Meat, Saturated Fat, and Long Life
Mainstream health authorities have told us for decades that we should eat less meat, and replace it with carbohydrates, but are they right? Let’s take a look at the relation between meat, saturated fat, and long life.
Mainstream health authorities have told us for decades that we should eat less meat, and replace it with carbohydrates, but are they right? Let’s take a look at the relation between meat, saturated fat, and long life.
Hong Kong consumes more meat per person – both calorically and in weight – than any other nation. At 695 grams per day, people in Hong Kong eat 60% more meat than the next-highest meat eaters in New Zealand. (National Geographic)
Eat beef for a long, healthy life
For reference, Hong Kong consumes more meat per person (695 grams per day or about 1.5 pounds) than any other nation, with a life expectancy of 84.3 years, the world’s highest. Meanwhile, India has the second lowest per capita meat consumption in the world, and the average life expectancy is 68.3 years.
“Cardiovascular diseases are epidemic in India,” says Manga. “They accounted for 32% of adult deaths from 2010 to 2013. The figure for the U.S. is 23.4%.
For reference, Hong Kong consumes more meat per person (695 grams per day or about 1.5 pounds) than any other nation, with a life expectancy of 84.3 years, the world’s highest. Meanwhile, India has the second lowest per capita meat consumption in the world, and the average life expectancy is 68.3 years.
“Cardiovascular diseases are epidemic in India,” says Manga. “They accounted for 32% of adult deaths from 2010 to 2013. The figure for the U.S. is 23.4%.
Implications
- Red meat is a nutrient dense food providing important amounts of protein, essential amino acids, vitamins, and minerals that are the most common nutrient shortages in the world, including vitamin A, iron, and zinc.
- Despite claims by the World Health Organization (WHO) that eating processed meat causes colon cancer and red meat probably causes cancer, the observational data used to support the claims are weak, confounded by multiple unmeasured factors, and not supported by other types of research needed for such a conclusion. Although intervention studies are designed to test the validity of associations found in observational studies, two interventions of low-fat, low-meat diets in volunteers that failed to find a benefit on cancer were not considered in the WHO decision.
- It is likely that the association of red-meat consumption with colon cancer is explained either by an inability of epidemiology to detect such a small risk or by combinations of other factors such as greater overweight, less exercise, lower vegetable or dietary fiber intake, and perhaps other habits that differentiate those who eat the most meat from those who eat the least.
