Is Red meat bad for your health?

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RobertReny

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Jun 14, 2019
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Beef offers high amounts of protein per serving, but researchers say that eating too much red meat, such as bacon and hot dogs, has been linked to health issues. Can you guys suggest any alternative for beef.

I personally love beef
 
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My personal belief is that anything in moderation is OK.
But in my opinion exercise is the key to longevity.
I have exercised every day of my life & am 73 years old with no health problems.
However for 25 of those 73 years I was a vegetarian, and even now I eat a mostly vegetarian diet. But I do like an occasional steak or a rack of ribs. And my all time favorite breakfast is bacon & eggs cooked in the bacon grease.
Al
 
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My philosophy is that if you've reached your allotted "four score and ten" years everything else is bonus time and you can eat anything you want in any quantities you want. My wife, of course, thinks otherwise and she keeps the keys to the larder. So I come to this site to dream and drool.
 
Red meat is not bad for you...it's the green stuff you should be worried about. As others have said everything in moderation. Drinking too much water will kill you. Besides, if God didn't intend for us to eat meat then why did he make it taste so good???

Barry.
 
they say there's an increased risk "associated" with red meat, but if you look at the numbers in perspective you'll see that it's not much of an increase. for example, assume the lifetime risk of getting colorectal cancer is 5% and a 17% increase risk of cancer due to red meat, that increases your overall lifetime risk to 5.85%. people see sensational headlines that say "17% increased risk of cancer due to red meat" and start freaking out.

WHO's website says:
https://www.who.int/features/qa/cancer-red-meat/en/
"The consumption of processed meat was associated with small increases in the risk of cancer in the studies reviewed. In those studies, the risk generally increased with the amount of meat consumed. An analysis of data from 10 studies estimated that every 50 gram portion of processed meat eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by about 18%.
The cancer risk related to the consumption of red meat is more difficult to estimate because the evidence that red meat causes cancer is not as strong. However, if the association of red meat and colorectal cancer were proven to be causal, data from the same studies suggest that the risk of colorectal cancer could increase by 17% for every 100 gram portion of red meat eaten daily."

american cancer society on the overall risk of getting colorectal cancer:
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/colon-rectal-cancer/about/key-statistics.html
"Overall, the lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer is: about 1 in 22 (4.49%) for men and 1 in 24 (4.15%) for women. This risk is slightly lower in women than in men. A number of other factors (described in Colorectal Cancer Risk Factors) can also affect your risk for developing colorectal cancer."
 
There are too darned many people who develop all sorts of phobias about foods based on incomplete and misleading news articles. Eating should be an enjoyable, pleasurable experience, but I now know far too many people who obsess about what they eat, and often don't really enjoy mealtime like they used to.

If vegetarians were really that much more healthy, and if they really lived a lot longer, we'd see this in our own daily experience, much like many of us have seen the effects of tobacco smoking over the years. The easy and obvious observation from sixty-six years of living is that tobacco makes people die early, and makes them unhealthy while they are living. Using those same observational tools shows me that red meat does not do either of these things.

I will also add that because my dad started reading Adelle Davis (original health food guru) in the late 1950s I got introduced to health food stores very early in life. My experience then, as well as now, is some of the least healthy people I know are those who get their head turned around by some of these news stories and then start pursuing strange diets in order to get healthier. You see them in the health food stores, and they are usually don't look robust.

The problem is that most of these diets -- including most vegetarian diets -- are woefully lacking in critical nutrients. As one example, it is quite common for vegetarians to be deficient in various B vitamins, something that is plentiful in meat.

Vegetarian Vitamin B Deficiency

So, follow SmokinAl's advice (he's always right) and get as much exercise as your health allows, but don't spend a second worrying about whether you are eating too much of this or that.
 
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My personal belief is that a lot of cancers come from processed foods, preservatives, environmental contaminants and carcinogenic chemicals that are introduced into our bodies by eating, drinking and absorption.

Things like deodorants, detergents and sprays that are absorbed daily.

I think grinding your own red meat into a burger is inherently more healthier than buying a frozen meal.

Everything in moderation.
 
Bacon and hot dogs aren't exactly a prime example of what constitutes red meat since they are processed meats. For beef, there are plenty of lean cuts like sirloin, top and bottom round, and eye of round if you are concerned about saturated fat.

However, since you aksed about alternatives to beef, you should then consider fish, chicken, and turkey,

And as everyone above has stated, moderation is key.
Keep in mind, life is full of risks. How we manage those risks determines the outcome.
 
Keep in mind, life is full of risks. How we manage those risks determines the outcome.

I like that. Sometimes there's just no rhyme or reason for why things happen the way they do in life.

There's people who are health conscious that pass away from heart attacks, strokes and cancer...and there's stories of people who ate crappy, drank and smoked their way into their 90s.

Life is too short and we get one ride on this merry-go-round...so enjoy what you can, when you can...in moderation.
 
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Three days ago my neighbor across the street from us walked up his driveway to walk his poodle and proceeded to drop dead in front of our house from a massive coronary.

I don't know if he ate red meat or not, but I do know that he was internationally known for a totally bizarre diet and regime which his grandfather had discovered that he claimed was the ultimate cure for all types of cancer. Back when his grandfather promoted the diet, he managed to get very well-known people, like Albert Schweitzer, to sign up for it.

He was a nice enough guy, but it was pure quackery and it made a LOT of people quite ill, much like many of these crazy food fads do.

We're all going to check out, sooner rather than later, and whatever gets each of us will almost certainly not be from eating a hamburger once a month.
 
like mentioned above the alternatives, leaner non processed meats, chicken fish, turkey and I hate to say it but tofu (if i'm saying it right) again like mentioned I think a hotdog or two once in a while isn't going to hurt you. Nothing against vegetarians but if humans were designed to just eat plants our teeth would be more designed like cows we wouldn't have the cutters, rippers and crushers
 
there are studies now saying white meat is just as bad as red meat. here's a short video about fat, i think it's a good example of how studies on food/diet can be flawed:
 
According to the great state of California damned near everything is a cancer-causing carcinogen.
According to USDA guidelines and their food pyramid...
According to...
According to...
According to...

Butter was evil, margarine was good...
I never did believe that one.

Alcohol is bad for you but red wine is good...
You can't have it both ways.

There will be no more polar ice caps or glaciers by the year...
Global warming/climate change is settled science.

Guns kill people...
No, people kill people.

If the government or an agenda driven organization is trying to tell you what to do, or what's good for you...
Be very suspicious

Friends...
Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we may die.
 
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My great grandpa had bacon and eggs every morning, likely some kind of some kind of sandwich for lunch, beef/chicken/pork for dinner with, and more often than not either fried potatoes or mashed with gravy. He also smoked a pipe and I believe he chewed tobacco also. The old man lived to be like 96 years old, and when he passed this was probably 25ish years ago. Well before the life expectancy was as high as it is now.

In my opinion it's all about moderation and quality. He ate good food, but he didn't gorge himself, and he didn't eat crappy fast food very often.
 
Not to mention coffee which is, isn't, is, isn't healthy. Oops what iteration am I on?

PS Encourage the vegetarians and vegans, it will increase the supply and drive prices lower!
 
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