Red meat is not harmful to your health: Study

New research has dismissed previous claims that eating red meat increases one’s risk of dying from diabetes, heart attack or cancer.

The research, which analysed in detail previous data collected on studies that discouraged consumption of red meat, concluded that the findings were misguided.

The conclusions reads the research published on September 30 by ScienceDaily journal, found that either the evidence presented was not solid enough or the numbers were too small to cause an alarm.

The researchers from McMaster University, led by Prof Gordon Guyatt, formed five systematic reviews of studies that looked into the impact of consumption of red meat.

While the first four looked into previous studies, the fifth one sought to find peoples’ attitudes on red meat.

In one of the reviews that analysed 118 studies involving more than 6 million participants, the relation between meat intake and mortality as a result of cancer and heart diseases was found to be almost subtle.

“The third study was a meta-analysis of cohort studies that looked specifically at meat consumption and its relationship to all-cause mortality and cardio metabolic outcomes, and — once again — it found that any link was very small,” reads the research published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Another review of more than 100 studies, which looked on how different amounts of red and processed meat do affect mortality, cardiac diseases and cancer, also could not provide concrete evidence to warrant one to quit red meat.

The overall conclusions were that dietary patterns, including differences in meat consumption, may result in only small differences in risk outcomes over long periods,” it read.

Scientists have, for long, associated consumption of red and processed meat to cancers such as colorectal, increased risk of cardio vascular disease and diabetes.

Some of the studies associated red meat as being "carcinogenic", which means they contain cancer-causing agents.

One such study was also published by ScienceDaily last June 12.

It stated that high intake of red meat ranging from beef, pork or lamb is not only associated with cardiovascular disease, cancers, and type 2 diabetes but also premature death. “Reducing red meat intake while eating more whole grains, vegetables, or other protein foods such as poultry without skin, eggs and fish, was associated with a lower risk of death among both men and women,” reads the study published originally by BMJ Medical journal.

It added: “For example, swapping out one serving per day of red meat for one serving of fish per day over eight years was linked to a 17 per cent lower risk of death in the subsequent eight years.”

Tastes nice

Red meat, in the latest research, was found to be loved because it tastes nice, and many think it is healthy and there is a reluctance to change diets.

One of the loopholes on the claim that red meat is harmful, the research notes, is that most studies published on the topic are purely observational.

“Given the findings presented in this issue, it’s hard to argue that this is a misinformed set of beliefs. Research suggests that presenting an individual with information that opposes their beliefs could result in them holding on more tightly to those beliefs,” reads the research.