The field of nutrition is littered with contradictory claims about what foods are good or bad for our health. Poor quality research, sometimes driven by commercial, political or religious motives, taken out of context to make catchy media headlines, is rife and makes for a very confusing picture. Of these, one of the most contentious areas is whether we should include meat in a healthy, balanced diet. So, in the first of this two-part series, let’s explore one of the main reasons cited for avoiding meat in the diet…. the thorny issue of saturated fat and heart disease.
The logic often espoused for not eating meat for health reasons is that meat is bad for us because it contains a high amount of saturated fat, which increases your ‘bad’ cholesterol, which in theory, increases your chance of heart disease. For decades, we have been told that fat is the key culprit in heart disease. Too much fat, we have been told, will send our cholesterol sky high, clog our arteries and send us to an early grave.
Does saturated fat really cause heart disease?
To understand the origins of this thinking and the basis of the low-fat-based healthy eating guidelines that have predominated since the 1970s, we need to rewind the clock to the 1950s and 60s. At this point, some key studies changed the way we have eaten ever since, and not necessarily for the better! It was an era when the US was seeing a huge rise in heart disease, and the hunt was on to discover what was driving that. One hypothesis that was pursued, called the diet-heart hypothesis (just a hypothesis, remember!), was that heart disease was caused by saturated fat in the diet driving up levels of cholesterol. What followed was a series of misleading studies that looked to prove the hypothesis (sometimes despite the evidence!) and a lot of political manoeuvring in the US…spurred on by the fact that Eisenhower had a heart attack whilst in office at that time! The result was that the low-fat diet became enshrined in public health policy in the US, with the UK not too far behind, despite a relative paucity of scientific evidence. The link between fat intake and heart disease was assumed to be a proven fact, and any conflicting evidence was largely suppressed. What has followed is decades of the vilification of saturated fat, and a drive to replace saturated fats with vegetable oils, sugar and starchy carbohydrates.
However, more recent forensic analysis of the original data, in combination with reviews of multiple studies carried out since, shows that there is no consistent link between saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet and an increased risk for heart disease. There are even studies showing quite clearly that reducing saturated fat is harmful to health. Contrary to what we have been led to believe for many years, research continues to confirm that heart disease is much more likely to be driven by inflammation than by high fat or cholesterol intake. Whilst several factors drive levels of inflammation, key dietary components that are seen to contribute are high levels of sugar, refined carbohydrates and processed vegetable oils.
This means that a low-fat diet containing inflammatory ingredients is actually more threatening to your heart (in fact, your health in general) than a diet high in fat – even saturated fat.
What does the research tell us about eating meat?
In line with this research, a series of meta-analyses published in 2019 concluded that evidence linking meat consumption to heart disease is of ‘low to very low certainty’. This is because much of the evidence about the effects of meat consumption is based on unreliable food frequency questionnaires and is beset by confounding variables. Typically, studies do not distinguish between meat from livestock that is intensively reared and fed high-grain diets, and livestock foraging on phytochemically rich mixtures of plants. Most do not distinguish between processed and unprocessed meat and cannot address the difference between meat eaten as part of a healthy diet and meat combined with less healthy foods.
Other recent research has also shown a lack of risk associated with meat consumption. In 2021, a study based on 135,000 people in eighteen countries found that higher unprocessed meat consumption was not significantly associated with cardiovascular disease. Another study in the Lancet in 2019, which looked at the risks associated with fifteen different aspects of diet, found that diets high in red meat came last in terms of being risks for long-term health outcomes. Moreover, there is evidence that eating some meat can be good for us and may even be protective against heart disease. A 2021 study with over 18,000 participants found that a Paleo diet (which promotes the consumption of fruit, nuts, vegetables, eggs, meat and fish) may have cardiovascular benefits, particularly in the context of low consumption of ultra-processed foods. In fact, in this study, those who ate the most red meat had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those who ate the least.
How should we include meat in our diet?
As with many foods, including meat in our diet is not inherently good or bad for us. It is about the overall context of our diet as a whole and the type of meat we are choosing. Meat is a nutrient-dense food that is a good source of high-quality protein, a range of fats and a wide variety of vitamins and minerals. Choosing unprocessed and high-quality meat will enhance the nutritional profile. For example, grass-fed meat typically contains higher levels of nutrients and omega-3 fatty acids, and benefits from more antioxidants, all of which contribute to reducing inflammation.
In combination with other whole foods, including a wide range of different plant foods – vegetables, fruits, herbs and spices, nuts and seeds – meat and fish can form the basis of a healthy, balanced diet that reduces inflammation and supports our overall health.
Finding our way through the myriad of conflicting information and health claims to make the right decisions about what to eat is, at best, tricky and, at worst, seemingly impossible. So, if you’re not sure of the right thing to do and are looking for more help, I’d love to support you to uncover the food and lifestyle choices that are right for you. Please use the link below to book in for a complimentary 30-minute Health & Energy review.