In an address to the fellow researchers at the European Society of Cardiology conference in Munich, Germany, Dr. Andrew Mente of McMaster University declared that Red Meat and Dairy products can be part of a healthy diet. In fact, he said, they can apparently help you live longer…
Beef Wellington: Like all Red Meats and Dairy, good for you in moderation,
not so good when you ban them from your diet completely.
Mente reported the findings of a study of over 218,000 subjects from 52 countries which showed that a moderate amount of Red Meat and Dairy in your diet can actually reduce your risk or early death by 25 percent and heart attack by 22 percent.
“Our findings on full-fat dairy and unprocessed red meat do challenge conventional thinking,” Mente conceded. “This differs from current dietary advice.”
Nevertheless…
Official healthy eating guidelines recommend eating no more than 70 g of Red Meat per day. But Mente and his team conclude that those who consumed 120 g of Red Meat daily scored best on longevity and cardio health. Mente said his study did not look at the effects of eating more than 120 g of Red Meat per day, so he had no comment on what benefits or drawbacks a high-Meat diet might have.
On the Dairy side, current official guidelines recommend two servings of Dairy (Cheese, Butter, Full-fat Yogurt,. etc.) per day. But the McMaster study indicates that three servings may be more beneficial.
Carbs vs. Protein…
Mente and his team also note that people, left to their own devices, will often go heavier on Carbs and Sugars if they are warned away from Red Meats and Butter. And the researchers caution that Sugar and White Bread are more harmful than Meat and Cheese, especially in high ‘doses’.
My Take…
I’m not surprised top see this new appreciation of the value of Meat and Dairy in our daily diet. After all, this year alone we’ve seen several foods and ingredients that were formerly excoriated as unhealthy – even deadly – if enjoyed over one’s lifetime exonerated by new research that looked at huge numbers of subjects over long periods of time…
Take MSG, for instance. For years, the indispensable ingredient in Asian cookery was condemned as a potentially deadly source of ‘hidden’ Sodium. It was blamed for what folks called ‘MSG Headaches’. There was much talk about the ‘Chinese Food Syndrome’ and ‘MSG Allergy’. Now it appears MSG’s reputation is being rehabilitated by new research and changing attitudes among so-called ‘taste makers’ in the media.
Then there was the recent finding that Low-Carb dierts are actually unsafe and are associated with dramatically increased risk of heart attack, stroke and some cancers. In concert with that finding was the news that Pasta doesn’t make you fat. In moderation.
A unifying factor…
And there lies the unifying factor in all these studies and research findings: moderation. As TV cooking show pioneer and renowned French Chef Julia Child liked to remind us, “Moderation in all things. Including moderation.”
And that’s really just an advertisement for a varied and balanced diet. Like the Mediterranean Diet, which keeps popping up these days in name or description in many food and nutrition stories. In fact, one study released earlier this year showed that folks left to eat what they wanted, when they wanted to actually ranked better on basic health scores than those who adopted various popular diets.
It comes down to this: Use your common sense when choosing and portioning your food. And include a good variety of foods in your diet.
~ Maggie J.