I have only skimmed this paper. I’ll study it later but I already love it for the thoroughness and precision with which the authors approached the question. Their work demonstrates how important it is to be sceptical of one or, in many cases, even dozens of studies in which independent variables are examined against human health outcomes. Thanks also to the authors for paying to make the article open access. Many are unwilling to do so.
Red Meat & All Cause Mortality.pdf (719.7 KB)
I have now read this report more carefully.
My opinion is that the family of positive and negative associations between red meat and all cause mortality presented here is interesting and slightly surprising but that the implications of this analytic methodology for virtually a great many study outcomes, expressed here and throughout the literature on health and longevity, is groundbreaking.
The basic takeaway is, “We don’t know what we think we know because the data have not been analyzed on all possible ways.”
This study is definitely worth a careful read not to learn more about the impact of red meat but to see how tentative is all of what we believe to be true or likely true.