Red meat consumption and mortality

Receiving press this week was a story from the Harvard School of Public Health, reporting on research by their scientists about the dangers of the over-consumption of red meat.  The study (published in the Archives of Internal Medicine), tracked 120,000 people over a course of twenty years and associated red meat with an increased risk in cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality.  One of the authors, Frank Hu, stated that regular consumption of red meat, and especially if it's processed, contributes to premature death.  There are health benefits from replacing red meat with other sources of protein.

You can read the press release from the HSPH here, and an article in the Sydney Morning Herald here.  The Herald balanced the article by pointing out that Australians don’t consume as much red meat as the Americans in the study, and that there is no need to give it up altogether.

An Pan et al. “Red Meat Consumption and Mortality : Results From 2 Prospective Cohort Studies.  Archives of Internal Medicine, published ahead of print, 12/3/2012. DOI: 10.1001/archinternmed.2011.228. The full text is freely available at the moment.