The impacts of lean red meat consumption on human health: a review

Abstract

Since the early 1980s, diverse epidemiological studies have been published with the propaganda that red meat is deleterious to human wellbeing, and could lead to health problems such as coronary heart disease, thrombosis, and cancer. These health issues were mainly related to the presence of saturated fatty acids at high levels in some cuts of red meat. Unfortunately, lean red meat was blemished in the same way, even though it contains very low levels of fat. Studies indicated that lean red meat does not increase the plasmatic lipid levels with regard to total cholesterol (TC), and low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C). In addition, diets containing lean red meat and lean white meat presented similar patterns of TC and LDL-C during both short and long-term studies. When compared with soy, lean red meat did not show the same levels of LDL-C reduction, but presented similar effects on the LDL-C : HDL-C ratio. Apparently, red meat fat and not meat per se is related to increased plasmatic lipid levels, and red meat trimmed of fat can be consumed without major effects to human health. To date, epidemiological studies relating the consumption of red meat to cancer and thrombosis have had contradictory results and further studies are needed.