New study links red meat to faster cognitive decline
New study links red meat to faster cognitive decline
New study links red meat to faster cognitive decline
N=133,000 over 40 year time period
Observational study so limitations may apply but the findings do hold after adjusting for a large list of factors I will quote here:
educational attainments, family history of dementia, menopausal status with hormone use status, total energy intake, regular antidepressant drug use, history of depression, BMI, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, neighborhood SES [socioeconomic status], marital status, living arrangement, smoking status, histories of hypertension, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia and intakes of sugar-sweetened beverages, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, poultry, fish, eggs, nuts and legumes, low-fat dairy products, high-fat dairy products, and alcohol
Using the nurses study data. A food frequency questionnaire
Do you remember what you ate for lunch Monday? How about 5 years ago? That's what a food frequency questionnaire asks. This one counts a McDonald's big Mac meal with a bucket of coke as "red meat"
Garbage in/garbage out
As PSUD said, plus the question is what are we comparing against? Observational studies are comparing against people's FFQs filled in on a annual basis.... its not really a AB test of any measure.
Association is not causation!
a standard western diet is mostly poison anyway. Is meat bad in the context of lots of sugar and fructose? Probably. Are the people self reporting zero meat consumption also healthier eaters avoiding sugar and fructose? Probably. This is the healthy user confounder, a healthy person is following current advice and limiting sugar and meat already, this doesn't mean meat is bad. It might mean sugar is bad and people who ignore the meat advice (which is wrong imho) also ignore the sugar advice and have bad outcomes.
Without having full access to the paper (can't find it), I have to speculate, but did they control for sugar and fructose in their comparison groups? (probably not).
We run across these observational hit pieces pumped out every 2-3 months from the same FFQ observational studies, occasionally we get a meta analysis of observational studies to mix things up a bit.
Standard Anti-Meat response with references:
https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/red-meat
We have seen amazing work being published on the effect of ketones for NDDs (neurodegenerative diseases), which shows actual causation... not associative risk reduction.
A ketogenic diet includes carnivore, (keto) vegan, etc. For cognitive decline: sugar and insulin resistance are the real bell weathers of bad outcomes, not meat.
I'd love to see a paper comparing a PBF vs ASF ketogenic intervention in retirement homes on humans - then we could get science on the meat / plant debate. So far we have to settle with mice.
I recall last time I looked up the nurses study, they not only didn't control for sugar, they deliberately made it difficult to do. My favourite example is "hamburger". There is no category for fast food other than that and similar entries like "hotdogs". Hamburger is classed as red meat with no telling what else was in the meal; hotdogs is processed meat, again with no indication as to what is consumed with it
So maybe it's the bread wrapping the meat that was bad
Maybe it was the sauces
Maybe it was the french fries
Maybe it was the drink
Actually on a 5-yearly basis
Well, a big mac contains a beef burger, which is actually processed meat, which is known to increase the risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer's.
Known, thanks to the nurses study which doesn't control for healthy user bias, doesn't collect enough information to know whether the was meat in that burger
It may have been fish burgers
It may have been impossible burgers
It may have been vegeburgers
It may have been a large double whopper meal
Also it's not "known" it's correlated, the more times a week a person eats red meat for example "burgers" or processed meat for example "hotdogs" the note likely they're going to have some bad effects. I suspect it's the sugar that comes with the meat
It doesn't ask about fast food meals, it asks "burgers?"