On Tue, 14 Jul 1998, Brian Glass wrote:

> In looking through the Adventist Health Study, I discovered that they claim
> beef increases risk of heart disease.  I notice they did not attack all
> meat, or even just red meat, but resorted to picking on beef.
>
> I have been unable to find any research that proves this to be wrong.
> Does anyone else know of any studies that do?

No, but there seem to be a lot of variables to manage.  I suspect
that beef is subjected to more technological meddling than any
other meat.  During infancy, cows are inoculated and throughout
their lives they are given growth hormone.  I think they are
slaughtered at about 18 months, the last 6 months of which they
are fattened by a diet heavy in corn and/or soybeans, which
significantly alters the composition of their body fats,
especially the newer muscle fats that are deposited last during
the fattening process.

In short, cows are made fat and sick as quickly as possible, and
then we eat them.  I believe that most or all supermarket beef is
also treated with red dye, to give it a "fresh" appearance,
instead of the gray hue that it might otherwise have, depending
on its freshness.

It would not be exactly astonishing if it turned out that beef
is, as a result of human meddling, so far from its natural state
that it's no longer very good for us.  And these are only the
things that I can think of off the top of my head.  Maybe less
popular meats are safer just because there is less incentive to
interfere with them.

Todd Moody
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