The Times

Chris Smyth, Health Editor, Munich

Gerry Gajadharsingh writes:

 “Actually, red meat nor cheese have never been off my diet, nor from the advice I give to the many of my patients, but not all.We continue to see patients still following very outdated advice and following low fat diets, this is now at least 20 years out of date and needs to be ditched. Maybe this article might persuade them, or maybe not, it’s hard to change entrenched beliefs.

This study, looking at 218,000 people, backs up increasing evidence that saturated fat is not the demon that it was once thought to be and that refined carbohydrates seem to be the bigger worry. This is not new news but it’s great to see such a large main stream study helping us make sense what we at Metabolic Balance have been saying for at least a decade.

The researchers in the article below give very sensible advice: They said that eating a varied diet of unprocessed food with everything in moderation was likely to be a better way to protect health than obsessing about individual nutrients.

The healthy eaters had about twice as much dairy produce and meat than is recommended by UK guidelines, which recently reduced limits for dairy.

Following on from my recent blog about Jordan Peterson, who now apparently only eats meat, this provides good evidence that meat is actually good for the majority of the population. BUT as I have said in previous blogs, our physiologies are unique and there will be some people where too much meat and dairy may not be helpful for them or their particular health conditions. I tend to prefer sheep’s yoghurt and sheep and goat’s cheese rather than cows’ diary products, as patients seem to tolerate them better. Whilst I believe meat is important, in order to vary our diets, I tend to recommend red meat about 3 to 4 times a week, choosing other dietary proteins including vegetable proteins to make sure we get a full array of essential amino acids and other nutrients in our diets to keep us healthy.

Eating red meat and cheese every day can help to cut the risk of early death by a quarter, according to a global study that challenges conventional health advice.

The healthiest diet included three daily servings of dairy products and one and a half of meat, according to the findings, which suggest that the real danger comes from sugar and white bread.

Most healthy eating guidelines have urged people to cut down on fat, particularly saturated fat from animal products. However, after studying data on more than 218,000 people in 50 countries, Canadian researchers have added to recent evidence that refined carbohydrates are the bigger worry.

They said that eating a varied diet of unprocessed food with everything in moderation was likely to be a better way to protect health than obsessing about individual nutrients.

Their previous data, from 138,500 people around the world, had suggested that low-fat diets were unhealthy, and researchers used those results to come up with a healthy diet score, which they then tested on three further sets of data involving almost 80,000 people.

The fifth of people with the healthiest diet were 25 per cent less likely to die during eight years of follow-up and 22 per cent less likely to have a heart attack than the fifth with the least healthy diet, after accounting for wealth, education and other health habits. On average the healthy diet included more than eight portions of fruit and vegetables a day, two and a half portions of nuts and beans, a serving and a half of meat and three portions of dairy, equivalent to a glass of milk, 60g (2oz) of cheese and a small pot of yoghurt.

“Our findings on full-fat dairy and unprocessed red meat do challenge conventional thinking,” said Andrew Mente of McMaster University, Ontario, who presented the findings at the European Society of Cardiology congress in Munich. He added: “The current recommendations are based mainly on work that was done two or three decades ago.”

People with the healthiest diet got about half their calories from carbohydrates, while those with the least healthy diet got two thirds. “That’s not fruit and vegetables, it’s starchy refined grains and added sugar,” Dr Mente said.

The healthy eaters had about twice as much dairy produce and meat than is recommended by UK guidelines, which recently reduced limits for dairy.

Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Meat and dairy can contribute to a healthy, balanced diet as long as they’re eaten in moderation along with plenty of fruits and vegetables, pulses, wholegrains and nuts.”

Louis Levy, of Public Health England, said: “While we agree that dairy plays a role in a healthy diet, too much can lead to high levels of saturated fat and salt increasing our risk of heart disease.”

A separate study by Maciej Banach of the Medical University of Lodz on 24,000 people found that those who ate cheese regularly were 8 per cent less likely to die over six years.