How strong is the evidence that we would be better off eating far less red meat? Pretty good, it turns out. "We've seen that a high-red-meat intake is associated with coronary disease, stroke, diabetes and premature death," says Dr. Adam Bernstein of the Cleveland Clinic. "Other investigators have looked at colorectal cancer. So when you look at the whole picture, I'd say the evidence is very strong."
Here are five well established reasons why eating less red meat would be worth considering.
1. Live a longer life.
One outcome of the 2012 Health Professionals Followup Study and Nurse's Health Study was that those who ate more than half a serving (3oz) of red meat per day had a 30% greater chance of dying during the 30 year period of the study as those who ate less. The study, which included 120,000 participants, concluded that 8% of deaths of women and 10% of deaths of men could be prevented if people consumed less than 3oz of red meat per day. Other studies have reached remarkably similar conclusions.
2. Reduce cardiovascular disease and strokes.
Red meat is one of the largest sources of saturated fat in the American diet. In a Cleveland Clinic study that was part of the Nurse's Health Study and included 29,000 participants, those who ate more red meat had a 29% higher risk of heart disease than those who ate 3oz or less per day. Further, stroke risk rose by 30% for every two ounces of red meat consumed beyond 3oz per day. Lean meat had no detectable advantage.
3. Lower your cancer risk.
A joint report by the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund said that, "To reduce your cancer risk eat no more than 18oz of red meat per week." For every serving (6oz) of red meat eaten per day the risk of colorectal cancer rises by 20%. There is some, although less compelling, evidence linking red meat consumption to pancreatic, espohageal and prostate cancers.
4. Avoid diabetes.
Processed red meats have long been linked to increased risk of developing Type-2 diabetes, but more recent studies now link it to unprocessed red meats as well. A Harvard study of over 200,000 participants tracked for 28 years concluded that for every 2oz of red meat eaten per day, the risk of type-2 diabetes rose by 32% (processed meats) and 12% (unprocessed meats). The polyunsaturated fats and iron in the meat are believed to be the causal factor but more research is needed.
5. Spare the environment.
The water and fossil fuels required to feed, process and transport red meat cause considerable environmental damage. The UN estimates that 80% of the groundwater consumed from aquifers is used for agricultural purposes, with 60% - 70% of that used to irrigate crops for animal feed. Cattle produce 7% of all the methane (a potent greenhouse gas) and nearly all of the ammonia that enters the atmosphere each day - equivalent to the amount of pollution created by one car in one day, per cow. (There are about 95 million cattle in the US alone.)
Huge tracts of land are deforested every year to make room for cattle to graze, and they produce - as anyone who has ever walked across a pasture realizes - prodigious amounts of solid waste. "The waste in big cattle feedlots can be properly composted," says Robert Lawrence at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. "But it almost never is. In a typical operation the manure is just bulldozed into big mounds from which there is an enormous release of methane." And then there is the fossil fuel cost of transporting both the animals and the meat.
Need even more reasons to reduce your consumption of red meat? Here is a longer list from Prevention Magazine.
The bottom line? Eat as little processed meat as possible... none is best. Reduce consumption of unprocessed red meat to under 20oz per week. Replace some meat with poultry, fish and beans.
What you eat is 100% up to you. What it does to you is not.
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