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Something had to break me out of my blog-posting draught and there's probably nothing better than a bunch of scientists spreading a rumor that you're going to die too soon if you eat a...
In case you missed it, The Harvard School of Public Health released a study warning Americans that their risk of premature death from what kills most Americans these days (heart attack, cancer) goes up 13% if they eat a serving of unprocessed red meat with any regularity. If an processed red meat product touched their tongues, that number pops up to 20%. If making your brain ache and unable to focus from reading scientific jargon is your idea of entertainment, then here you go. I found this nice article on the topic here. Still, I took one for the team, read the abstract, and you bet I've got a reaction to some Massholes telling me that something people have consumed for centuries without such obvious and detrimental effects to human health is going to now kill me 13% faster.
I'm sure most of us here have heard the phrase, "thoughts become things." If there was anything that leaped out of this information, it was these statements:
Men and women with higher intake of red meat were less likely to be physically active and were more likely to be current smokers, to drink alcohol, and to have a higher body mass index (Table 1). In addition, a higher red meat intake was associated with a higher intake of total energy but lower intakes of whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.
I can't speak for everyone else but this quote paints a very clear mental picture of someone (and I'll bet we all know someone like this) who revels in the fact that they enjoy not taking good care of themselves. In the United States, the best way to brag about how you're not a health nut is to proclaim that you drink, smoke and eat lots of red meat. If people get their rebellion on like this, then what's the point of eating anything resembling a plant?
So, it's not really surprising that there aren't a lot of people who sit down to a slab of steak and a head of steamed broccoli. It's a style of eating that doesn't fit into the, "I don't give a fuck," eating mentality.
After my aching brain's swelling went down from statistical overload, I came to the conclusion that this study didn't really discover that red meat kills you faster. It's a lifestyle that seems to go hand-in-hand with eating red meat that does people in. By fingering red meat as the culprit to heart attack and cancer, western medicine created a banner food for the "enjoying life" crowd to flock to. Rather than point to the lifestyle, the food is becoming the culprit. Their thought of making red meat bad in the minds of people became too many people's reality.
I don't buy that red meat is bad for humans and I never will. I have an issue with doctors, nutritionists, and other "experts" telling me that something humans have consumed for Milena without the rash of heart attacks that we see today is the source of premature dirt-napping. Some evidence exists that cancer barely even exist until 200-300 years ago. Linking consumption of red meat that's gone back farther than our current cancer and heart attack epidemic just defies any good sense.
I would stretch that to many processed meats as well. If you note in the links I provided, among the processed meats named were salami and bologna. If my memory serves me correctly, these are Italian in origin. Therefore, couldn't these be described as part of the vaunted heart-healthy "Mediterranean Diet?" That becomes kind of hard to explain away, doesn't it?
These kinds of studies do prove one thing: studies can be made to say just about anything with the right crafting. Either this one had an agenda before it commencement or those who conducted it are unable to figure out the problem when it's staring at them.
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