Happiness: Red Meat Turns Out to be Healthier Than “Settled Science” Suggested
Meanwhile, experts claim vegan diets stunt brain development and hurt athletic performance.
I have often noted that Food Science is clearly the most unsettled science of them all.
Experts have lectured us for years about the need to reduce red and processed meat from our diets. But a new report indicates that they based their advice on bad science.
If there are health benefits from eating less beef and pork, they are small, the researchers concluded. Indeed, the advantages are so faint that they can be discerned only when looking at large populations, the scientists said, and are not sufficient to tell individuals to change their meat-eating habits.
“The certainty of evidence for these risk reductions was low to very low,” said Bradley Johnston, an epidemiologist at Dalhousie University in Canada and leader of the group publishing the new research in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The new analyses are among the largest such evaluations ever attempted and may influence future dietary recommendations. In many ways, they raise uncomfortable questions about dietary advice and nutritional research, and what sort of standards these studies should be held to.
The article published in the Annals of Internal Medicine by a group of 14 researchers just upended years of nutritional guidance.
Led by Dalhousie University epidemiologist Bradley Johnston, the authors, who hail from seven different countries, focused on the impact of red meat consumption on cancer, cardiovascular disease, and mortality, among other effects, as well as people’s values and preferences regarding red meat.
Based on these studies, their conclusions — summarized in a new Annals clinical guideline — challenge the guidelines from just about every major national and international health group. Just four years ago, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) announced that people should cut back on processed meats if they wanted to avoid certain types of cancer. The American Heart Association and the US government’s dietary guidelines panel have also long suggested curbing our meat consumption for better health.
But the authors of the new studies argue that people can “continue their current consumption of both unprocessed red meat and processed meat,” meaning whatever amount they’re currently eating.
Meanwhile, a leading nutritionist has warned an “unintended consequence” of vegan diets is that they could make future generations less intelligent.
Writing in the journal BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health, Dr Emma Derbyshire said that while plant-based diets have many benefits, they are low in choline – a dietary nutrient that is critical to brain development.
The nutrient, which can be found in meat, fish, eggs and dairy products, is particularly important for pregnant women because it contributes to the healthy growth of a baby’s brain.
Given the antics of progressives who push vegan diets, I am not surprised there is a correlation between plant-only diets and stupidity.
One of my friends recently went on a vegan diet for six months and gave it up because he was regularly getting sick. The illnesses stopped when I convinced him to go back to meat, over some juicy burgers and craft beer.
Interestingly football star Cam Newton’s recent poor performances are being tied to veganism.
In recent years, Newton was a pescatarian, that is, a person who eats mostly plant foods but includes a lot of fish and seafood to get needed protein and nutrients. Earlier this year, however, Newton went full vegan.
Since then, he’s played terribly, and now he’s injured and sitting on the sidelines. Meanwhile, his backup, Kyle Allen, delivered a stellar performance last week in Newton’s absence, creating an unexpected quarterback controversy in Charlotte.
So, as of now, I am going with the version of “settled science” that confirms I can have my juicy steak.
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My doctor insisted I would never be able to control my type two diabetes with diet and exercise. Said my A1C would never go below seven.
Two months later on a keto diet I no longer needed any medication. I was on four different meds before including two injectables. Well over 100 units of insulin a day.
I’ve now lost over a hundred pounds, A1C is below five and all my blood work including cholesterol is improved.
Fry bread is not my people’s friend no matter how tasty.
Meanwhile high fructose corn syrup is a big culprit and it’s now in almost everything.
They don’t mention that much and it’s a major problem.
That’s a consequence of the Fat Wars. Low fat foods are bland so companies put flavor back in with added sugars. HFCS is ideal for this because it also mimics some of the lubricating qualities of fats.
The use of corn syrup in a lot of sweet items e.g. soda etc., in this country is also because of import tariffs and restrictions on the importation of cane sugar. There are a few cane sugar importers who have all the business. They are huge supporters of the senators who continually renew these restrictions.
Coca Cola company used to use cane sugar and then came the restrictions so they used corn syrup, this changed the taste of their product so they started importing some sugary candies and reprocessed them to get cane sugar to use in their sodas. This was quickly kaboshed by the sugar importers via Congress.
