No, eating meat won’t kill you, but it may shorten your life a bit. Researchers who analyzed six studies evaluating the effects of meat and vegetarian diets have found found that all-cause mortality is higher for people who eat red or processed meats on a daily basis. Doubt it? Skeptical readers can scrutinize the work in a clinical review published in  The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association (JAOA). In short, here’s what the researchers found:
- A 2014 study following more than 1 million people over the course of five and a half to 28 years looked at their consumption of processed meats and unprocessed red meats such as pork or lamb. The data found the steepest rise in mortality at the smallest increases of intake of total red meat.
- A 2014 meta-analysis examined associations with mortality from cardiovascular disease and ischemic heart disease. In that study of more than 1.5 million people, researchers found only processed meat significantly increased the risk for all-cause mortality.
- A 2003 review of more than 500,000 participants found a decreased risk of 25% to nearly 50% of all-cause mortality for very low meat intake compared with higher meat intake.
What advice do the researchers offer? Eat less meat.