The truth about animal protein & why plants can't cut it

Your body may not be getting enough of the right kind of animal protein—especially red meat—for your immune system and nervous system to actually repair, protect you, and work properly.

I know this goes against mainstream media and messaging that love to blame red meat for everything. But most of that is based on conventional factory-farmed meat, which is not what I’m talking about.

I’m talking about paleo-centric red meat:
pasture-raised, grass-fed/finished, organic, humane.

Your Immune & Nervous Systems Are Built Out of What You Eat

Your body is constantly rebuilding:

• Immune cells
• Nerve tissue
• Hormones and neurotransmitters
• Gut lining and other tissues

To do that, it needs:

• Complete protein (amino acids)
• Healthy fats and cholesterol
• Key nutrients like heme iron, B12, other B vitamins, and zinc

These come in their most dense, usable forms from properly raised animal protein, especially red meat. When you don’t get enough, your body has to choose between breaking down its own tissues or just not fixing things fully. That’s when people get stuck in long-term symptoms.

Why Plant Protein, Fish, and Chicken Usually Aren’t Enough

Chicken and fish can help, but they are lighter and don’t deliver the same density of heme iron and zinc. On their own, they usually aren’t enough for a body that’s already depleted. Plant-based protein does not provide what a chronically struggling body needs and often keeps people stuck in the cycle of fatigue, inflammation, and ongoing symptoms.

Plant-based protein problems when you’re already struggling:

• The amino acid profile is often incomplete or imbalanced.

• Absorption is lower because of fibers and compounds that block mineral uptake.

• You miss key nutrients in the right form—like B12, heme iron, and highly usable zinc.

• Many plant proteins come with extra carbs that can feed things like candida and bacterial overgrowth.

Why fish and chicken alone fall short:

They’re fine as add-ons, but:

• Lower in heme iron

• Lower in zinc

• Not as dense in certain amino acids and compounds (like carnitine and creatine) your body uses for energy and repair

That’s why so many people living on salad, chicken, and protein shakes still feel exhausted and inflamed.

Red meat, when it’s the right kind, fills in those gaps.

The Big Three: Iron, B12/B Vitamins, and Zinc

When your body is trying to heal, these three are huge—and red meat is one of the best sources for all of them at once.

Red meat provides heme iron, the form your body absorbs best. Iron helps your red blood cells carry oxygen to your brain and tissues so they can repair.
Low iron = drained, lightheaded, wired-but-tired, and slower healing.

Red meat is rich in B12 and other B vitamins your body needs to:

• Make new cells (including immune cells)

• Support nerve function and mood

• Run energy and detox pathways

When these are low, energy, focus, and resilience all suffer.

Zinc is critical for:

• Immune response

• Gut lining repair

• Hormone balance

Red meat gives you zinc in a form your body can actually use, paired with protein and other nutrients that help it do its job.

Why You Can’t Just “Take a Pill Instead”

So why not just take an iron pill, B12 pill, or zinc supplement and skip the meat? Because your body doesn’t run on isolated ingredients; it runs on whole nutrient systems.

Red meat delivers these all together, in natural ratios and forms your body recognizes and uses. A pill is one single piece; red meat is the full package.

On top of that, most over-the-counter vitamins are synthetic, filled with fillers, binders, and forms your body doesn’t fully recognize. The cofactors often don’t match what your body expects from real food, so instead of feeling nourished, your system can feel confused and overloaded—especially if your gut and detox pathways are already struggling. You end up with something your body has to process and clear, not something it can easily assimilate and build with.

Supplements can support as a band-aid, but they cannot replace a missing foundation and they will cause imbalance and deficiencies. You can’t fully correct deep depletion in iron, B12, or zinc while still avoiding the very food your body is designed to use as its main supply.

Conventional Meat vs Paleo-Centric Red Meat

When people say, “Red meat is bad,” they’re almost always talking about conventional factory-farmed meat, where animals are:

• Crowded in filthy, stressful conditions, laying in their own filth, open sores

• Fed GMO, pesticide-laden grain

• Pumped with hormones and antibiotics

• Flooded with stress hormones like cortisol from chronic fear and abuse

That kind of meat is stressful for your body and awful for the animals.

Paleo-centric red meat is the opposite:

• Pasture-raised, with access to sun and space

• Grass-fed/finished, eating a natural diet

• No routine hormones or antibiotics

• Farm practices that prioritize humane treatment

This meat has a cleaner nutrient profile and fewer chemical residues, and supports your healing instead of working against it. It’s the only kind I recommend and the only kind I eat.

Vegan Since Childhood, 10 Years of Mystery Illness, and Red Meat

I didn’t arrive at this lightly. I was vegan since childhood. I grew up in an animal-rights household. My father helped start the animal rights movement. Protests, undercover footage, and “we don’t eat animals” were my normal.

Over time, my health collapsed. I spent about 10 years in a debilitating mystery illness—endless symptoms, normal labs, and no real answers. I was doing all the “right” vegan things, but my body was running on empty. A huge part of that depletion came from going so long without the animal protein and red-meat-based nutrients my body needed.

Eventually, a practitioner told me: “There is nothing more I can do for you unless you are willing to eat animal protein.” That forced me into a huge ethical crossroads.

I realized:

• My body clearly needed something it wasn’t getting.

• I could not get my health back without animal protein—especially red meat.

• I refused to support factory farming.

So I made a deal with myself:

• I will never eat conventional, factory-farmed animal protein.

• I will only eat humane, pasture-raised, grass-fed, organic, paleo-centric animal protein.

When I began incorporating that kind of red meat, everything started to shift:

• My brain cleared.

• My nervous system calmed.

• My energy stabilized.

• My body finally responded to treatment and started to heal.

That’s why I am so firm on this now. I’ve lived both sides.

How to Start

If this resonates and you’re curious, you don’t have to change everything overnight. You can experiment.

1. Upgrade quality

   • Replace any conventional meat with grass-fed, grass-finished, pasture-raised, organic, humane red meat.

   • Include it several times per week as your main protein.

2. Remove the big agitators

   • Minimize wheat, dairy, soy, and sugar while you’re doing this so your body can actually use what you’re giving it.

3. Watch what changes

   • Notice shifts in energy, sleep, cravings, brain fog, and mood over a few weeks.

If you’re someone who reacts to everything you try, that’s usually a sign there are deeper blocks in the nervous system and communication pathways—something I address in my work with Functional Interference Testing.

The Bottom Line

You’re not broken. Your body is under-resourced.

When you give it the right kind of animal protein, especially paleo-centric red meat, you’re not doing something extreme—you’re finally supplying the raw materials your immune system and nervous system have been missing.

The issue isn’t “red meat.”
The issue is what kind of meat, and whether your body is actually getting what it needs to heal and function the way it was designed to. 

If you are local to the Phoenix, AZ area, go to this link to find out more about holistic solutions to help reset and remove interference from your body so it can do its job properly. Pills just cover up symptoms—they don’t fix WHY this is happening. Isn’t it time to finally resolve it instead of managing it? 

If you are not local to the Phoenix, AZ area, then click here to check out all of your options! You’ll get the exact steps you need to take, plus support from me to guide you every step of the way! 

xo Monica 🦋 Treat the Source: where we reveal all of the hidden causes of your mystery symptoms!