Research

Mixed

Increasing red meat consumption by at least half a serving per day over an eight-year period is associated with a 10% higher risk of all-cause mortality in the subsequent eight years, with processed meat showing a stronger association (13% higher risk) than unprocessed meat (9% higher risk).

If you are currently eating red meat, try to avoid increasing your intake by more than half a serving per day over time. If you do increase it, be aware that your risk of death increases, especially if it is processed meat. Simply reducing red meat without replacing it with healthier options may not lower your mortality risk; instead, focus on replacing red meat with healthier protein sources like nuts, fish, or legumes, or whole grains and vegetables.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
An increase in total red meat consumption of at least half a serving per day was associated with a 10% higher mortality risk (pooled hazard ratio 1.10, 95% confidence interval 1.04 to 1.17). For processed and unprocessed red meat consumption, an increase of at least half a serving per day was associated with a 13% higher mortality risk (1.13, 1.04 to 1.23) and a 9% higher mortality risk (1.09, 1.02 to 1.17), respectively.
Yan Zheng et al. · BMJ · 2019

Why this rating

Large prospective cohort studies (NHS and HPFS) with repeated measures and long follow-up, though observational design limits causal inference.

Source

Association of changes in red meat consumption with total and cause specific mortality among US women and men: two prospective cohort studies

Yan Zheng et al. · BMJ · 2019

DOI 10.1136/bmj.l2110

cohort · n=81469Cited 212×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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