Is it OK for kids to eat red meat? How to boost their brains

Is it OK for kids to eat red meat to help boost their brain? Children are in such an important phase for their brain development. Every day presents new experiences that grow it, but without the right conditions it can’t reach its full potential.

Grass-fed meat and shellfish contains nutrients essential for brain development. There are serious complications that can arise from a deficiency in nutrients such as B12 and iron. Quality meat contains a lot of nutrition in a small amount, making it vital for children’s brain development.

Table of Contents

Humans and Meat: a love story
Slaves to grains
Why is meat demonised?
What meat to eat, and what to avoid
How is meat good for brain development?
Vitamin B12
Iron
Fat
Zinc
Summary

Humans and Meat: a love story

Meat gets a bad rap. Apparently it’s bad for us, bad for the animals and bad for the planet. But if that’s the case then why was it the main component of our diet, and the reason for our evolution as a species.

We can track our relationship with meat back millions of years with stable isotope testing of carbon and nitrogen. Study of these isotopes in fossilised body tissues can show what foods were ingested by the animal. They uncover that before 2 million years ago, meat was eaten opportunistically by humans and not a staple part of the diet. However, at some point after, we became more proficient at hunting and the amount of meat in our diet drastically increased. This led to a host of changes that developed us into the humans we are today(1).

These changes include: our increase in height; changes to our intestine necessary for a high meat diet; our erect posture that made us better hunters; a longer lifespan; and our intellectual and brain development(2).In fact, remains suggest that by 1.5 million years ago, meat was so essential to our functioning that a lack of it led to “deleterious pathological conditions”(3).

Slaves to grains

About 10,000 years ago when we started farming and became dependent on grains, human health began to decline. There was dramatically worse dental health, as well as iron deficiency anaemia, more infection and bone loss(1).

Farming domesticated grains created larger communities, which then cemented grains as a staple. They were necessary to sustain the increased population and so overtook meat as our primary food. Since then, throughout history, the poor have subsisted mainly on grains while meat has been prized, and only eaten in large amounts by the nobility.

This continues to this day. The masses are told that they need to cut down on meat for their own health and for the planet.

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So it is OK for kids to eat red meat? But if meat has been so critical to our evolution and we still require the nutrients it’s packed with, why are we warned off it?

Why is meat demonised?

Red meat consumption has been dropping in the USA since the 1970s while intake of fruits, vegetables, grains and sweeteners has increased. Yet the population is still obese. More so than ever(4).

In 1980 the US, followed by other countries, released their first dietary guidelines. They told people to cut back on saturated fat which translated to consumers replacing beef and butter with pasta and margarine. Obesity rates subsequently exploded upwards and haven’t stopped.

After World War 2, heart disease was on the rise after never previously being an issue. The US president Eisenhower, after his own heart attack, released a statement instructing to cut down on eating fat and cholesterol. All on the advice of a nutritionist who realised that dietary cholesterol had no effect on blood cholesterol, but needed to prove that cholesterol causes heart attacks. He chose saturated fat, but in the decades after the statement he failed to find an association after several trials. Eisenhower himself followed the low fat diet recommended and died of a another heart attack several years later(5).

What meat to eat, and what to avoid

Some meat is rightfully demonised. Highly processed meat such as hot dogs, and other cheap mass-produced products with a long shelf-life, is full of chemicals like nitrates. During digestion, nitrates form nitrites which add to oxidative stress and inflammation(5).

Modern studies on meat are also doomed to fail to promote the myriad of health benefit. That’s only if they focus on the factory-farmed, grain-fed animals most common in the US food system. Red meat is not only healthy but is essential for full human optimisation. However, the old adage “you are what you eat” is also true for the animals we eat. When they are raised en masse in unnatural conditions, eating mass produced feed not inline with their natural diet, the end product will suffer.

Eat grass-fed and pasture raised beef and lamb, and shellfish. If you can find it, pasture raised or, at least, wild-roaming pork is great as well. Cheap supermarket pork should be avoided because of the grain-based diet they are usually fed. The same is true of chickens. You can still eat it, but know that due to the diet most are fed, the nutrition wont be as dense as in grass-fed beef, for example, and the fat profile will be different- see below.

How is meat good for brain development?

We relied on it during our evolution to build and maintain a significantly more complex brain. The primary ingredients- iron, B12 and fatty acids- are primarily found in meat. They exist in plants but, often, we can’t access them, and they are already in lower quantities(6). We’ll look at why red meat is good for brain development by examining these nutrients.

Vitamin B12

B12 is an essential nutrient for brain development. The 1.5 million year old remains mentioned earlier were from a 2 year old child thought to have died of parotid hyperostosis. It’s hypothesised that this occurs in infants due to lack of vitamin B12- either in breast milk, or from a poor diet.

