to the influence of public health educators who have been insisting on the need to lower high cholesterol levels. Many people now believe that it isn’t necessary to consume a lot of meat as there are other altertaines equally nutritious.

In the past, tradition held that if children didn’t eat a “churrasco” – a cut of boneless beef – every day of the week, then their physical development would be endangered. In 1992 there were only 500 hectares of organically produced fruits and vegetables in Argentina, a figure which had risen to 12,000 hectares by 1996. This increase has taken place even though organically produced foods are 50 per cent more expensive than food produced with chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

There are also organically produced meat products which are also more expensive since they are raised with the utmost care and attention.

Along with the decerease in the frequency of meat-eating, physicians have noted an increase in the number of vegetarians in Argentina. Some doctors have reported that, prior to an initial consultation, parents want to know if prospective physicians will approve the total elimination of meat from a child’s diet.

Specialists now believe that it is possible to replace the protein and iron that meat provides with other foods and, rightly or wrongly, meat-eating has been associated with cardiac disease, stroke, arteriosclerosis and even cancer.

As eating attitudes have shifted, the consumption of chicken has risen in the past five years from an average of 23 pounds per person to nearly 51 pounds.

Meat-industry researchers have vainly protested that certain cuts of beef have less fat than chicken and research shows any diet which aspires to weight reduction, cholesterol control, the lowering of hypertension, and the elimination of diarrhea is based on chicken. Argentina’s hospitals now serve chicken more frequently than any other meat.

The demand for fish, once was considered marginal in the diets of most Argentinians, likewise has increased. A wide range of specialists – cardiologists, nutritionists, dieticians – now recommend the consumption of seafood three times a week, a frequency that was unthinkable just 10 years ago.

Due to this favorable outlook on seafood, the number of fishmongers has risen sharply and they provide a greater greater variety of seafood than in the past so that homemakers might alternate fish with other dishes.

The dietary changes have also resulted in widespread clamor for “dietetically-approved” food and drink in fact concern with “approved”food has become an obsession among Argentinians.

Argentina now ranks third behind the United States and France as the country with the highest per capita consumption of artificial sweeteners.

Argentine wine – another product of renowned quality sold throughout the world – is now reserved for weekend meals at home or for special events. The Average citizen appears oblivious to such entreaties from the wine industry that “a daily glass of wine lowers the likelihood of heart attack.”

In the 1970s, Argentinians drank 92 liters of wine per year. Steadily, this has given way to “lighter” drinks – beer, soda, juices and mineral water and in 1996 the average annual wine consumption was down to 41 liters per person.

In the majority of middle and high income homes, mineral water has replaced tap water, which, although it is potable, is now reserved for housecleaning and kitchen use.