Research
Mixed
Consuming an additional daily serving of unprocessed or processed red meat is associated with significantly increased risk of mortality, coronary heart disease, type II diabetes, stroke, and colorectal cancer, and has the highest environmental impact.
Limit or eliminate daily consumption of unprocessed and processed red meat. This is linked to higher risks of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer, and early death, as well as the highest environmental impact. Replace with plant-based proteins like legumes, nuts, or whole grains.
StrongRefutesHIGH confidence
Consumption of unprocessed and processed red meat is associated with significant increases in disease risk for all 5 health outcomes examined here... Producing a serving of unprocessed red meat has the highest impact for all 5 environmental indicators
Why this rating
Based on 19 dose-response meta-analyses and life cycle assessments.
Source
Multiple health and environmental impacts of foods
Michael Clark et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2019
DOI 10.1073/pnas.1906908116
Meta-analysis · 19 studiesCited 826×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Consuming an additional daily serving of minimally processed plant-based foods (whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, olive oil) is associated with significantly reduced risk of mortality and chronic diseases (CHD, diabetes, stroke, colorectal cancer) and has among the lowest environmental impacts.Strong
- Consuming an additional daily serving of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) is associated with significantly increased risk of coronary heart disease, type II diabetes, and stroke, but has among the lowest environmental impacts.Good
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This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →