Unprocessed Red Meat and Processed Meat Consumption
Authors: Eric C. Westman
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine (2020)

Letters5 May 2020Unprocessed Red Meat and Processed Meat ConsumptionEric C. Westman, MD, MHSEric C. Westman, MD, MHSDuke University, Durham, North Carolina (E.C.W.)Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/L20-0122 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail TO THE EDITOR:I read Johnston and colleagues' guideline (1) with interest. Health guidelines that restrict red meat and saturated fat are based on epidemiologic research (2). However, when epidemiology has weak associations, evidence-based medicine regards it as a method to generate hypotheses but not to test them (3). Evidence-based medicine contends that the highest level of experimental evaluations of hypotheses (that is, randomized controlled trials [RCTs]) should be used to generate guidelines and assesses the data for clinical relevance. If principles of evidence-based medicine had been available years ago when guidelines restricting red meat and saturated fat were first ...References1. Johnston BC, Zeraatkar D, Han MA, et al. Unprocessed red meat and processed meat consumption: dietary guideline recommendations from the Nutritional Recommendations (NutriRECS) consortium. Ann Intern Med. 2019;71:756-764. [PMID: 31569235]. doi:10.7326/M19-1621 LinkGoogle Scholar2. Arnett DK, Blumenthal RS, Albert MA, et al. 2019 ACC/AHA guideline on the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease. A report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Clinical Practice Guidelines. Circulation. 2019;140:e596-e646. [PMID: 30879355] MedlineGoogle Scholar3. Haynes RB, Sackett DL, Guyatt GH, et al. Clinical Epidemiology. How to do Clinical Practice Research. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2005. Google Scholar4. Harcombe Z, Baker JS, DiNicolantonio JJ, et al. Evidence from randomised controlled trials does not support current dietary fat guidelines: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Open Heart. 2016;3:e000409. [PMID: 27547428] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar5. Obesity Medicine Association. 2020 obesity algorithm. Accessed at www.obesityalgorithm.org on 25 March 2020. Google Scholar6. Evert AB, Dennison M, Gardner CD, et al. Nutrition therapy for adults with diabetes or prediabetes. A consensus report. Diabetes Care. 2019;42:731-754. [PMID: 31000505] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: Duke University, Durham, North Carolina (E.C.W.)Disclosures: Disclosures can be viewed at www.acponline.org/authors/icmje/ConflictOfInterestForms.do?msNum=L20-0122. PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsSee AlsoUnprocessed Red Meat and Processed Meat Consumption: Dietary Guideline Recommendations From the Nutritional Recommendations (NutriRECS) Consortium Bradley C. Johnston , Dena Zeraatkar , Mi Ah Han , Robin W.M. Vernooij , Claudia Valli , Regina El Dib , Catherine Marshall , Patrick J. Stover , Susan Fairweather-Taitt , Grzegorz Wójcik , Faiz Bhatia , Russell de Souza , Carlos Brotons , Joerg J. Meerpohl , Chirag J. Patel , Benjamin Djulbegovic , Pablo Alonso-Coello , Malgorzata M. Bala , and Gordon H. Guyatt Unprocessed Red Meat and Processed Meat Consumption Richard M. Rosenfeld Unprocessed Red Meat and Processed Meat Consumption Yi Wan and Fenglei Wang Unprocessed Red Meat and Processed Meat Consumption Cynthia L. Gong , Nadine K. Zawadzki , Roy Zawadzki , Jeffrey Tran , and Joel W. Hay Unprocessed Red Meat and Processed Meat Consumption Bradley C. Johnston , Dena Zeraatkar , Robin W.M. Vernooij , Montserrat Rabassa , Regina El Dib , Claudia Valli , Mi Ah Han , Pablo Alonso-Coello , Malgorzata M. Bala , and Gordon H. Guyatt Unprocessed Red Meat and Processed Meat Consumption Daniel A. Meyer Metrics 5 May 2020Volume 172, Issue 9Page: 637KeywordsClinical trialsDisclosureEpidemiologyEvidence based medicineFatsMeat ePublished: 5 May 2020 Issue Published: 5 May 2020 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 2020 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF downloadLoading ...