The simple take-home message from this research is that there is no simple take-home message. There are certainly signals of risk that suggest that red meat probably contributes to things like cardiovascular disease and cancer, but these risks are likely to be quite small and, in the scheme of things, not very meaningful to your life.
And while there is some experimental evidence on the topic, it's basically impossible to run the kind of trial that would definitively prove that red meat was good or bad. Realistically, this would involve randomizing then feeding meat/no meat to thousands of people for decades which is a) unethical and b) impractical in the extreme.
Short of an interested billionaire with a passion for controlled science who isn't afraid to spend most of their money, we probably aren't going to get an answer any time soon.
The real message from this study seems to be that a variety of eating patterns are probably fine for your health. If you want to eat red meat, that is probably not that harmful. If you want to cut it out entirely, you're probably totally justified also.
If you're worried about your health, speak to a registered professional about it: ideally, a dietitian or doctor. They do fancy degrees and years of training to give you the best personalized advice around.
So, no definitive answer. Well, actually there is.
ReplyDeleteStarvation will result from the human body not taking in nutrition.
You can quote me.