High Intakes Of Red Or Processed Meat May Increase The Risk Of Mortality

[khundon]

The way the meat is prepared and what part of the animal is also important.

If you eat spine, offal and trotters regular it is gonna kill you quicker for sure.

Yes foot and mouth will kill you every time.

[Captain Chaos]

It has been known for quite some time that red meat is crap and it sits in your intestines for weeks before getting fully digested.

Surely it sits in your intestines and THEN turns into crap? Or was my O level biology really that bad?!

[Naam]

Show me a healthy looking vegan and I'll eat my flip flop! Out and out crap! The last few years we have been told by " scientists " that eating too many eggs was bad for you ! Now it seems that more " scientists " have now come to the conclusion that they don't increase your cholesterol so you can eat as many as you like as they are now actually good for you. Eating lots of fish is evidently now bad for you as they are full of mercury and other toxins. I stopped believing the crap some scientists come out with when I read that scientists had spent 12 months and over a million pounds on discovering the differences between smokers and non smokers.They discovered that the non smokers they studied were financially better to the tune of the cost of the ciggarettes <deleted>!!!!

I ate beefburger, beans and chips every day for lunch throughout my senior school years and I mean EVERY day. By rights I should be dead of a right fat git. I'm neither. The way I look at it is you are dying from the day you are born. Living like a monk doesn't make you live any longer it just seems like it. Life is for living. Excercise is more important than what you eat!!

true! it is a well known fact that paranoia concerning a healthy lifestyle can be as detrimental to the health as an unhealthy lifestyle.

by the way, the Mrs has three sisters. all three are strict vegetarians (though not vegans) and all three take since years Lipitor or a generic drug otherwise their cholesterol level would be skyhigh. there are still medics around who either don't know or don't inform their patients that high LDL cholesterol is in 80% caused by own production of the liver and only 20% due to unbalanced food intake.

a quote from my internist in 1996 (thirteen years ago!): "in the meantime we know that eggs are not harmful. but please don't reveal what i told you to my husband who is a member of the Association of American Cardiologists. as long as these learned people are insisting that you consume a maximum only three eggs a week i can't tell you officially otherwise."

[yumidesign]

I don't doubt that fish and fowl are better for your health than red meat, but the methodology of this particular study was horribly flawed. Basically, all they did was give a questionnaire to a bunch of AARP members. I think a controlled diet study, which compared active and sedentary lifestyles and actually measured dietary intake would much more reliable for making the kind of conclusions they made, which included quantifying increased death rates for eating processed meats.

yep. also in Thailand reports suggest fish is often preserved with chemicals like thamaldohide and most chicken chock full of antibiotics. On the other hand cows here are feed only grass, additives too expensive for poor farmers, proved by how skinny they are so to me a balanced diet including red meat in the form of spag. bog or hamburger is

the way to go

[khundon]

Almost all my close blood relatives have lived well into their 90's and some are still alive and going strong and pushing 100 and they are all red meat eaters. Most studies I have read show that vegetarians tend to live longer than meat eaters so I personally do not eat red meat and am pretty much a vegetarian. I figure that with my genes and the fact that I eat vegetarian, I will continue to be so healthy that I will live well past 100 and someday find myself in the unfortunate position of laying in a hospital bed dying from nothing !

My 2 sisters were vegetarians and died before they were 50 my dad eats all red meat and has just passed 100 what does all this science prove, you die when you die and there ain't a dam_n thing you can do about it.

Believe what you want, your still gonna die folks.

[Jingthing]

The saga of the meaningless anecdotal stories marches on ...

Edited March 26, 2009 by Jingthing

[dclaryjr]

Well, this isn't really very surprising, but a major new study confirms the grim reality. Indulging in daily beef or pork is dangerous to your health:

This study doesn't CONFIRM anything but it did get a lot of press. Meanwhile studies that show different results are ignored by the media. Try a couple other perspectives:

Sisson or Eades

[stevehaigh]

Forget all that crap. Dihydrogen monoxide : the invisible, tasteless killer.

Yes, it's true and I am on the verge of releasing my startling findings from a fifty year long study. Did you know that 100% of people who die have consumed dihydrogen monoxide sometime in their life.

Yet this substance is allowed all around us with no controls, no warning labels, no HazChem data sheets, sh1t it even falls from the sky and NOBODY does a thing to stop it!

This is all one huge government conspiracy.

Phil H.

Chief Researcher.

The Chicken Little Institute.

but when combined with barley, hops and yeast and fermented for a couple of weeks it becomes completely harmless and surprisingly delicious. maybe the same thing will work for meat?

[samuibeachcomber]

The saga of the meaningless anecdotal stories marches on ...

not meaningless,facts of life,and more meaningfull than the study you linked to your post.

[Sheryl]

Well, this isn't really very surprising, but a major new study confirms the grim reality. Indulging in daily beef or pork is dangerous to your health:

This study doesn't CONFIRM anything but it did get a lot of press. Meanwhile studies that show different results are ignored by the media. Try a couple other perspectives:

Sisson or Eades

Both of the above mentioned sites are commercial ones selling protein products. They contain comments on the study, not new facts.

That said, the title of this thread (and the headings of many of the media articles about this study) gives an exaggerated impression of what the study actually showed.

The actual study, which can be read in full in the Archives of Internal Medicine volume 69, conclusion was:

"Red and processed meat intakes were associated with modest increases in total mortality, cancer mortality, and cardiovascular disease mortality."

Referring to comparatively high daily intakes. The difference was significant only between the very lowest and the very highest intake groups. The entire original report can be obtained here:

http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/169/6/562

Or a short abstract here:

http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/169/6/562

To my reading it was a well designed and conducted study and the authors are careful not to make inferences from it that go beyond what the data show. it is not their fault, nor that of the well-respected journal that published it, that the media has misrepresented it in sensationalist reports. Always seems to happen, alas.

