News flash: Red meat WON’T kill you (as long as you choose the right kind)

Fear factor

Certain doom. Doom!

That’s what you’re in for if you eat red meat, according to a new Harvard study I’m sure you’ve heard about by now.

It’s amazing how fast a simple scare headline will tear through the 24–hour news cycle, showing up on twitter and Facebook timelines, and even getting attention from late night comedians.

And then there were a few over–the–top frantic headlines like these: “All Red Meat Linked to Premature Death” and “Huge study shows red meat boosts risk of dying young.”

Apparently most of us should be dead by now.

But you’ll never guess who completely contradicted those scare headlines: the lead author of the study.

More importantly, there’s one single word in his study that punctures his results and takes all the air out of the scare.

The hot dog effect

I know this will disappoint a lot of vegetarians, but meat–eating will not shorten your life span. Not if you do it right, anyway. In fact, saturated fats actually help your body absorb the critical fat–soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K.

That’s probably one reason why the lead author of the study told NPR that he’s not advocating a vegetarian diet. In fact, he said that a serving of red meat every other day is probably fine.

So either those headlines are exaggerating (of course they are) or this researcher is carelessly flirting with premature death (of course he’s not).

The Harvard study simply confirmed what we already knew: Processed red meats such as bacon, hot dogs, sausage, and bologna contain ingredients, such as nitrites, that aren’t healthy. So it’s a good idea to either exclude them from your diet or eat them sparingly.

But the study also found a link between everyday consumption of what the researchers call “unprocessed red meat” and higher risk of heart disease and cancer mortality.

Here’s what the Harvard team considers unprocessed: beef, pork, or lamb as a main dish, as well as hamburger, beef, pork, or lamb as a sandwich or mixed dish.

Now…did you catch the one word that completely derails the results of this study?

Hamburger.

This wasn’t a clinical study, it was observational, so it relied on dietary questionnaires given to thousands of subjects over several years. That means that if you ate a fast food burger every day, or nearly every day – as so many people do – then your diet would still be in the “unprocessed” meat category.

It’s hard to imagine food more highly processed than burgers from McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Checkers, Sonic and all the rest. And most people who eat those burgers also order a side of French fries, which means they’re getting way too many servings of trans fatty acids, which have been linked to – yep, you saw it coming – heart disease and cancer mortality.

So the frequency of meat consumption isn’t the issue. It’s all about quality. If you’re frequently eating top quality steaks (especially if they happen to be from grass–fed animals), then your diet is worlds apart from the guy who frequently orders a double cheese burger and a bag of fries.

Harvard? Please rework your study.

And, headline writers? Please dial back the fear factor by about 95 percent.

Sources: 
“Red Meat Consumption and Mortality” Archives of Internal Medicine, published online ahead of print 3/12/12, archinte.ama-assn.org

“Death By Bacon? Study Finds Eating Meat Is Risky” Allison Aubrey, 3/12/12, npr.org