Case against red meat continues to build

The NY Times published an excellent article about the results of the decade-long study directed by Rashmi Sinha, a nutritional epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute, on the effects of red meat consumption, published in the March 23 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine. The bottom line: those who consumed the most red and processed meat were likely to suffer from heart disease and cancer and die sooner than people who consumed much smaller amounts of these foods. Epidemiologist, Dr. Barry Popkin, weighs in on the personal and environmental risks:

"...people should eat a hamburger only once or twice a week instead of every day, a small steak once a week instead of every other day, and a hot dog every month and a half instead of once a week... Anyone who worries about global well-being has yet another reason to consume less red meat. Dr. Popkin said that a reduced dependence on livestock for food could help to save the planet from the ravaging effects of environmental pollution, global warming and the depletion of potable water... “In the United States,” Dr. Popkin wrote, “livestock production accounts for 55 percent of the erosion process, 37 percent of pesticides applied, 50 percent of antibiotics consumed, and a third of total discharge of nitrogen and phosphorus to surface water.”

Learn more here and here.