I’ve always kind of wondered why meat gets such a bad rap considering that some form of human has been eating meat for almost 3 million years. If it was so bad for you, how have we survived so long eating it?
I eat meat daily and overall my blood work has always been great. I stay away from (for the most part) the processed meats such as any lunch-meat, bacon, sausage, and hot dogs, just to name a few due to all the other additives in them that I’m not very fond of.
Which leads to an interesting meta analysis of a collection of studies that showed kind of meat being consumed is a better indicator of heart diseases risks rather than just lumping all meat as “bad.”
Specifically, that heart disease risk comes from processed meat (such as bacon, sausage, hot dogs, lunch-meat) rather than your non-processed meat such as steaks and hamburgers.
Here’s what the researchers found:
In a report that pooled data from 20 different studies from around the world, the researchers found that daily consumption of about two ounces of processed meat was associated with a 42% increased risk of heart disease and a 19% heightened chance of diabetes. By contrast, a four-ounce daily serving of red meat from beef, hamburger, pork, lamb or game wasn't linked to any increased risk of heart disease.
It’s interesting because both types of meat have “high” levels of saturated fat so it’s believed that there is
the possibility that when it comes to meat, at least, the real bad actor may be salt. Processed meats generally have about four times the amount of salt as non-processed meats.
Since I’ve pretty much dumped salt and products with sodium in them over the last couple of years, when I bite into a piece of meat that is processed, it’s amazing how instantaneous you taste that salt (and more times than not, my stomach doesn’t appreciate it either and let’s me know…).
The article also states that even though non-processed red meat didn’t increase the risk of heart disease, it didn’t lower it either. Okay fine, then the meat producers can’t go out and start making a health claim on meat now but at the same time, I think it adds a bit more evidence that non-processed meat isn’t UN-healthy for you.
The article also mentions a second study that conducted a meta analysis of other studies that that was published earlier this year that
found that intake of saturated fat wasn't linked to a statistically-significant increased risk of heart disease, stroke or cardiovascular disease.
Which then leads to the best quote I think I read all week:
"There is growing evidence that it's not which nutrient we eat, but the type of foods we eat that is important," said Harvard's Dr. Mozaffarian. "We have to get away from trying to micromanage nutrients and look at the health quality of foods."
That last sentence is key. We continue to look at things in this tiny little box and say “that’s the part that is making this whole thing unhealthy” instead of looking at the combination of things that could be resulting in an unhealthy result.
I’ll give an example. When I’m walking through the grocery store, I tend to take notice of people that have their cart pretty full with food. For the most part, 90% of the stuff in those carts is processed junk, very little fruits and vegetables, and maybe a couple of steaks and some hamburger.
It hit me as rather odd that when reading the “bad things about eating meat” studies and looking at this grocery cart full of processed foods that are loaded with sodium, sugar, trans fat, high fructose corn syrup, etc., the least unhealthiest thing in there IS the non-processed meat.
In the end, and I know I keep saying this, I like to stick with eating meats (the non-processed kinds), fruits, veggies, nuts, and oils. Nice and simple to follow and you get to stay away from the processed meat that is looking like is the true villain in the equation of the bad things about eating meat.
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