Push for vegan diets based on bad data, report claims

MAJOR studies recommending plantbased diets as healthier are based on bad data and flawed assumptions, a leading academic has said.

The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study, which was published in 2020, found nearly 900,000 deaths worldwide in 2019 were caused by the consumption of red meat, making it the fifth leading dietary risk factor.

However, the study underestimated the importance of it being easier for bodies to take in proteins and micronutrients from meat than plant-based food, a new report suggests. It also states that the diet described in the Eat-lancet Commission on Food, Planet and Health’s first report, published in January 2019, would not meet nutritional requirements for adults.

Researchers argue that unprocessed red meat delivers most of the vitamin B12 intake in human diets and has a major role in delivering other minerals, as well as important compounds for metabolism such as taurine and creatine.

The NHS advises that red meat – beef, lamb and pork – is a good source of protein and can form part of a balanced diet though it warns eating more than 90g daily can raise the risk of bowel cancer.

The latest report’s author, Prof Alice Stanton of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, told The Telegraph: “There are a number of very influential groups who have published reports which indicate animal source foods, particularly red meat, cause ... heart attacks, strokes and cancers.”

She said they have “a huge influence on policymakers on heading towards an almost completely plant-based diet” but some of the recommended plantbased diets would cause nutritional deficiencies including anaemia, especially in the young and elderly.

Evidence around whether excessive consumption of red meat causes strokes, cancers and heart conditions was “extremely uncertain” and “shouldn’t be used to guide policy decisions”, Prof Stanton warned.

She said original versions of earlier, flawed reports have not been corrected and are still influencing diet recommendations from international bodies.

Published in the npj Science of Food journal, the new report states the GBD study was based on a faulty assumption by not taking into account the contribution of moderate consumption towards nutrient adequacy. GBD collaborators have confirmed the error will be changed in later reports but no corrections have yet been made.

More recently, the body said the optimal daily intake of red meat could be as high as 200g.