Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday October 02 2019, @07:57AM   Printer-friendly
from the medium-rare-please dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

No need to cut down red and processed meat, study says

Most people can continue to eat red and processed meat as they do now. A major study led by researchers at McMaster and Dalhousie universities has found cutting back has little impact on health.

A panel of international scientists systematically reviewed the evidence and have recommended that most adults should continue to eat their current levels of red and processed meat.

The researchers performed four systematic reviews focused on randomized controlled trials and observational studies looking at the impact of red meat and processed meat consumption on cardiometabolic and cancer outcomes.

In one review of 12 trials with 54,000 people, the researchers did not find statistically significant or an important association between meat consumption and the risk of heart disease, diabetes or cancer.

In three systematic reviews of cohort studies following millions of people, a very small reduction in risk among those who had three fewer servings of red or processed meat a week, but the association was uncertain.

The authors also did a fifth systematic review looking at people's attitudes and health-related values around eating red and processed meats. They found people eat meat because they see it as healthy, they like the taste and they are reluctant to change their diet.

The five systematic reviews, a recommendation and an editorial on the topic were published in the Annals of Internal Medicine today.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Wednesday October 02 2019, @08:36AM (9 children)

    by acid andy (1683) on Wednesday October 02 2019, @08:36AM (#901748) Homepage Journal

    There is no ethical problem IMHO with requiring the death of an individual to feed another.

    Well death comes to all living organisms eventually, so why not wait until they die naturally before consuming them? If you're worried about an infectious disease being the cause of death, an autopsy could be performed, or you could consider that there's no guarantee the animal is disease free when it's brought to a premature end.

    I also submit that except for humans living in inhospitable and inaccessible regions of the globe, the death of an animal isn't strictly required to feed the human, more desired than required, since the human certainly could survive on plant matter.

    Your other points I quite agree with.

    --
    If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by choose another one on Wednesday October 02 2019, @09:13AM (3 children)

    by choose another one (515) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 02 2019, @09:13AM (#901762)

    Well death comes to all living organisms eventually, so why not wait until they die naturally before consuming them? If you're worried about an infectious disease being the cause of death, an autopsy could be performed, or you could consider that there's no guarantee the animal is disease free when it's brought to a premature end.

    There's no guarantee of anything beyond death and taxes. There is, however, a lot you can do, or not do, to make certain outcomes less likely (which is, after all, what this article was about). In some cases there are very good reasons, based on sound science and statistics, for excluding older animals from the human food chain. In fact in most cases if an animal has died before we kill it, it cannot legally go for meat, period.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by FatPhil on Wednesday October 02 2019, @11:49AM

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Wednesday October 02 2019, @11:49AM (#901786) Homepage
      > died before we kill it

      That's the name of my Goth band.
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Wednesday October 02 2019, @06:42PM (1 child)

      by acid andy (1683) on Wednesday October 02 2019, @06:42PM (#901982) Homepage Journal

      In fact in most cases if an animal has died before we kill it, it cannot legally go for meat, period.

      More's the pity. One technique that circumvents the disease worry is that of living on roadkill. I approve of the humans adopting that philosophy. Also on that subject I have to say that many instances of roadkill could and indeed should have been avoided to begin with.

      --
      If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
      • (Score: 2) by choose another one on Thursday October 03 2019, @09:12AM

        by choose another one (515) Subscriber Badge on Thursday October 03 2019, @09:12AM (#902209)

        Trauma deaths are one of the exceptions - practically if not legally.

        Trouble with road kill is usually the damage and low quality as a result, but adopting it as a philosophy has other issues, the main one being there wouldn't be enough to go round (as well as the one about if we get better at avoiding it and thereby saving animals, we wouldn't have any to eat).

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday October 02 2019, @01:26PM (3 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday October 02 2019, @01:26PM (#901820)

    why not wait until they die naturally

    Define naturally?

    In nature, most animals (and plants) die of disease or predation. Ecosystems naturally fill up, and once full there is no place for the weak, infirm, or unlucky to "live out their days."

    The pardoned turkeys living in Gobblers Rest, VA, are artificially protected. Naturally, they'd be bobcat or coyote food.

    Humans are, by classification, animals, and before agrarian culture, we lived and died like the animals, naturally.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Wednesday October 02 2019, @06:35PM (2 children)

      by acid andy (1683) on Wednesday October 02 2019, @06:35PM (#901977) Homepage Journal

      In nature, most animals (and plants) die of disease or predation. Ecosystems naturally fill up, and once full there is no place for the weak, infirm, or unlucky to "live out their days."

      True, but in the context of TFA we're typically talking about so-called "livestock" raised by the farming industry where humans usually choose the time and means of the animal's demise and unlike other predators, we much more fully understand the implications of these choices.

      --
      If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
      • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday October 02 2019, @07:46PM

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday October 02 2019, @07:46PM (#901995)

        so-called "livestock" raised by the farming industry

        Seems like they would be better named the "walking dead stock..."

        We "used" research animals sourced from an Oscar Meyer farm. Wax eloquent all you want about the rights of the poor little smart piglets, we took them out of the farm early, treated them well for one to 5 days, then gave them an injection that they (usually, and ideally) never woke up from. Still, the Friday piglet was usually pretty much of a basket case, having noticed his four friends leave one by one and never return.

        Temple Grandin tried (and to a degree succeeded) to bring a little "humanity" into the beef processing industry, more or less by putting the thought process into the perspective of the animals and designing the process to be as comfortable for them as practically possible. You know, basic empathy, something that centuries of "cow pokes" apparently lacked in abundance.

        --
        🌻🌻 [google.com]
      • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday October 02 2019, @07:54PM

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday October 02 2019, @07:54PM (#902000)

        As for:

        humans usually choose the time and means of the animal's demise and unlike other predators, we much more fully understand the implications of these choices.

        Other predators' behaviors have evolved to maximize their chances of procreation/survival, and this often includes a degree of restraint when hunting prey.

        Humans have mostly devolved into the pursuit of the holy dollar, utilizing their high school math educations to find the maximal profit point for harvest. Time is money, meat is money, grow the most meat in the shortest time to maximize your profit, simple enough that even Bubba gets it. Lately some college kids have been breeding for optimal performance in the hog and chicken sheds, selecting and refining the breeds, pumping the antibiotics and the steroids until the meat (particularly chicken and pork, but also beef) you buy in the market today grows insanely large and fast as compared to the ancestor farm animals of 60-70 years ago.

        I can't imagine a reality where change this rapid and radical can completely lack negative consequences.

        --
        🌻🌻 [google.com]
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Wednesday October 02 2019, @04:11PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 02 2019, @04:11PM (#901908) Journal

    why not wait until they die naturally before consuming them?

    In God Money We Trust.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.