Ok to eat Red Meat 4 times a week....No Cancer Risk.....

[Mdlerth]

I've been dying to use the word "toothsome"

Since I hate vegetables I have assumed the risk for my whole life and eaten lots of red meat, including bacon and processed deli foods, to stay healthy. Good to know the CV and other risks are less than I already concluded. I wish I could stand vegetables because I would rather eat less meat for ethical and environmental reasons.

I'm not hijacking the thread. I'm merely adding an editorial comment:
I don't hate vegetables, but I concede that many are improved by adding a bit of bacon or cheese. Also, just as meats and poultry and fish taste better grilled than boiled or steamed, perhaps you might find vegetables roasted over flames to be more toothsome.

Maybe it's time to start a "Cooking veggies" thread.

 

[donheff]

I'm not hijacking the thread. I'm merely adding an editorial comment:
I don't hate vegetables, but I concede that many are improved by adding a bit of bacon or cheese. Also, just as meats and poultry and fish taste better grilled than boiled or steamed, perhaps you might find vegetables roasted over flames to be more toothsome.

Maybe it's time to start a "Cooking veggies" thread.

I have tried all of that to no avail. I am the cook so I do a lot of vegetable dishes for others. I sometimes get something that I like the taste of but after a few bites the texture stops me cold. Stir fried, grilled, roasted - I try them all.

Interestingly I like pureed vegetables. I make a curried butternut squash soup I love. I also love re-fried beans and hummus but can't stand real beans. Unfortunately, that only goes so far - not enough to get multiple daily portions. I do like salads (sans tomatoes and cucumbers) so I get plenty of roughage.

 

[easysurfer]

The survey about red meat not being bad for you is considered a disservice by the health community.

Similar to the survey about ramen noodles being really bad for you. Just a survey, not really a study.

IMO, everything in moderation is a better approach .

 

[Mdlerth]

Chacun a son gout

Interestingly I like pureed vegetables. I make a curried butternut squash soup I love. I also love re-fried beans and hummus but can't stand real beans. Unfortunately, that only goes so far - not enough to get multiple daily portions. I do like salads (sans tomatoes and cucumbers) so I get plenty of roughage.

Taste is an absolutely individual preference. If you want to turn all your vegetables into smoothies, you'll get no criticism from me: we own four blenders and three food processors and they all get used.

 

[braumeister]

We also believe in true animal husbandry.

There was a line in an old Tom Lehrer song about a guy who majored in animal husbandry ...


... until they caught him at it.

 

[ckelly78z]

My DW has stomach trouble with grocery store beef, so we bought a 1/4 cow last month (we still had a few cuts from the one we bought last year at this time).

We do enjoy a roast with vegetables in the pressure cooker for a warming meal in the Winter. We don't have many steaks/burgers on a regular basis. I would say that we have beef maybe twice a week, we enjoy our seafood, chicken, and pork too much.

I also eat an occasional Ramon noodle mix.

 

[Bir48die]

Without discussing my eating habits I discount most any health findings anymore. I ask myself "who commissioned the study and for what purpose".

Mostly I just wait. For what? For a different study to be released that counters the first one. Then wait for the new study to counter the last study. Round and round we go.

 

[sengsational]

... and my guess is that even that is based on studies that lump processed meat and red meat together, which makes no sense.

It's annoying that they do that when the cheapest cuts with a bunch of soduim nitrate, probably eaten by people who otherwise don't care to eat other healthy food is lumped in with someone who concentrates on getting a low procecced food diet that includes a bit of fresh meat. And also sad for science that the animal welfare and environmental impacts are never really separated from the health effects. Not that those issues are not important, it's just that they should not affect the science of human health.

 

[gerntz]

Much of nutrition research and policy (e.g. McGovern's Food Pyramid from the 70s) has been the result of political and lobbyist pressures and NOT science. Don't get me started.

Why not get started? Every study that says don't do this, do this instead at the least has a non-obvious agenda behind it imo. Net, thinking for yourself is a much better way to go I believe.

 

[nancyfrank232]

If we weren't supposed to eat meat, why do we have incisors?

With due respect, having canine teeth doesn’t automatically imply meat eating. Gorillas have them. And the largest canine teeth belong to hippos which are also herbivores

There are many arguments for eating meat, but humans having incisors is probably the weakest one. Which brings us to...

And why would it taste so good, especially bacon.

I’m not sure if this is an attempt at levity, but in case some people believe this... taste, used as a catalyst for encouraging addictive behaviour, has been shown to be easily manipulated/influenced by the food industry

 

[gerntz]

My problem with red meat is the environmental impact and the poor conditions the animals are raised in (and die in). All the cancer and nutrition stuff always sounded like hokum to me....

So does the environmental & animals conditions point.

 

[W2R]

Without discussing my eating habits I discount most any health findings anymore. I ask myself "who commissioned the study and for what purpose".

+1

I'll take my chances. I lost 53 pounds in 2018, while almost entirely immobile, and eating steak was a big help for me in that endeavor because it is so filling.

I plan to maintain a good, varied diet, including a variety of protein sources like steaks, chicken, fish, pork, shrimp, eggs, and so on despite what I read in the news.

(OK, you probably noticed no lamb mentioned. I simply despise lamb. )

 

[SunBlueSky]

+1

I'll take my chances. I lost 53 pounds in 2018, while almost entirely immobile, and eating steak was a big help for me in that endeavor because it is so filling.

I plan to maintain a good, varied diet, including a variety of protein sources like steaks, chicken, fish, pork, shrimp, eggs, and so on despite what I read in the news.

