Another day, another absurd debate about red meat

I’ve got to say — I’m 100 percent sick of the non-stop debate about meat and diabetes risk.

And it’s not that I don’t love a good debate! But this particular conversation is all wrong in so many ways.

Because yes, meat riddled with antibiotics and growth hormones from animals fattened on GMO corn IS a genuine food disaster. But those same meats are perfectly healthy when they come from livestock that are fully pasture-raised from start to finish.

I’ve talked about this topic a lot. (I even devoted a whole chapter to it in my latest book, The A-List Diet.) But apparently, I have to keep talking about it — because the misinformation about meat just keeps on making its rounds. It’s no wonder so many people are confused!

Case in point: the Singapore Chinese Healthy Study, which claims to have linked dark meat from poultry and red meat with type 2 diabetes — the more you eat, the higher your risk.

This study appeared recently in the American Journal of Epidemiology. And it showed that subjects with the highest consumption of either of these types of meat — in this case, about one serving daily — were anywhere from 15 percent to 23 percent more likely to wind up with diabetes.

One thing I think is critical to point out here is that Singapore is already grappling with some of the highest rates of diabetes in the world. I won’t suggest that there’s nothing behind this trend — but I strongly doubt meat has anything to do with it.

How much were these people exercising? How big were their portions? And were they eating fast food deep-fried in refined oils… or meals carefully prepared in a home kitchen? It would be nice if researchers thought to ask these extremely relevant questions before finding one food to demonize and calling it a day.

But if they’re going to focus on a single dietary villain at the expense of all others, I wish they would at least pick the one that’s ripe for full-court press demonization: SUGAR. Yet for some absurd reason, everybody just decided that it’s perfectly okay to dismiss this sinister anti-nutrient as “no big deal” in terms of health. And it’s so ironic that this dangerous substance is fed to children as young as one on their birthdays and regularly used as a beacon of celebration in many cultures.

Instead, with this one ridiculous and ill-conceived study, the authors are essentially telling Singaporeans they may be able to escape a diabetes diagnosis by avoiding steak — a food that, when raised properly, is chock full of disease-fighting fatty acids. This simply flabbergasts me. And it makes me want to fly to Singapore to knock some sense into whoever is spreading these unnecessary and damaging health myths. That is, if my hands weren’t already full with all the “alternative facts” and “fake news” floating around right here at home.

 

Source:

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/886006