Another well-designed trial finds no reason to fear unprocessed beef for metabolic health

The headlines linking red meat to diabetes persist, but the randomized controlled trial data keep telling a consistent story. A new RCT published in Current Developments in Nutrition assigned 24 adults with prediabetes to consume either 6 to 7 ounces per day of unprocessed beef or poultry for 28 days in a crossover design, with researchers measuring insulin-producing cell function, blood sugar control, blood sugar hormones, blood lipids, and markers of inflammation.

The result: no meaningful differences on any of these outcomes. The observational studies that have associated red meat with type 2 diabetes risk carry well-documented confounding problems. People who eat more red meat in those cohorts also tend to smoke more, exercise less, eat fewer vegetables, and consume more processed foods and alcohol.

You cannot isolate the effect of the meat from the broader lifestyle pattern around it. Randomized trials, which control for those confounders by design, have now consistently failed to show any adverse effect of unprocessed red meat on blood sugar, inflammation, or insulin function.

At the end of the day, there is no issue eating beef and animal proteins! Enjoy them!

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