(OK, you probably noticed no lamb mentioned. I simply despise lamb. )

++1

I also lost weight two different times eating lots of steak and meat/fish along with limiting my carbs. Besides tasting good and being filling, the meat provides B12 which is a vital to health. Alas, during stressful times, I couldn't resist my addiction to carrot cake, ice cream, french bread with olive oil, rice and butter.....but I still enjoy a good steak (ribeye is my favorite).

 

[Dalmore]

Humans have eyes looking forward, and I'm sure it's for more than just girl-watching at the beach.

I think I need to do some research on this......

 

[6miths]

As I like to say, 'If you are what you eat, then you should eat what you are.' Er, ok well not exactly but you get the idea right. JERF! And pass the peameal!

 

[zinger1457]

Seems as if the lead author of the study referenced by the OP may not have come clean about past ties to the meat/food industry.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientist-discredited-meat-guidelines-didnt-133708562.html

A surprising new study challenged decades of nutrition advice and gave consumers the green light to eat more red and processed meat. But what the study didn’t say is that its lead author has past research ties to the meat and food industry.

 

[OldShooter]

Well, it's probably difficult to find a senior researcher for a food study who doesn't know anything about the subject. Virtually all professors that I know do consulting for industry. In some university systems it is considered a requirement, as a way to get the expertise of the university to the citizens who are paying for it. At the U of Minn there is a meat science professor whose job is to develop and maintain ties between the U and the ag industry.

Not that the affiliations should not be disclosed, but a snarky comment by an ignorant reporter is not very useful.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I think this goes a bit deeper than snarky comment -



"Dr. Johnston also indicated on a disclosure form that he did not have any conflicts of interest to report during the past three years. But as recently as December 2016 he was the senior author on a similar study that tried to discredit international health guidelines advising people to eat less sugar. That study, which also appeared in the Annals of Internal Medicine, was paid for by the International Life Sciences Institute, or ILSI, an industry trade group largely supported by agribusiness, food and pharmaceutical companies and whose members have included McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Cargill, one of the largest beef processors in North America. The industry group, founded by a top Coca-Cola executive four decades ago, has long been accused by the World Health Organization and others of trying to undermine public health recommendations to advance the interests of its corporate members."

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/04/...nes-didnt-report-past-food-industry-ties.html

 

[Ferd]

It's good to be at the top of the food chain.

 

[rk911]

food cops. coffee will kill you. oops, coffee is ok. eggs...eggs will kill you. ooops, wrong again. bah, humbug. moderation in all things.

 

[troutnut1]

It always seemed so obvious to me. If God didn’t want me eating animals, why would He make them out of meat?

 

[rk911]

It always seemed so obvious to me. If God didn’t want me eating animals, why would He make them out of meat?

and tasty!!

 

[Winemaker]

And he would have never have invented charcoal and hickory smoke! or bacon!

 

[Old Microbiologist]

Reading the panel's review doesn't surprise me at all that red meat has a low risk (meaning statistically insignificant) and that processed or unprocessed makes little difference. Personally, I enjoy meat and we eat red meat perhaps 3 times a week. We have chicken, duck, or fish otherwise (and when available Hungarian Turkeys are fantastic). In fact we have "cold smoked" salmon or salmon caviar every day not for health but because we like it. Here in Hungary, beef is actually not a normal part of the diet. Pork makes up the majority of Hungarian cuisine so that is what is available here. You can find beef but it is more expensive and extremely tough as all animals are free range here, including pork and chickens. They do not use any antibiotics or hormones in animal production at all so there is no contamination which is a major problem in the US. There are no GMO products permitted at al so none of the massive use of glyphosates and the resultant food contamination. As a side note what doctors in the US are diagnosing as gluten intolerance is actually glyphosate intolerance.

I looked into this in depth a while back regarding diet and cancer risk and cancer risk (particularly colon cancer) varies widely from ethnic cultures and diets. Part of the risk for colon cancer is more due to fecal transit times which has more to do with dietary fiber than meat. Meat itself is problematic as it slows digestion. When things slow down then anaerobic bacteria take over and their metabolic byproducts are what provide the carcinogens which increase risk of cancer. Now we know more about these things and it is the gut microbiome which is what pushes one towards cancer risk and this can be influenced positively by probiotic consumption. The gut microbiome is directly influenced by diet and can be easily modified. So, consuming appropriate amounts of dietary fiber coupled with probiotics then you can pretty much eat anything. But, you want to have fecal transit times in the 24 hour range. You can use the corn test to see what it is. Eat cooked corn kernels and see how long it takes to come out. It is a reliable way to see what your transit times are.

In my opinion the everything in moderation seems the right approach. We very rarely eat out at all and we both love to cook. My wife is an excellent cook (probably better than me although I am certainly quicker) and she loves to make fermented foods such as homemade sauerkraut and a Georgian dish of beets, carrots and cabbage. We also make Kimchi and I make my own yogurt from bacterial strains known for their beneficial effect.

We rotate cooking so I cook M-F and she cooks Sat and Sunday as she Day Trades and we are 6 hours ahead so it is during the dinner period. I make oriental American, French, German and Italian. She cooks Russian, Georgian, Azerbaijani, and Uzbek dishes so we have a very diverse diet. She also cooks Thai food as well and I make Chinese, Korean and Japanese dishes. It is tough to find the right ingredients but we make do or grow our own if necessary (cilantro is impossible to find in Hungary). We do have an herb garden which is well stocked.

The food quality was one of the main reasons we retired to Hungary and farming practices here are pretty much like they were back in the 1960's in the US. I think corporate farming practices in the US are a major evil of the American culture and are causing a great deal of misery in the American population. The loss in crop diversity and massive use of chemicals in production are having long term effects we are only now seeing.