Walter Williams, long ago, had an article that detailed this plus the problems with the American fatties that really only started after the use of corn syrup was used more generally because sugar was just too darn expensive to use in their product.
Thanks I didn’t know that.
I do know from reading that in the 70’s the tariffs on imported fats (such as palm oil, etc.) were really dropped low. That’s the same time period of the fast food burger franchise chains mushrooming growth.
RE: “…. the problems with the American fatties that really only started after the use of corn syrup was used more generally because sugar was just too darn expensive to use in their product…”
That’s how you fatten up cattle really fast!
….with corn feed that is….
When I was young, and had hungry growing children, I purchased a cow and split it with a friend. We hauled the cow to a butcher and they processed it it the way we wanted.
At that point in life I was doing major remodeling work on a house and clearing land to build my farmstead. Summer and winter I worked very long hours.
The key is to have food consumption in line with calories burned. That and eat a balanced diet, varied with each type of food in moderation.
Also, I want to know who funded this study, I am not saying it is wrong, but I do believe following the money is always a good idea.
HFCS is no worse than sugar.
They are both awful, but the only added danger from HFCS is people seeing it on the ingredient list and not knowing its sugar (but most people don’t read ingredients anyways and it will still be on the facts panel as added sugar).
Corn syrup is of the same general class as cane syrup. High fructose corn syrup is more similar to cane syrup, aka table sugar. They’re not identical (you can taste the difference) but they’re very close. Neither are things to be consumed in mass quantity, they’re also not mysterious poisons.
I suggest we leave the OMG Monsanto killer frankenfood!!!! to Salon and Huffpoof.
The evidence suggests regular sugar is just as bad as HFCS. Problem is we eat too much because it’s in almost everything now
I went from an A1C of 5.8 to 4.6 in a 3 month window by dumping sugar, grains, and starches. I’m fairly certain had I not taken the initiative, I’d be a T2 diabetic today.
I had never heard of fry bread or its popularity among native Americans until this past May on a trip to southern Utah to see parks and national monuments. I thought, hell, whatever doesn’t kill me will make me stronger so I ordered it. I don’t think I finished it.
Meanwhile, a leading nutritionist has warned an “unintended consequence” of vegan diets is that they could make future generations less intelligent.
Oh, no! Looks like we can expect a surge in the number of Dimocrats.
The vast majority of vegans are democrats.
VAST majority.
The Subaru Forester with. Coexist sticker quotient is higher as well.
Hey, I have a Subaru Forrester and am about as far from a vegan/democrat/liberal/idiot as you can get!!!!!!!!!!!!
You take that back.
But yours doesn’t have a Coexist sticker does it? Mine has a deplorables sticker and a Babylon Bee.
Trade the vegan machine in on a Suburban and be a real human.
I have the largest production passenger vehicle, a Ram 3500 crew cab with a long bed, and the second-smallest, a Think City electric car that I bought out of the bankruptcy sale at a 70% discount, purely out of a cut nut’s curiosity.
I wonder how many other EVs have a National Rifle Association life member decal on the back window. LOL
I bet you don’t have a Coexist sticker unless it is the one made up of firearm maker trademarks.
Full disclosure: if the Subaru Ascent wasn’t plagued with the HUGE center consoles cluttering up virtually everything not a pickup truck, I’d have bought one on the spot.
The lesson?
Never believe anything that has as its genesis government funding.
….or industry funding….
There are exceptions. The dams on the Columbia River system were built by the FDR and Eisenhower administrations, and are still owned and operated by the federal government. Complaints about the Bonneville Power Administration notwithstanding, those dams are a resounding success story and — kill me now — a testament to socialism in small doses.
The human species evolved to climb to the top of the food chain by being the best predator on earth. We are carnivores who thrive on a diet centered on animal protein. It’s not a religion like vegetarianism or (God help us, veganism) where you have to spend a fortune on dietary supplements to partly make up for animal protein.
It is THE reason why we have a large brain, have bodies designed for running and have aggressive natures. We wouldn’t be the most intelligent creatures on earth had we evolved by chasing down kale.
So I built this kale trap for nothing?
nope nothing wrong with killing kale.
