Original article (in Slovenian) was published on 29/05/2023
A new meta-analysis by the University of Washington has shown that evidence of a link between the consumption of unprocessed red meat and some chronic illness is weaker than some other studies have found, but it has not shown that red meat is not a health risk.
The web portal Nova24tv.si published on 16 May the article New study dispels all previous notions about the risk of red meat. They reported that red meat is not a health risk.
The article summarised the findings of a study by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation into how consumption of unprocessed red meat affects health. The paper was published in the journal Nature Medicine in October last year as one of the meta-analyses evaluating the credibility of previous studies on the impact of meat and vegetable consumption, smoking, and high blood pressure on health.
It involved medical scientists analysing 55 papers on the impact of unprocessed red meat. They found that consumption of red meat increases the risk of colorectal cancer by at least 6%, the risk of breast cancer by at least 3%, and the risk of tyle 2 diabetes and ischemic heart disease by at least 1%.
They claim that non-consumption of unprocessed red meat probably reduces health risk compared to the consumption of any meat.
Their estimate is that non-consumption of unprocessed red meat probably reduces health risk compared to consumption, but because the results of the analysed studies were heterogenous and the evidence weak, they refrained from recommending an acceptable quantity of red meat.
The authors furthermore stressed that attention should be dedicated to all detected risks, whereby it is possible that assessment of certain risks will change based on new evidence and studies.
The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation explained for Razkrinkavanje.si that their study does not prove unprocessed red meat does not constitute a health risk. In response to letters by two British associations of meat producers and the British Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, which did not agree with the findings, they also published a reply in the medical journal Lancet in March this year. They explained that the low estimates for the risk of red meat in the ranking system that they developed in the study is largely the consequence of the significant heterogeneity of the studies. They warned that they expect different results in other individual studies and even meta-analyses.
The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board had mentioned in its letter the British portal Bigthink.com, which last year reported that red meat is not a health risk. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation stressed that this does not reflect what the study has found. Other media have reported on the study as well, for example Dailymail.co.uk and Plantbasednews.org.
Even the author of the Nova24tv.si article did acknowledge that the study highlighted methodological limitations and errors in past studies on the health impact of red meat consumption, and that the authors have found weak evidence of a link between consumption of unprocessed red meat and the aforementioned health risks.
Nova24tv.si has not responded to a Razkrinkavanje.si request for comment.
The claim that red meat is not a health risk is false.
