According to a recent analysis of nutrition research, you can enjoy one to two servings of unprocessed beef each day as part of a healthy diet.

The study was conducted by researchers at the Indiana University School of Public Health and funded by the National Cattleman’s Beef Association (NCBA).

Eating unprocessed beef was found not to increase risk factors for heart disease, challenging the conventional wisdom that red meat is linked to heart disease.

But the researchers said previous studies often based their findings on observation, meaning they analyzed participants’ diets, then found out what happened to their health and made connections between them.

Previous studies have typically measured the health effects of red meat by grouping all types of red meat together, from lamb chops to hot dogs, and concluded that people who eat more of it are more likely to develop diseases such as heart disease disease.

“Because of the differences between products in the ‘red meat’ category, study methods that group all red meats together may lead to overgeneralized findings,” said Kevin C. Maki, co-author of the study and an associate professor at the Indiana University School of Public Health. in the statement.

But in this study, researchers analyzed data from 20 randomized controlled trials—considered the gold standard of nutrition research—and looked specifically at what happened in the blood of people who ate more beef.

In Maki’s words, the researchers found that “results generally suggested that beef consumption had no adverse effects on traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease.”

Scientists attribute this to the fat balance in raw beef — namely, that it contains cholesterol-raising fats, but in lower amounts than cholesterol-lowering fats or neutral fats.

However, they did find that regular beef consumption was associated with a small increase in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (known as “bad” cholesterol) compared to eating no or little beef — but they attributed this primarily to one outlying study. .

This effect was also seen in people who ate an average of 5.7 ounces, or two servings, of beef per day, far more than the 1.6 ounces consumed by the average American adult.

“This research is a rigorous review of high-quality evidence that may be useful for providing accurate and reliable public health guidance about unprocessed beef in healthy diets,” Maki said. “Our findings suggest that beef can be enjoyed in a variety of heart-healthy diets.”

Overall, the study suggests that the negative health outcomes associated with red meat consumption may be a result of processed or ultra-processed meats — such as bacon, deli meats, hamburger patties, hot dogs and others — rather than unprocessed beef.

NCBA, which funded the study, is a supplier of the Beef Checkoff, which describes itself as “a national marketing and research program designed to increase demand for beef at home and abroad.”

NCBA stated that it was not involved in the study design, data collection, analysis or publication of this research.

The study was published this month in the journal Science Current developments in nutrition.

Link

Sanders, LM, Palacios, OM, Wilcox, ML, Maki, KC (2024). Beef consumption and cardiovascular disease risk factors: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials, Current developments in nutrition, 8(12): 104500. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cdnut.2024.104500