Refutation of the horror story

Red and processed meat is not harmful to health

Polina Gershberg, Naked Science

Four meta-analyses, which collected data on six million people, did not confirm the link between eating red and processed meat and mortality from all causes, as well as the risk of cancer. An article about this is published in the Annals of Internal Medicine (Han et al., Reduction of Red and Processed Meat Intake and Cancer Mortality and Incident: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Cohort Studies).

Four years ago, experts from the International Agency for the Fight against Cancer conducted a large-scale study that showed that a portion of 50 grams of processed meat daily increases the risk of developing rectal cancer by 18 percent. A relationship was also found between the consumption of processed meat and the incidence of other types of cancer.

(Upon careful analysis of the data not taken out of context, it turned out that this danger is greatly exaggerated – VM).

Based on this study conducted in 10 countries, processed meat was ranked among the group of confirmed carcinogens. At the same time, oncologists attributed red meat to possible carcinogens. However, many other studies have not found any correlation between meat consumption and cancer.

To determine the harm of meat to humans and its carcinogenicity, scientists from eight countries have created a research consortium NutriRECS. The researchers analyzed an array of articles on the effects of red and processed meat.

The articles were taken from four different bibliographic databases starting from the moment of the appearance of these databases and up to and including July 2018. Scientists attributed smoked, salted and dried meat, as well as meat products with the addition of preservatives and a shelf life of at least six months to processed meat. During the analysis, scientists did not find a statistically significant correlation between meat consumption and the development of cancer, cardiovascular and other diseases.

Complete or partial rejection of these types of meat can slightly (by a few fractions of a percent) reduce the risk of tumors. Based on the results of the meta-analysis, the researchers recommended that everyone consume red and processed meat, if it does not contradict their ethical views.

The authors of the work, however, note that the behavior of the subjects could affect the results. Scientists do not exclude the possibility that people could tell scientists lies about their diet because of a desire to give socially acceptable answers or simply forgetting about some details.

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