Focus on Meat, Lean and Fat

Talk about perfect timing.  Talk about irony.  First, we’re bombarded by news stories attacking the government’s purchase of “pink slime” (a highly processed, very lean beef product) for school lunches.  That whole hullaballoo was followed closely by the announcement of a large, impressive scientific study concluding that red meat can kill you before you have time to die from some less delicious cause.  As we have all been told, the more marbling (fat) the meat contains, the better it tastes and the more harmful it is. Now, the much-maligned but very lean “pink slime” is beginning to sound like a health food. Here are the details behind these two new stories.

Red Meat and Decreased Life Expectancy

On March 12, Harvard School of Public Health researchers announced the results of a 28-year study involving about 83,000 women and a 22-year study of about 37,000 men.  The results were not surprising. They strongly reinforced what we’ve been told before: red meat consumption is associated with a greater risk of mortality, from all causes, from cancer, and from cardiovascular conditions such as coronary heart disease and stroke.  

How much meat does it take to shorten your life?  Here’s the brutal answer straight from the HSPH press release on the study:  “One daily serving of unprocessed red meat (about the size of a deck of cards) was associated with a 13% increased risk of mortality, and one daily serving of processed red meat (one hot dog or two slices of bacon) was associated with a 20% increased risk.”  Why?  Blame the heme iron, saturated fat, sodium, nitrites, as well as the carcinogens formed during cooking.

To give this sad story a positive spin, look at it this way:  “Replacing one serving of total red meat with one serving of a healthy protein source was associated with a lower mortality risk: 7% for fish, 14% for poultry, 19% for nuts, 10% for legumes, 10% for low-fat dairy products, and 14% for whole grains. The researchers estimated that 9.3% of deaths in men and 7.6% in women could have been prevented at the end of the follow-up if all the participants had consumed less than 0.5 servings per day of red meat.”

A New York Times article on the study pointed out that people who ate more red meat tended to be less physically active, were more likely to smoke, and had a higher body mass index.  However, the researchers controlled for these and other variables.

The study was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Lean Beef Trimmings (a/k/a “Pink Slime”)

After enduring attacks by misinformed journalists and activist organizations, “pink slime” returned to prime time TV news again on March 15, when the USDA  (which still maintains that the product is safe) caved in a bit and announced its new “pink slime” policy: starting this fall, schools will be able to opt out of serving ground beef made with “pink slime.”  They can choose to use either regular lean ground beef or beef mixed with a small percentage of “pink slime.” According to the USDA, no more than 15% of each serving would consist of the processed lean beef trimmings. 

The government is waiting until the fall to initiate its new policy because it has already contracted to purchase millions of pounds of the processed product for the National School Lunch Program for this academic year.  Nationwide, the USDA purchases about 20% of the food served in schools, about 180 items.  Beef Product Inc.’s highly processed lean beef  was selected for purchase by the government  because the product is a low-cost and low fat item, an inexpensive source of healthy protein.   

For more details about “pink slime,” click here.

Source(s):

hsph.harvard.edu  “Red Meat Consumption Linked to Increased Risk of Total, Cardiovascular, and Cancer Mortality”
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/2012-releases/red-meat-cardiovascular-cancer-mortality.html

ncahslibraries.blogspot.com  “Red meat consumption and mortality”
http://ncahslibraries.blogspot.com/2012/03/red-meat-consumption-and-mortality.html

nytimes.com “Risks: More Red Meat, More Mortality”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/health/research/red-meat-linked-to-cancer-and-heart-disease.html

usatoday.com  “USDA: Schools can decide if ‘pink slime’ is used in lunches”
http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/story/2012-03-15/Schools-will-get-to-opt-out-of-pink-slime-beef/53544636/1

latimes.com  “USDA’s ‘pink slime’ choice: Kids can have additive or more fat”
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-pink-slime-usda-announcement-20120315,0,6500521.story