No matter whether you eat meat or not, vegetables should always form a big part of any healthy diet. I've never seen any national or universal diet guidelines that aren't heavily based on vegetables and fruit. In the western world overconsumption of red meat especially processed one is a much bigger health challenge at the moment. WHO has even classified red meat as a group 2A carcinogenic, because it probably increases the likelihood of colorectal cancer. Processed meat is classified as group 1 carcinogenic meaning there is convincing evidence that it increases the likelihood of cancer. Reducing the consumption of red meat (especially processed) and increasing the intake of vegetables and fruit have a long list of health benefits on a population-level.
keyword "probably".
Lets get biochemical
99% of all current afflictions presumed to be caused by red meat, are in fact due to the fat in the meat. This is logical
0% of studies has been done on a large population who abstain from processed meats (criminally unhealthy) and specify to lean red meat.
This 99% accounts for all the cardiovascular diseases (colorectal cancer really is nothing in comparison looking at cases worldwide). The root cause is the exceptionally bad distribution of saturated, unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats in animal fat, as wel as the usage of hard butter/fat to cook them . This has a very bad impact on HD and LD cholesterol, as around 30% of all unsaturated fat intake is processed into cholesterol.
Colorectal cancer is a case which cannot be linked to fat but the meat itself. There are two key factors here however : genetic predisposition, and the fact that the meat is usually cooked in hard fats. Hard fats (very high % saturated) at high temperature are known carcinogens.
To date, not a single study has shown any bad impact of lead red meat, cooked with a minimalist amount of butter or none at all (grill) on the body.
There are two known cattles which provide extreme low fat meat.
- Belgisch witblauw (belgium)
- Piemonteese (turin, italy)
I'm average 5 kg of lean red meat per week, but have no genetic cases of colon cancer in the family. To support my girlfriend (who has colon cancer in her family so she has to have it checked each 3 years), i've done 2 colonoscopy's the past 6 years. Both came back entirely clean of polyps
Grand majority of people who do colonoscopy's after their 30's will at least have some kind of polyp( not neccecarely bad) removed.
Anecdotal evidence, yes. But fun nontheless