Kill the kale. After that, go shoot some golfs like Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies.
Just don’t eat it.
Yep. Kale must be hunted down.
If you love kale, you must release it and let it be free. If it comes back to you, it is beautiful. If not, then hunt it down and kill it!
Give up simmered pork shoulder on a bed of well-cooked kale? Never!
As long as it’s a Have-a-heart Kale trap, and you release the Kale back into the wild
This is true…look at the brain-gut relationship between herbivores and carnivores.
Carnivores tend to have larger brains and smaller GI tracts. Herbivores need more gut to digest and that has stunted their brain development.
None of that will change the human brain condition as our evolution is in stasis, but it does show you what diet led to a higher intelligence over the eons.
Healthy Guy, I don’t think our evolution is in stasis. Americans are taller and heavier than we used to be. The Japanese a while back had to get larger school desks for their kids…. I guess eating something besides rice will do that to you.
Also with all the electronic gadgets, I’m sure our brains are changing in some way.
I should have been clearer. Molecular evolution at the genetic level is in stasis.
Selective mechanisms (aka environment) can still shift the gene pool and there’s always epigenetic factors.
Is Maxine Waters a vegan?
Apex predators tend to be lipovores, actually. The fat is the most energy-rich part of the carcass and the easiest to get to. Most of the lean meat and offal is left behind for scavengers to clean up.
Carbs are “quick and dirty” energy and goes in and goes out quickly (sugar rush/sugar crash). I’ve seen old coyotes who can no longer chase down prey eat fallen fruit from my front yard’s pear trees, so even animals we generally think of as carnivores can get some nutritional use from carbs.
Human digestion is optimized for fats. It’s also pretty good with proteins. It handles carbs poorly, however, though better than most carnis in the animal kingdom.
Insulin, in addition to being the hormone that metabolizes glucose (all carbohydrates ultimately break down to glucose), is also a hormone that promotes creation of fat deposits. More incoming carbs –> more insulin –> more fat storage, because it must be lean times ahead if the only energy you can get is the quick-and-dirty kind.
The dirtiest part of quick-and-dirty glucose is the inflammation that results as it moves along the bloodstream. Micro-cellular holes form in the blood vessel walls over time. The body uses cholesterol and fat to repair these holes. Elevated blood glucose levels accelerate this process, ultimately leading to the arteriosclerosis and plaque obstructions common to heart disease, along with the poor circulation and neuropathy common to diabetes.
DrEdNicolson, this seems counterintuitive because most prey animals I see in the wild – and I see a fair number- are pretty lean animals and they don’t seem have much fat on them at all.
Think of it this way: You’re either eating the fat or making it. Prey animals make the fat, predators eat it.
Or to put it another way: You are what you don’t eat, at least as far as fats are concerned.
Diet has a lot to do with it. Deer that feed mainly on grass are so lean you can see their ribs – but after a season of corn and protein pellets, they get almost as fat as cattle. I’ve never quite understood the fad of grass-fed beef. It seems to me that all that should result in is low-grade meat that’s worthless for steaks or anything else not involving a pressure cooker or smoker.
Absolutely right about lipovores. The coastal brownies only eat the fatty areas of the salmon. By the way, Alaskan are having a bear beauty contest to name the best chow-hound bear.
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/10/2/20894942/fat-bear-week-2019-katmai-national-park-fattest-bear-contest
or…”I didn’t claw my way up the food chain to eat vegetables.”
related
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/records-found-in-dusty-basement-undermine-decades-of-dietary-advice/
Ramsden, of the National Institutes of Health, unearthed raw data from a 40-year-old study, which challenges the dogma that eating vegetable fats instead of animal fats is good for the heart. The study, the largest gold-standard experiment testing that idea, found the opposite, Ramsden and his colleagues reported on Tuesday in BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal).
The study may not have looked at the melting point of the fats.
Crisco is all-vegetable, but a study of a family with heart disease showed a correlation with the introduction of that fat with a high melting temperature, in place of lard. Minuscule droplets of fat collected in the tiny capillaries of a while generation of the family, who died younger than either their parents or children.
