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Ear to the Ground

Red Meat Takes Another Hit in Health Study

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Posted on Mar 13, 2012
Flickr / tarale (CC-BY-SA)

Meaty danger: Even small quantities of red meat can be unhealthy, according to the study’s findings.

Does even the occasional hamburger spell doom for meat enthusiasts? The connection may not be quite that clear, but a new wide-ranging study published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine makes the case that carnivores might want to seriously scale back their intake of red meat or sub in poultry or fish for the sake of their life span. This is the sound of the beef lobby mooing.  —KA

Los Angeles Times:

Eating red meat — any amount and any type — appears to significantly increase the risk of premature death, according to a long-range study that examined the eating habits and health of more than 110,000 adults for more than 20 years.

For instance, adding just one 3-ounce serving of unprocessed red meat — picture a piece of steak no bigger than a deck of cards — to one’s daily diet was associated with a 13% greater chance of dying during the course of the study.

Even worse, adding an extra daily serving of processed red meat, such as a hot dog or two slices of bacon, was linked to a 20% higher risk of death during the study.

“Any red meat you eat contributes to the risk,” said An Pan, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and lead author of the study, published online Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

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By Maani, March 16, 2012 at 6:31 pm Link to this comment

All:

This study makes ZERO sense.  Consider.  Since the dawn of man, we have eaten red meat.  Yet over the centuries, human lifespans have LENGTHENED regularly.  And while there are certainly other factors involved in this (better sanitation, health care, etc.), the ingestion of red meat has NEVER been implicated in shortening life spans.

Has anyone considered that this is a ploy to get the “99 percent” to stay with chicken and pork, while the 1% keep all the (perfectly safe) red meat for themselves?

Inquiring minds want to know…

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By Giacomo, March 14, 2012 at 1:50 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

The study—as reported—does not seem to have considered just how many toxins, antibiotics and carcinogens are in meat due to its corporate, industrial production. And most of these chemicals are absorbed by fat, which is valued by producers and consumers as well, adding yet another unresearched factor. Considering that contaminated food is a normal staple of progressive reporting, why are current articles in progressive media about this study missing this?

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PatrickHenry's avatar

By PatrickHenry, March 13, 2012 at 4:11 pm Link to this comment

Love those Wagyu ribeyes.

http://www.lonemountainwagyu.com/#

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By radson, March 13, 2012 at 2:57 pm Link to this comment

First there was the butter scare ;where butter was supplanted by the margarine industry ,then there was the salt illness theory. Now we got the beef and red meat scare ;well for starters don’t eat British Beef its the lowest quality on the planet ,next avoid all beef raised with Monsanto junk food and finally substitute all off the above with porridge ;yes Oats ,good for the work horses four legged and two legged and as a bonus -from the money you save -douse the oats with an abundant supply of Maple Syrup ;you,ll be amazed at how nutritious it is.

cheers

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By moonraven, March 13, 2012 at 2:39 pm Link to this comment

Damn right, something was missing from my post:  should have been ten times the amount of radiation released from the meltdown at Chernobyl was DELIBERATELY released from Hanford between 1944 and 1953 in the name of national security (sic) and with the hopes of finally exterminating the remaining Native Americans in the region (yep, some whites had to bite the bullet and boogie off to prepare for their next lifetimes, too—but that’s the breaks of the Indian Wars).

After all Hanford was built on land ripped off from the Yakama Reservation (again, in the name of national security).

Aren’t you proud of the US?  Atoms for Peace, my red butt.

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By moonraven, March 13, 2012 at 2:35 pm Link to this comment

Well, I am just now shutting down my windows here in the internet cafe where I live in Mexico, and heading home for a juicy ribeye (not produced by gringos, and running around at 5 a.m. yesterday) and to contemplate that if I haven’t died from 67 plus years of living with systemic lupus caused by Hanford’s expelling ten times the amount of radioactivity into the winds of Eastern Washington state that I can LOOK FORWARD TO death from a massive coronary after eating that steak.

Actually, I’d pay a lot of money for a quick exit like that.

Bring on the ribeye!

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By Mary McCurnin, March 13, 2012 at 2:23 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Chickens! Lets hear if for chickens!

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By Blueokie, March 13, 2012 at 1:51 pm Link to this comment

Newsflash: Everything that oozes from the cesspool of corporate industrial agriculture is in the least concerned with the nutrition, safety, well being, or health of the consumer.

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By Grace, March 13, 2012 at 11:45 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

C’mon truthdig, dig a little deeper. The study also noted that those with higher red meat consumption were more likely to be smokers, have decreased activity levels, decreased consumption of healthy grains, fruits and veggies, and higher BMI (i.e fatter). Any of these confounding factors, and more likely a combination, could be associated with earlier mortality. Also, as ssupak notes above, grass-fed meat products are much healthier than their feed-lot counterparts.

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By ssupak, March 13, 2012 at 11:07 am Link to this comment

This study does not include grass-fed meats. Grass-fed
meat is better for you, the animal, and the planet.

http://www.eatwild.com/healthbenefits.htm

http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/solutions/sm
art_pasture_operations/greener-pastures-faqs.html

http://www.nutritionj.com/content/9/1/10

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By kifar, March 13, 2012 at 10:43 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

People won’t get it….. they are too
addicted to the red meat. It’s part of our
culture and it is subsidize so that
economics makes it the food of
economic choose. This food was
learned…. and this food can be un-
learned. Put forth the truth. Put it on a
even playing field. Let the people decide…....

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