Red Meat

Good, bad, neutral? Find out what the newest studies clear up.

Where to start.

Yet again, we arrive at a topic that’s heavily polarized.

One side shouts of its vast benefits while tearing into a T-Bone while the other vehemently cuts it down with carrots and celery at their fingertips.

Today’s discussion is all about red meat consumption and what the newest studies reveal about its risks, benefits, and how to use this information to inform your daily diet.

Let’s begin.

Like other topics, red meat consumption is one that’s very challenging for researchers to study partially due to the vast number of confounding variables at play.

It’s impossible to designate one group to eat a whopping amount of red meat for 20 years while restricting another group completely of red meat and then looking at the outcomes. Therefore, researchers must go to the population-level and look at groups of individuals who typically consume more red meat than others.

But the problem with this is that they also can’t tease out other behavioral choices these people tend to make. Such as, on average, red meat consumers often tend to have higher cigarette use and eat less fruits and vegetables. Therefore, to pinpoint and say red meat consumption leads to worse outcomes on our health seems to be a little lackluster using these methods.

One thing we do know is that red meat is a significant dietary source of protein, Vitamin B12, and Zinc – all which are critical to our health and optimal functioning.

We further must recognize that not all red meat is created equal.