Best line of the OP: “Given the antics of progressives who push vegan diets, I am not surprised there is a correlation between plant-only diets and stupidity.”
After all….you are what you eat. Plants are not a higher life form.
The photo that accompanies this article shows someone frying a steak. It should be against the law to fry a steak!!
Only two things should be allowed:
1 – grilled
2 – broiled
Honorary mention for steak tartare?
If God didn’t want us to eat animals, why did he make them out of meat?
The big issue of diet is that our technological evolution has far outstripped our biological evolution. We find sweets highly rewarding because of their inherent energy content, so our brain rewards us as a reminder to put”this” in our diet. But that brain mechanism evolved when our only source was the occasional beehive in winter. But now we are stuck with that biology as huge ADM farms churn out the HFC by the truckload, literally, as I see them driving down NE 28th to the Coca Cola syrup plant every hour, only to return to the UP railyard to load up again. The problem though with HFC is that it packs on the calories without turning off the drive/craving for sweets. That and Safeway/Krogers/et al acting like Halloween is a 5 month long celebration. At least be accurate and label the products as “Type II size” and not “fun size.”
I propose a compromise. Let us all meet in Kansas City at one of their famous BBQ joints, raise a glass of red wine, and rejoice in the diversity of our cultures.
(Please note that in the interest of kindness and love, I did not suggest that the vegetarians be placed outside to graze on the lawn. I’m certain there’s a salad bar in there somewhere.)
I offer this up for discussion because I’m afraid I’m a dying breed.
Red meat is good for you. And me, the dying breed, is/are a hunter.
Making your own meat is good for you. It is good to work hard for your meat. You enjoy it more when you have labored for it. Nothing tastes so good as the backstraps, fillets, of a deer you have hunted for yourself.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Bison_Bull_in_Nebraska.jpg
He’s angry at me. He has every right.
Civilization is when you can indulge in non-food producing activities.
Like poetry.
https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/bilhana/bil01.htm
Aren’t there any poems to Red Meat?
I am going to have to search on that.
I imagine if as long as there are poets, somebody should have said something about a New York Strip.
My rule of thumb since the past few years has been, if it’s a food that humans could have eaten and survived on for millenia before modern food production, then its probably a food our metabolisms are tuned to deal with and reasonably healthy.
If it’s a food enabled by modern food processing, then it is probably going to contain too much sugar, bad carbs, etc and should be consumed in moderation
A few months ago a British couple was arrested for child abuse for feeding their baby a vegan diet. At 20 months of age, the child weighed just 11 pounds. God only know what physical and mental disabilities this poor child will have.
https://metro.co.uk/2019/08/23/vegan-mum-left-baby-severely-malnourished-meat-free-diet-spared-jail-10617559/
depending on your particular body type(mesomorph, ectomorph, endomorph) you’re going to store and burn fat accordingly–come from a family of medicine men/women and they ALL say/said: REGULAR exercise is the single greatest investment you can make in your long-term health–as long as you exercise, you can do/eat/drink pretty much whatever the hell you like and enjoy your life–have found that advice to be absolutely true
that said, there are certainly some habits that can/will negate that benefit–alcohol, nicotine, sugar, jumping out of airplanes, driving wheeled vehicles at high speeds, etc.
have gone through many various exercise regimens and finally(about 15 years ago)took up the best regimen have ever found(was recommended by my physician father, a perennial age-group decathlete national champion/contender)
hiking–with a pack–go every day on about a 1.5 mile circuit carrying 65lbs–about 1/3 my body weight–hiking, unlike running/jogging does not not have all the joint/body impact on ankles,knees,hips,spine that is associated with other running activities–much, much easier on your musculo/skeletal system–the weight you carry increases the cardio benefit dramatically and that is the real secret of the activity–bloodwork for the last 15 years or so has been and remains rock solid and can indeed eat/drink pretty much whatever the hell i want
if these vegan yahoos want to chomp on the shrubs or acorns or various weeds, have at it–will just keep exercising, myself
I have personally dived into that swamp, being susceptible to being 20 to 30 pounds overweight until it becomes intolerable.
This year is the 100th anniversary of the most important “diet book” ever written, titled “A Biometric Study of Basal Metabolism in Man,” by J. Harris and F. Benedict, working for the Carnegie Foundation in Washington, D.C.
