Harvard study: Oops, Meat Eating is Bad!

A burger a day means health will decay, study says

"Are those worms?" "They would be microscopic if they were." "Oh yeah." Investigators in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate examine a sample of lab meat Nov. 30, 2005 in Koblenz, Germany. After several recent cases of illegal meat processing and selling of rotten meat [ammonia-treated "pink slime"] in different German states the health authorities are enforcing their food surveillance rules (Ralph Orlowski/Getty Image).

We know that red meat is high in saturated fats and is tied to many kinds of disease in humans. But a new Harvard study gets even more precise on the types and amounts of meat that cause harm.

Harvard researchers say that adding a small, three-ounce serving of processed red meat -- such as one sausage patty -- to our daily diet increases the risk of premature death by 20 percent.

Eating the same amount of unprocessed meat increases that risk by 13 percent. Scientists analyzed two dietary studies that surveyed 110,000 Americans over 28 years.

They have concluded that almost 10 percent of premature deaths could have been prevented by consuming less than half a serving of red meat per day [more prevention with even less consumption].

• Buddhism and meat eating
• Meat eating wastes massive amounts of water
• Cloned meat in the food supply
  
• Sexism, racism, and "carnism"

"We should move to a more plant-based diet," study co-author Dr. Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health told CBS News.

When red meat is replaced with [raw, soaked, rinsed] nuts, legumes, whole [unprocessed] foods or even other slaughtered animals like fish and birds or dairy, the risks decrease.

There are some criticisms of the study [by a desperate meat industry and paid spokespersons with dietician certifications on the line], centering on the difficulty of tracking individual diets accurately. Anyway, it could all be a 110,000 "coincidences" because correlation does not prove causation.

• Meat-loving, secretly Republican, albeit effeminate macho man Larry Mantle (SCPR.org/AirTalk) sits down with Harvard scientist An Pan, co-author of the study, who is a Research Fellow in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Using a crutch (like bad diet that keeps us tired, cancerous, munching on feelgood junkfoods, diabetic, obese, with "diabesity," dependent on chemical pharmaceuticals and blaming life) is no way to live. Nothing is more desirable than to be released from an affliction, but nothing more frightening than to be divested of a crutch (Ashish Tamhane).

• Animal Legal Defense Fund?