Certainly this study as well as a wealth of others indicates that high consumption of red meats on a daily basis increases the risk of many diseases. The operative words being: high, daily, and increased risk, which is not the same as a sure cause.

Certainly moderation in consumption of red meats is advisable from a health standpoint, but we all make our own choices about how far we want to go in increasing our chances of good health. (Chances, not certainty: there are no guarantees).

[Jingthing]

The saga of the meaningless anecdotal stories marches on ...

not meaningless,facts of life,and more meaningfull than the study you linked to your post.

Sure thing, to those who live on emotion rather than critical thought.

Edited March 27, 2009 by Jingthing

[sabaijai]

Well, this isn't really very surprising, but a major new study confirms the grim reality. Indulging in daily beef or pork is dangerous to your health:

This study doesn't CONFIRM anything but it did get a lot of press. Meanwhile studies that show different results are ignored by the media. Try a couple other perspectives:

Sisson or Eades

Both of the above mentioned sites are commercial ones selling protein products. They contain comments on the study, not new facts.

That said, the title of this thread (and the headings of many of the media articles about this study) gives an exaggerated impression of what the study actually showed.

The actual study, which can be read in full in the Archives of Internal Medicine volume 69, conclusion was:

"Red and processed meat intakes were associated with modest increases in total mortality, cancer mortality, and cardiovascular disease mortality."

Referring to comparatively high daily intakes. The difference was significant only between the very lowest and the very highest intake groups. The entire original report can be obtained here:

http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/169/6/562

Or a short abstract here:

http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/169/6/562

To my reading it was a well designed and conducted study and the authors are careful not to make inferences from it that go beyond what the data show. it is not their fault, nor that of the well-respected journal that published it, that the media has misrepresented it in sensationalist reports. Always seems to happen, alas.

Certainly this study as well as a wealth of others indicates that high consumption of red meats on a daily basis increases the risk of many diseases. The operative words being: high, daily, and increased risk, which is not the same as a sure cause.

Certainly moderation in consumption of red meats is advisable from a health standpoint, but we all make our own choices about how far we want to go in increasing our chances of good health. (Chances, not certainty: there are no guarantees).

Yes the study is sound, the journalism lousy, and the misleading OP topic title even more so. I have edited the title accordingly

[dclaryjr]

Both of the above mentioned sites are commercial ones selling protein products.

I believe that's a misrepresentation of what these sites are. Sisson does sell supplements (one protein product but much more along the lines of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc.) but his blog provides a wealth of knowledge on health related topics. And his eating recommendations run more towards high fat than high protein. Dr. Eades doesn't have a product line but is the author of a book entitled "Protein Power." You don't have to agree with either ut I believe both men write passionately about health issues because they believe conventional wisdom is wrong.

They contain comments on the study, not new facts.

Exactly, which I why I linked them. And they do a good job of explaining why you have to take these studies with a grain of salt (or a table spoon of protein powder ).

the media has misrepresented it in sensationalist reports. Always seems to happen, alas.

Totally agree!

[khundon]

The saga of the meaningless anecdotal stories marches on ...

Then stop posting them.

[jfchandler]

To those above who are first attacking the study and its science, and then going on to argue, just eat everything in moderation and you'll be fine...

I believe, that's exactly the message of the study. It didn't say, don't eat any red meat... It said... don't eat red meat EVERY DAY or you'll face increased risks of mortality.

I would think most of us could agree that, eating red meat EVERY DAY is certainly not doing so in moderation...

[Jingthing]

To those above who are first attacking the study and its science, and then going on to argue, just eat everything in moderation and you'll be fine...

I believe, that's exactly the message of the study. It didn't say, don't eat any red meat... It said... don't eat red meat EVERY DAY or you'll face increased risks of mortality.

I would think most of us could agree that, eating red meat EVERY DAY is certainly not doing so in moderation...

Yes, and also to REPLACE the red meat you cut out with FISH and POULTRY:

"The take-home message is pretty clear," said Walter Willett, a nutrition expert at the Harvard School of Public Health. "It would be better to shift from red meat to white meat such as chicken and fish, which if anything is associated with lower mortality."

[OZEMADE]

You know, EATING CAUSES CANCER.

[jfchandler]

I will concede, however, the state of food nutrition science often is enough to make the sanest person a bit crazy...

Indeed, there have been (just doing this off the top of my head/memory)....

don't eat eggs, now do eat eggs...

saccharin causes cancer, now it doesn't

oat bran helps reduce cholesterol, now no.. it doesn't

vitamins are good for your health, now no.. vitamins are bad for your health

vegetables have pesticides

fish has mercury

chicken has antibiotics

beef has.... don't forget.... mad cow disease

water has... don't forget... that plastic bottle cancer causing chemical stuff...

Thai beer has formaldehyde...

At the end of the day, what are we left with that's safe to eat/drink???

[Jingthing]

At the end of the day, what are we left with that's safe to eat/drink???

Good point! Actually, severely calorie restricted diets are a proven documented method of increasing life span.

Edited March 29, 2009 by Jingthing

[jfchandler]

At the end of the day, what are we left with that's safe to eat/drink???

Good point! Actually, severely calorie restricted diets are a proven documented method of increasing life span.

You mean starving yourself to death will make you live longer????

[Jingthing]

You mean starving yourself to death will make you live longer????

Starving? Yes. To death? No.

[Tolley]

There have been numerous studies linking red meat to health issues.

Barbecuing red meat according to a lot of research can be damaging especially if you overcook the meat.

One or twice a week is probably okay but more than that and you are probably increasing health risk factors.

Going on a calorie restricting diet may increase life but it doesn't seem to work in poorer countries where people don't have a lot to eat.