They set out to determine how many calories someone needs to neither gain nor lose weight, and which factors most accurate predict the calorie horizon. They used multiple regression analysis, which is essentially arithmetic on steroids that determines correlations.
Regressions are drudgery even now, but in the pre-computer age, well, they deserved a medal for the effort alone. They studied a range of factors, and came up with the following: height, weight, and age, with separate numbers for the two (yeah, two) sexes. Adjustments for people who were ambulatory vs. under bed rest.
It’s hard to overstate how important that work was. It and some extensions have been used to determine how much to feed people in all kinds of situations. And it’s a truly outstanding tool for anyone contemplating a diet. So here’s the link to learn your calorie budget:
http://www-users.med.cornell.edu/~spon/picu/calc/beecalc.htm
Once you know your baseline, you can determine where to go from there. You start with the fact that a pound of fat is 3,500 calories. Everything on a 7-day basis for simplicity’s sake.
Start with your calorie budget (x) 7. If you exercise 3x a week on those machines in the gym that give calorie readouts, add that to the weekly calorie budget. Divide the whole thing by 7 for a daily budget. Then subtract 750 a day, and if you do the nutrition part right, you’ll lose 1 to 1-1/2 pounds a week.
On the nutrition side, it’s well known that simple carbohydrates (bleached flour) metabolize to sugar, and that apart from the calories, sugar interferes with the body’s ability to metabolize fat. So you switch to whole grains, and stop drinking alcohol, and lay off the desserts.
Count every calorie that goes into your mouth. Exercise for at least 45 minutes each session, getting your heart rate to 80% of “maximum,” which is 230 minus your age. (Example: a 50 year old’s maximum heart rate is 180, and [s]he should exercise to the point where the heart rate in 80% of 180 for 45 straight minutes, or 144. There is also “interval training” once you get good at it, and 45 minutes at the same pace is boring.)
Do the foregoing, and you will lose 1 to 1.5 lbs a week, and ALL of your weight loss will be fat. Why doesn’t everyone know this? Because who’s going to buy a 2-page diet and exercise book?
One other critical point from the Harris-Benedict research concerns metabolism: It declines in a straight-line function with age. After age 25, you need to each 8 fewer calories each day, at the same activity level, or you’ll start gaining weight.
That might not sound like a lot, but go out 10 years and it’s 80 calories a day. Over 365 days, that’s 29,200 calories, or 8-1/3 pounds of fat gained if you are eating the same amount that you did 10 years ago. By and large, Americans aren’t getting fat because they’re pigging out. They’re getting fat because they don’t know that they need to eat less as they get older.
Finally: The Harris-Benedict approach enabled me not only to lose a bunch of weight, but to cut my body fat percentage in half. And I was able to predict within 1 pound how much I’d weigh five months out. So, folks, there’s junk science and there’s real science. I’ve just given you some real science, quantified 100 years ago.
If this stuff ever became widespread knowledge, NutriSystem and Weight Watchers would probably send a hit squad.
^ sorry for the typos
Thanks!
You’re very welcome. I got a number wrong up there: It’s 220 minus your age for max heart rate, not 230.
I learned about it when I joined an L.A. Fitness gym. They give you a workout manual, and the Harris-Benedict Equation is in back. Now here’s a good story.
I’m a numbers nerd, and dove into the deep end of the pool. Researched it online, and determined that the L.A. Fitness version was incorrect. The formula is long and complicated, and someone had switched a sign. If you followed it, you wouldn’t lose as much weight as you expected to.
I called their corporate HQ. Reached voicemail. Gave my name and number, and said I’d found a flaw in their formula that was worth a half-pound a week. If you’re interested, call me and I’ll go through it with you. I’m a retired financial analyst and not a whackjob, and have constructive intent.
To my surprise, a couple weeks later I got a return call. I had the person on the other end of the line go onto a computer, and in about 15 minutes showed her the error. I said, look, if you folks care enough to have put that in your book, it really ought to be the right formula. She agreed and thanked me, and said they’d talk about it.
Within a month, every L.A. Fitness gym in America got a new book with the corrected formula.