A study linking red meat to a higher risk of early death generated significant coverage online and in print, and was also featured on ABC World News (3/12, story 6, 2:10, Sawyer), which reported that a “major medical study from the Harvard School of Public Health” is “raising a giant red flag about eating red meat.”
The Los Angeles Times (3/13, Brown) reports, “Eating red meat – any amount and any type – appears to significantly increase the risk of premature death, according to” the study.
USA Today (3/13, Hellmich) reports that investigators “analyzed the diet, health and death data on 37,698 men and 83,644 women. Participants completed questionnaires about their diets every four years.” Over a “follow-up period of more than two decades, almost 24,000 of the participants died, including 5,910 from heart disease and 9,464 from cancer.”
Bloomberg News (3/13, Ostrow) reports, “The researchers found that those who increased consumption of unprocessed red meat by one serving each day had an 18 percent higher risk of dying from heart disease and a 10 percent greater risk of dying from cancer, while those who ate one more daily serving of processed red meat had a 21 percent higher risk of dying from heart disease and a 16 percent increased risk of dying from cancer.”
The New York Times (3/13, Bakalar, Subscription Publication) reports, “The increased risks linked to processed meat, like bacon, were even greater: 20 percent over all, 21 percent for cardiovascular disease and 16 percent for cancer.”
Also covering the story were NPR (3/13, Aubrey) “The Salt” blog, HeartWire (3/13, O’Riordan), BBC News (3/13), the UK’s Press Association (3/13), CNN /Health.com (3/13, Harding), HealthDay (3/13, Reinberg), WebMD (3/13, Goodman), MedPage Today (3/13, Neale), and the UK’s Telegraph (3/13, Smith)