A lack of vitamin B12, both for the mother during pregnancy, and in early childhood is associated with impaired cognitive development. These consequences of a foetus being deficient in B12 may be irreversible(7).

To ensure your child is getting enough vitamin B12, feed them grass-fed and pasture-raised red meat and organs. If you can access it, and get them to eat it, shellfish is also packed full of it. Oysters have the highest amount of B12, although aren’t usually the most palatable for kids. But hey, try it! I know my son in his fussy stage wouldn’t try one though.

Don’t be put off by any Guideline Daily Amounts (GDA) of B12 either. 3 Oysters for example is over 1000% of your GDA, but your body stores any excess in the liver for scarce times. That’s how important it is.

Read this Son Of Man article to learn how B12 can boost your confidence!

Are you stuck trying to feed a fussy child B12-rich foods like oysters and organs? I highly recommend APE Nutrition and their range of ‘Ancestral Supplements’. They gently freeze dry essential human foods to preserve their nutrients, then capsulate them for your ease. I sprinkle the contents on my Son’s foods to ensure, even when he’s having a fussy day, that he gets what he needs.

APE Nutrition is available on amazon. If you use the link below I do get a bit of a commission that allows me to keep the site running. But I only recommend products that I use and think highly of. I take their ‘Optimised Male’ every day. Fathers, you need to try it! Trust me.

The Celtic Oysters Capsules are sustainably harvested from unpolluted waters and are packed full of B12 as well as other vital nutrients.

Iron

Iron helps carry oxygen to the brain cells. Because children’s brains are developing so rapidly, they need good supply of oxygen, and therefore iron. Many children get inadequate iron in their diet and are at risk of a number of cognitive, social and emotional problems.

These problems include: lower IQ and poor cognitive function; more ADHD symptoms; depression and anxiety; and general social issues. These problems then persist into later life and are likely to exacerbate themselves overtime(8).

Read here to learn more about how your child’s diet affects their mental health

Animal products contain the more easily absorbed heme iron as well as non-heme iron. If you feed your child a non-meat diet, they would have to eat almost twice as much iron per day than if they ate meat. Top providers of both forms of iron include red meat, organs, eggs and shellfish(9).

Fat

Forget low-fat diets!

Fat is probably the most important macronutrient to focus on when feeding a child. And the younger the child, the more essential fat is, as their brain is in a constant state of development. Fats are split into 4 categories: saturated; mono-unsaturated; poly-unsaturated; and trans fatty acids. During this period of massive cognitive development, fats such as omega-3 fatty acids have a clear beneficial effect.

The Institute of Medicine recommends that children aged 1-3 years get 30-40% of their daily calories from fat. Some experts argue that our evolutionary needs require more. The worry is that due to the demonisation of fat in the general population, parents will be reluctant to include too much in their child’s diet(10).

Omega-3 especially is a a fatty acid that plays a vital role in brain development for children. DHA- a form of omega-3- is vital for the myelination of the brain’s frontal lobes, which occurs after the brain’s primary growth phase. It continues through childhood and adolescence. A DHA-rich frontal lobe is associated with problem solving, planning and focused attention(11).

Excellent sources of DHA are cold water oily fish, such as salmon, mackerel and herring, along with their eggs- caviar, salmon row etc(12).Another significant source is grass-fed red meat, especially lamb. To maximise the healthy omega-3 fats, ensure that your red meat is grass-fed. Cows and sheep, just like us, suffer when they are fed an industrial grain-based diet. The rubbish food affects their health and causes them to have more fat high in omega-6 fatty acids. These are inflammatory, and though necessary in the diet, we already get too many in the modern diet.

Zinc

Zinc allows our neurones to communicate with one another. It also helps make an essential neurotransmitter that assists in learning, regulating emotions, and having a good memory.

It is important that you ensure your child has enough zinc in their diet from early life, but especially as they reach adolescence. Zinc intake should be increased as puberty is reached because it’s a key nutrient in making sex hormones such as testosterone and oestrogen.

Zinc does wonders for mental health by regulating mood hormones like dopamine and serotonin. These are often out of sync in children with mental disorders and those that are neurodivergent. In fact, those that are diagnosed with autism and developmental delay have low zinc and an excess of heavy metals in their baby teeth and hair. These heavy metals can significantly inhibit brain development, and low zinc levels allows them to build up more easily(13).

The top sources of zinc are seafood, red meat and poultry(14). Similar to iron intake, non-meat-eaters would have to eat more than the recommended amount of zinc than meat-eaters- 50% more!

So for a large, clever and healthy brain, make sure to include grass-fed red meats and, if possible, shellfish in your child’s diet. And ignore the low-fat, low-meat nonsense that so many people are falling for,

You’re in charge of your children. Give them the best chance. Make them powerful.