The red (meat) menace

Did you hear? Did you?? Red meat is now 100% officially really bad for you. No, like, seriously this time. I've now been sent this New York Times article by several people - apparently there's a new study out in the Archives of Internal Medicine on the results of two big observational studies. You can read the full study here.

So there it is. Red meat causes all kinds of damage to human bodies. You know what else does? Breathing. Metabolism causes damage and eventually that damage accumulates enough to cause pathology. Clearly, the solution is to stop breathing.

Rather than take the time to point out all the issues with the study, I will simply direct you to two people who have already done so much much better than I could.

First, via Mark's Daily Apple, I give you Denise Minger's Will Eating Red Meat Kill You?

Second, Robb Wolf tells it like it is in his Red Meat: Part of a Healthy Diet?

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Here's my take. Context is everything. You cannot make a snap judgement about the value of a food in anyone's diet without first understanding the rest of his/her environment. You wouldn't have a hard time convincing me that an overweight sedentary 75 year old man might not want to eat a diet of steak and ice cream. On the other hand, let's take a purely hypothetical 30-year-old Parkour instructor who is extremely physically active and needs a hell of a lot of food just to keep going. Some red meat would probably be a good thing for him to eat.

Contexts change. If I ever get old and slow down (doubtful, but possible) I'll need to adjust my diet. Everyone's needs are different and they all change with time. Listen to your body and you'll do pretty okay.