Red meat consumption is linked to higher risk of death from most major causes

Eating red meat increases the likelihood of dying from most major causes while eating white meat instead reduces the risk, a cohort study of more than half a million people published in The BMJ suggests.1

The chances of dying from cancer, heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, diabetes, infections, kidney disease, or liver disease all increased in line with red meat consumption. The only protective effect of eating red meat was on the risk of dying from Alzheimer’s disease, although the researchers said that it was difficult to draw conclusions from this finding because of the complicated relation between diet and dementia.

The strongest association with red meat …