Study Finds Eating Red Meat Contributes to Risk of Early Death

[babylonsister]

Study Finds Eating Red Meat Contributes to Risk of Early Death

By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 23, 2009; 4:06 PM


Eating red meat increases the chances of dying prematurely, according to a large federal study that offers powerful new evidence that a diet that regularly includes steaks, burgers and pork chops is hazardous to your health.

The study of more than 500,000 middle-age and elderly Americans found that those who consumed the equivalent of about a small hamburger every day were more than 30 percent more likely to die during the 10 years they were followed, mostly from heart disease and cancer. Sausage, cold cuts and other processed meats also increased the risk.

Previous research had found a link between red meat and an increased risk of heart disease and cancer, particularly colorectal cancer, but the new study is the first large examination of the relationship between eating meat and overall mortality.

"The bottom line is we found an association between red meat and processed meat and an increased risk of mortality," said Rashmi Sinha of the National Cancer Institute, who led the study published today in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

In contrast, routine consumption of fish, chicken, turkey and other poultry decreased the risk of death by a small amount, the study found.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/23/AR2009032301626.html?hpid=topnews

[GoesTo11]

1. And those who go without red meat will only wish they could die

The vegetarians may live longer, and it will seem a lot longer!

[nickinSTL]

7. you know...I had to stop eating meat...

for medical reasons (I have a metabolic disorder and can't properly digest one amino acid) -
and I don't miss it.

Turns out I'm completely happy eating steamed vegetables, rice (among other things, of course), and never touching meat.

[Big Blue Marble]

12. As someone who has not eaten red meat for 20 years,

I can say that you are just plain wrong. I do not miss it one bit. Now it seems strange to me
that anyone would want to eat it.

[kimmerspixelated]

2. Look, I'm mostly veggie, but

meats with pesticides,antibiotics, preservatives and the rest of the garbage, are the culprit if you ask me. Organic, lean Red meat has a lot of needed nutrients that are greatly missed by the body unless supplemented, such as Coq10, and B vits for starters. I think it is the kind of meat-pure meat-not so bad.

[Duer 157099]

3. How about if you eat chicken with your burger?

It says routine consumption of fish, chicken etc decreases the risk - but it doesn't say whether those people still ate red meat too.

So maybe surf n turf is the way to go

[JitterbugPerfume]

4. if you eat lots of fresh fruits and veggies

nuts, healty oils and whole grains, fish and poultry you can get away with small amounts of red meat occasionally as lng as it is free of hormones and antibiotics

[TreasonousBastard]

5. They compensated for smoking and excercise, but...

did they compensate for other aspects of the diet?

Heavily monounsaturated oils such as safflower and olive?

Waterfowl, such as duck and goose, which have subcutaneous fats very similar to olive oil and not at all like chicken or turkey. (and while we're at it, how's fried chicken doin' on the longetivity list?)

Green vegetables, such as broccoli and kale which contain beneficial compounds.

High fat dairy?

High-carb processed foods, such as baked goods, breads, canned condensed soups and such that have excessive amounts of sugar, salt, and unpronounceable chemicals? (Just what are those "natural and artificial flavors" happily living alongside Yellow #2 in that Diet Pepsi and Moon Pie you just gobbled down?)

And how did they attempt to differentiate stuff like bacon and 90% lean burger meat?

My personal, uninformed, suspicion, based solely on non-random observation, is that people who eat a lot of red meat eat a lot of other crap, too, and less good stuff while people who eat less of of it eat less other crap and more good stuff.

[unc70]

10. I have spent several more hours looking at this. You are mostly correct.

While the authors claim they had adjusted for smoking, lack of exercise, and such (and SAS did some multivariate magic with their data), I think the high levels of internal correlation among factors like red meat, smokers, lack of exercise, low consumption of fruits and vegatables, total calories, overweight, ... collapse the true number of independent variables down, maybe to just 5 or 6.

Remember that the AARP Cohort were born between 1925 and 1945 and many people from their birth years had already died before this study even began.

How does one deal with the red meat group having three times more current smokers, getting little exercise, eating more calories but fewer fruits and veggies. They are also much less educated and I suspect they have had less access to health care for most of their lives.

I would expect these other factors to swamp any small impact the red meat might have.

[customerserviceguy]

6. After what's happened to my 401K

Steak is my retirement plan. At least I'm doing something that will benefit the Social Security System for the rest of you!

[GoesTo11]

8. LOL

It's a win-win! They should subsidize our steaks.

[customerserviceguy]

9. And a damned nice

red wine to go with them! Oops, I might live long enough to grab a few bucks from Social Security.

Northwest wines are the best, had some Oregon Pinot Noir tonight with the pasta. Ground beef AND sausage in the meat sauce!

[dropkickpa]

11. Shouldn't your thread title say DAILY red meat?

A little bit misleading leaving that part out, isn't it?