Is Less Red Meat Better For You? Controversial New Guidelines Say No

(CNN) — Leading nutritional experts in the United States and the UK are fired up about new dietary recommendations claiming there’s no need to reduce your red and processed meat intake for good health. “This is a very irresponsible public health recommendation,” said Dr. Frank Hu, who chairs the nutrition department at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The new guidelines and five corresponding studies are part of a systematic analysis of existing research done by NutriRECS, a recently formed international group of nutritionists and health researchers. NutriRECS says its mission is to “produce trustworthy nutritional guideline recommendations based on the values, attitudes and preferences of patients and community members.” Bradley Johnston, the lead author of the guidelines and co-founder of NutriRECS, said the analysis failed to find “any certainty that eating red meat or processed meat causes cancer, diabetes or heart disease.” Therefore, the group’s new guidelines make a “weak recommendation” based on “low-quality evidence” that most people don’t need to reduce their red and processed meat consumption, Johnston said. “Why would you make a ‘weak’ recommendation about eating red and processed meat?” asked Stanford School of Medicine nutrition scientist Christopher Gardner. “I’m completely flabbergasted. I’m also really worried about how d...
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