Does Red Meat Deserve Bad Press?
Red meat gets its fair share of bad press. An example is a recently published U.K.-based study, which assessed the relationship between meat eating and breast cancer. “Red meat ups breast cancer risk” was the way this study was headlined in the media. The brevity of such titles usually does not tell the full story, so I decided to take a closer look at the study and its findings. Researchers at the University of Leeds assessed the diets and risk of breast cancer in almost 34,000 pre- and postmenopausal women over an eight years period [1]. Meat consumption and risk of breast cancer was assessed in all women. The researchers also provided separate data for premenopausal and postmenopausal women. This distinction turned out to be important, because the results in premenopausal and postmenopausal women were very different indeed. For instance, high total meat consumption (defined as more than 103 grams (about 3 and a half ounces) of meat a day) in premenopausal women was associated with a
