Friday, January 2, 2015

Food Lie #7, Meat is Bad For You

7. Meat is Bad For You

Blaming new health problems on old foods has never made sense to me.
One example of that is meat… which humans have been eating throughout evolution, for millions of years.
For some very strange reason, many people are now blaming meat for diseases like heart disease and type II diabetes, which are relatively new.
This doesn’t make much sense at all and the studies don’t support it.
While it is true that processed meat is associated with all sorts of diseases, the same is not true for unprocessed red meat.
A massive review from 2010 that looked at data from 20 studies with a total of 1,218,380 individuals revealed that unprocessed red meat had no significant association with either cardiovascular disease or type II diabetes (62).
Other studies that included hundreds of thousands of people agree with this… processed meat is bad, but unprocessed red meat is harmless (63).
Even though some observational studies have found a link between meat consumption and cancer, review studies that look at the data as a whole show that the effect is weak and inconsistent (64, 65).
If there really is an association between red meat and cancer (which has NOT been proven) then it is most likely caused by excessive cooking, not the meat itself. For this reason, it may be important to avoid burning your meat (66).
Also, let’s not forget that meat is incredibly nutritious. It is loaded with vitamins, minerals, quality proteins, healthy fats and various lesser known nutrients that are important for the body and brain (67).

Bottom Line: Studies show that unprocessed red meat does not raise your risk of cardiovascular disease or diabetes. There is a very weak association with cancer, but most likely caused by excessive cooking and not the meat itself.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/13-nutrition-lies-that-made-the-world-sick-and-fat-2013-10?op=1#ixzz3NhYTZg7m

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