Sunday, March 20, 2022

Is Red Meat Really Bad for You?

 


The vast majority of people believe red meat and associated saturated fat are bad for you? However, that is not what the science says!

In fact, a recent extremely well-done study showed just the opposite!  Unlike many other studies that looked at meat consumption and health - this one included a world-wide population.  The study also corrected for other lifestyle factors such as smoking, lack of exercise, and alcohol consumption making this a much better test of whether red meat is really the villain it is purported to be!

In this study the authors looked at the overall health effects of total meat consumption in 175 countries around the world.  Here are their key conclusions:

“…Consumption of energy from carbohydrate crops (grains and tubers) does not lead to greater life expectancy, and that total meat consumption correlates to greater life expectancy, independent of the competing effects of total calories intake, economic affluence, urban advantages, and obesity.”   WOW – not what you thought right?

Further that “humans have adapted to meat-eating from the perspective of their more than two million years of evolution.”

"Meat of small and large animals provided optimal nutrition to our ancestors who developed genetic, physiological, and morphological adaptations to eating meat products and we have inherited those adaptations.”

“Our take home message from the paper is that meat-eating is beneficial to human health provided that it is consumed in moderation and that the meat industry is conducted in an ethical way.”

To check out the study click here:   https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC8881926/

If you are concerned about saturated fat intake from meat you may want to check out this previous blogpost on the subject because as a general rule saturated fat is NOT a problem for most human beings:    http://workoutanytime.blogspot.com/2016/10/is-saturated-fat-and-cholesterol-really.html


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