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Should You Eat Red Meat? Navigating a World of Contradicting Studies

The new study still finds that reducing unprocessed red meat consumption by three servings in a week is associated with an an approximately eight per cent lower lifetime risk of heart disease, cancer and early death.

D-brief
By Scott Lear, The Conversation
Oct 11, 2019 4:22 PMApr 9, 2020 11:04 PM
Red Meat - Shutterstock
(Credit: Shutterstock)

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Another diet study, another controversy and the public is left wondering what to make of it. This time it’s a series of studies in the Annals of Internal Medicine by an international group of researchers concluding people need not reduce their consumption of red and processed meat.

Over the past few years, study after study has indicated eating red and processed meat is bad for your health to the point where the World Health Organization lists red meat as a probable carcinogen and processed meat as a carcinogen.

This new study doesn’t dispute the finding of a possible increased risk for heart disease, cancer and early death from eating meat. However, the panel of international nutritional scientists concluded the risk was so small and the studies of too poor quality to justify any recommendation.

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