Ben Greenfield

But if you look at someone who, say,

has heard that red meat is bad for you, which is something you hear a lot these days, that might be the same person who's smoking cigarettes, drinking a lot of alcohol, probably having a lot of seed oils and fried foods, and they can skew the demographic considerably.

Often the source of the meat is not taken into consideration with these studies.

The demographics of the population consuming the meat and what else they're consuming along with it is often not taken into account.

There's a way to eat red meat healthy.

And the amount is also important to bear in mind, and I'll explain why briefly.

There's a way to eat red meat unhealthy.

And I would say a lot of people, especially in a typical Western scenario, eat red meat in an unhealthy way, depending on the source of the meat, what it's consumed with, and what else their diet is comprised of.

But if you look at someone who, say,

has heard that red meat is bad for you, which is something you hear a lot these days, that might be the same person who's smoking cigarettes, drinking a lot of alcohol, probably having a lot of seed oils and fried foods, and they can skew the demographic considerably, right?

So the second thing is that when you look at meat and you look at the meat eaten as the muscle, that muscle has a high amount of the amino acid methionine in it.

There's a way to eat red meat healthy.

There's a way to eat red meat unhealthy.

And I would say a lot of people, especially in a typical Western scenario, eat red meat in an unhealthy way, depending on the source of the meat, what it's consumed with, and what else their diet is comprised of.

Methionine is something that can accelerate growth and you'll find it in high amounts in a lot of supplements designed for muscle building or whatever.

But if it's not balanced out with some of the other amino acids, particularly one called glycine,

So the second thing is that when you look at meat and you look at the meat eaten as the muscle,

there can be a lifespan shortening effect because a mammal who's always in pro-growth tends to be at higher risk for things like carcinogenicity or heart disease.

That muscle has a high amount of the amino acid methionine in it.

Methionine is something that can accelerate growth, and you'll find it in high amounts in a lot of supplements designed for muscle building or whatever.