The Red/Processed Meat Debate

 

In a study published in 2019 in Annals of Internal Medicine researchers at McMaster and Dalhousie universities found no discernible links between red and processed meats and cardiovascular health and cancer. They concluded that most people could continue to eat their current levels of red and processed meat without endangering their health, contradicting decades concern that eating these meats could contribute to serious medical conditions. The International Agency for Research on Cancer had reported in 2015 that red meat is “carcinogenic to humans based on sufficient evidence in humans that the consumption of processed meat causes colorectal cancer.” The new study contradicted the previous warnings.

If this caused confusion it is the poor reporting done by the media that is to blame, and not the study itself.

Despite headlines proclaiming that processed meats were now back on the menu, the study did not dispute the research saying that eating them raised the risk of cancer and heart disease. Rather the conclusion was that the prior studies did not produce strong enough evidence to justify telling people to cut back eating red and processed meats from their current level of consumption - which was three or four times a week.

Unsurprisingly, the study recommendation produced a firestorm of protest from doctors and nutritionists who cited decades of observational research showing that limiting the consumption of red and processed meat does reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease.

So what should we do?

According to Jeffrey Mechanick, MD, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Health at Mount Sinai Heart in NYC, your dietary pattern matters more than any particular food. "If you want to eat red and processed meat," says Mechanick, "prudent consumption would be one or two servings every week or two." Otherwise, maintain a healthy diet of poultry, fish, fresh fruits and vegetables, healthy fats and moderate carbohydrates. 

In other words, don't take the confusion as license to ignore the risks, but go ahead and have an occasional hot dog or salami sandwich is you like.