Have you ever been to a restaurant and ordered red meat? Have your friends or family members ever said to avoid red meat as much as possible because it isn’t good for you? Personally, I have been to restaurants before and my sister has always ordered chicken over any form of red meat because she believes it is not healthy for your body. So…is the theory that red meat is bad for you true or purely a myth?
The primary question that has been circulating around the world is does red meat increase the likelihood of obtaining heart disease or cancer? When it comes to heart disease, red meat does seem to increase the risk of heart disease. Since red meats are higher in saturated fat as opposed to other meats such as chicken and fish, it raises blood cholesterol levels. These increased cholesterol levels increase the overall risk of heart disease. However, the answer is less obvious when it comes to the link between red meat and cancer. A study conducted by the National Institutes of Health-AARP took over half a million Americans and had them consume red meat. The study determined that people who ate red meat over a 10 year period were more likely to have a premature death than those individuals who ate smaller portions of red meat. Those who consumed four ounces of red met per day were more likely to die of a heart disease or cancer, contrasting those who consumed only about 1/2 of an ounce of red meat per day. However, I think the study would have been more effective if the researchers had multiple groups who consumed different kinds of red meat or at least the same type of red meat and the same amount every day. For example, they could have a sample of 1,000 people and have five groups of 200 people. Each group could consume ground beef meat for lunch and flank steak meat for dinner every day. The researchers could give each person the same amount of meat for each meal per day. That way, the results would show a stronger link between red meat and the impact on the health (either positive, no affect, or negative).
Janet Riley, vice president of the American Meat Institute, states, “The meat industry contends there is no link between red meat, processed meats, and cancer, and says that lean read meat fits into a heart-healthy diet.” She also exclaims that the studies that have been conducted only rely on individuals who mention what foods they have eaten, meaning there is no proven cause and effect relationship. Furthering this notion, she states: “Many of these suggestions could be nothing more than statistical noise.”
Another study observed over 72,000 women for an eighteen year period. They found that individuals who consumed ‘Western-style’ diet high in red meats, cultivated grains, and desserts had a higher likelihood of acquiring heart disease, cancer, and a premature death. Marji McCullogh (a nutritional epidemiologist at the American Cancer Society) states, “The association between consumption of red and processed meats and cancer, particularly colorectal cancer, is very consistent.”
In addition, Rashmi Sinha (of the National Cancer Institute) declares that a large portion of these studies link digesting red meat with long-term diseases. However, these studies that have been done (as mentioned above), show a strong correlation between the consumption of red meat and life-threatning diseases, but do not show a direct casual relationship. There could be several third or confounding variables that factor into the individuals who had died prematurely in these studies or have obtained a chronic illness. Factors such as genetics, previous family history (such as family members having heart diseases or various types of cancer), your personal health and medical conditions (high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, high sugar levels, obesity), and your behaviors (smoking) all greatly contribute to obtaining cancer and other chronic illnesses.
Overall, the studies show strong correlations between consuming red meat and diseases due to large sample sizes and the experiment’s results. I do not think this theory is a myth; but I believe there needs to be more research conducted with more trails to really see if there is a direct link between the consumption of red met and life-threatning diseases.
Sources:
http://www.eatingwell.com/nutrition_health/nutrition_news_information/is_eating_red_meat_good_or_bad_for_your_health
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/the-truth-about-red-meat
An article I read talks about the benefits of eating red meat. It says that red meat contains greater amounts of the nutrients zinc, iron, thiamine and riboflavin. The article also says that red meat is better for gaining muscle. There are many benefits to eating red meat.
http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/white-meat-vs-red-meat.html
The point you made that the research on red meat “shows a strong correlation between the consumption of red meat and life-threatning diseases, but does not show a direct casual relationship” was really interesting. As you said, there are many third or confounding variables that factor into this issue and begs the question if the correlation between consuming red meat and diseases could be a false positive.
My mom is similar to your sister in the way that she’s very conscious about eating white meat rather than red meat most of the time. I always knew that red meat had more negative side affects to the body if you were to ingest a healthy amount of it everyday, but I’m more similar to you in the way that I love a piece of steak over a piece of chicken any day. I think that this blog post was very informative and used a wide range of examples where it was shown that people who had a large amount of red meat on a daily basis showed more susceptibility to heart attacks and things of this nature, but I think it would have helped more if you discussed why red meat has these certain effects. Why is it good to have a balance of white meat, red meat, and fish for example? What does red meat contain that puts us at risk when we consume mass quantities?