Study Shows Eating Meat Extends Life Expectancy
Has eating meat become unfairly demonized as bad for your health ? That ’ s the question a global , multidisciplinary team of researchers has been studying and the results are in — eating meat still offers important benefits for overall human health and life expectancy .
Study author , University of Adelaide researcher in biomedicine , Dr . Wenpeng You says humans have evolved and thrived over millions of years because of their significant consumption of meat .
“ We wanted to look more closely at research that has thrown a negative spotlight on meat consumption in the human diet ,” You says . “ Looking only at correlations of meat consumption with people ’ s health or life expectancy within a particular group , and or , a particular region or country , can lead to complex and misleading conclusions . Our team broadly analyzed the correlations between meat eating and life expectancy , and child mortality , at global and regional levels , minimizing the study bias , and making our conclusion more representative of the general health effects of meat eating .”
Published in the International Journal of General Medicine , the study examined the overall health effects of total meat consumption in 170-plus countries around the world .
The researchers found that the consumption of energy from carbohydrate crops ( grains and tubers ) does not lead to greater life expectancy , and that total meat consumption correlates to greater life expectancy , independent of the competing effects of total calories intake , economic affluence , urban advantages and obesity .
“ While detrimental effects of meat consumption on human health have been found in some studies in the past , the methods and findings in these studies are controversial and circumstantial ,” You says .
Senior author of the study and University of Adelaide Emeritus Professor Maciej Henneberg says humans have adapted to meat-eating from the perspective of their more than two million years evolution .
“ Meat of small and large animals provided optimal nutrition to our ancestors who developed genetic , physiological and morphological adaptations to eating meat products and we have inherited those adaptations ,” Henneberg says .
But with the strong development of nutrition science and economic affluence , studies in some populations in developed countries have associated meat-free ( vegetarian and vegan ) diets with improved health .
“ I think we need to understand that this may not contradict the beneficial effect of meat consumption ,” nutritionist on the study Yanfei Ge says . “ Studies looking into the diets of wealthy , highly educated communities , are looking at people who have the purchasing power and the knowledge to select plantbased diets that access the full nutrients normally contained in meat . Essentially , they have replaced meat with all the same nutrition meat provides .”
Co-author and University of Adelaide biologist , Dr . Renata Henneberg says today meat is still a major food component in the diets of many people around the world . “ Before agriculture was introduced , 10,000 years ago , meat was a staple food in the human diet ,” she says .
“ Depending on which minor groups of people you study and which meat types you choose to consider , the measure of meat ’ s role in human health management may vary . However , when all meat types for all the populations are considered , as they are in this study , the positive correlation between meat consumption and overall health at a population level is not sporadic .”
Co-author , anthropologist at the University of Adelaide , and biologist at the Polish Academy of Science , Dr . Arthur Saniotis says the findings are in line with other studies that show cerealbased foods have lower nutritional value than meat .
“ While this is no surprise to many of us , it still needs to be pointed out ,” Saniotis says . It highlights that meat has its own components contributing to our overall health beyond just the number of calories consumed , and that without meat in our diet , we may not thrive .
“ Our take home message from the paper is that meat-eating is beneficial to human health provided that it is consumed in moderation and that the meat industry is conducted in an ethical way .”
Source : The University of Adelaide
64 • APRIL 2022