In a remarkable turnabout, an international collaboration of researchers produced a series of analyses concluding that advice urging Americans to limit consumption of red and processed meats, is not backed by good scientific evidence. The researchers concluded that the health benefits from eating less beef and pork, if there are any, are miniscule. 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.

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