Research
Macro partitioning
Substituting red meat with fish or low-quality carbohydrates results in less favorable lipid changes compared to substituting with high-quality plant proteins.
If you replace red meat with fish or refined carbohydrates, you may not see the same cholesterol benefits as if you replaced it with plant proteins. While fish is better than red meat for LDL, plant proteins are the best option for improving lipid profiles.
GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
In comparison with fish, red meat yielded greater decreases in low-density lipoprotein... In comparison with carbohydrates, red meat yielded greater decreases in triglycerides.
Why this rating
Meta-analysis of 36 RCTs.
Source
Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials of Red Meat Consumption in Comparison With Various Comparison Diets on Cardiovascular Risk Factors
Marta Guasch‐Ferré et al. · Circulation · 2019
DOI 10.1161/circulationaha.118.035225
Meta-analysis · 36 studiesCited 297×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Substituting red meat with high-quality plant protein sources (legumes, soy, nuts) leads to more favorable changes in total and LDL cholesterol compared to red meat consumption.Good
- Red meat consumption does not significantly differ from various comparison diets combined in its effect on total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, apolipoproteins, or blood pressure.Good
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