Why We Should Not Eat Red Meat at Every Single Meal

Abstract

Right now, inside all of our bodies there is a complex ecosystem made up of bacteria. Often when we think of bacteria, we think of disease, but most bacteria are beneficial and are needed for maintaining our good health. Most of these bacteria live in the gut. Beneficial bacteria in our bodies contribute to our development and help combat the harmful bacteria that might make us sick. Therefore, if the bacterial ecosystem in the gut is out of balance and there are too many of the harmful bacteria, it might lead to certain intestinal diseases. We have studied how heme iron, a type of iron that is found in our blood and in red meat, disturbs the bacterial community in the gut, and ultimately how that affects gut health. We found that high consumption of dietary heme promotes the growth of harmful bacteria, while reducing the number of beneficial ones.