Pan et al. (2012) describe the outcomes from 37000 men and 83000 women in the very first large-scale prospective longitudinal study. The results show that consumption of both processed and unprocessed red meat is associated with an increased risk of premature mortality from all causes as well as from cardiovascular disease and cancer.
23926 deaths were documented, of which 5910 were from cardiovascular disease and 9464 from cancer. One daily serving (85 g) of unprocessed red meat was associated with a 13% increased risk of mortality, and one daily serving of processed red meat was associated with a 20% increased risk. 9.3% of early deaths in men and 7.6% in women in the study could have been prevented if all the participants had consumed fewer than 42g a day of red meat.
Before this research red meat consumption was also associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus.
The benefits of vegetarian diets seems to be remarkable whether we talk about
(a) human health,
(b) environment,
(c) global food security or
(d) animal welfare.
Pan, A., Sun, Q., Bernstein, A., Schulze, M., Manson, J., Stampfer, M., Willett, W., and Hu, F. (2012). Red Meat Consumption and Mortality: Results From 2 Prospective Cohort Studies. Archive of Internal Medicine. Available at http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/archinternmed.2011.2287v1
Pan A, Sun Q, Bernstein A. et al. (2011). Red meat consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes: 3 cohorts of US adults and an updated meta-analysis. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 94(4), 1088-1096.