For many decades, food scientists have gone back and forth on what is good for you and what is not.

At one time eggs were bad for you, then they weren’t. Then egg yolks were bad for you, then they were good. One time butter was bad for you, now it isn’t (assuming you actually have good butter) and margarine was once good for you, and that has since changed.

This is the case for red meat as well. For years, it has been said that eating too much red meat and processed meats is one of the leading causes of heart disease and cancer.

Now, after a large study in which many researchers worked together, it is being said that this idea is not in fact based on good scientific facts.

According to the New York Times,

“The certainty of evidence for these risk reductions was low to very low,” said Bradley Johnston, an epidemiologist at Dalhousie University in Canada and leader of the group publishing the new research in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The new analyses are among the largest such evaluations ever attempted and may influence future dietary recommendations. In many ways, they raise uncomfortable questions about dietary advice and nutritional research, and what sort of standards these studies should be held to.

Already they have been met with fierce criticism by public health researchers. The American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and other groups have savaged the findings and the journal that published them.

Americans are eating an average of 4.5 servings of red meat per week according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To me, this suggests that most people are likely eating about 2 servings of red meat twice per week. One serving of red meat is about 3 ounces, so two servings in one day would be something along the lines of a medium-sized hamburger or a steak.

Also, consider this is factoring in people who are eating more vegetables against those who eat more meat. For example, if my wife eats a salad for dinner and I eat a 10 ounce steak, on “average” we just consumed 5 ounces per week even though she didn’t touch it, which I believe is likely the case many times. Or how often do you go out to eat and one of you will get a steak or a burger and the other gets chicken or fish or something other than red meat?