Red meat & Dementia

Summary

* Another association study has been published by the Harvard factory of population papers. This one claimed that red meat intake was associated with dementia.

* The number of participants at each stage of the process literally didn't add up. This happened with the recent plant oil and butter paper. It's sloppy and should have been picked up during peer review, if not the researchers themselves

* The paper contained the usual flaws – the reported intake confirmed that food frequency questionnaires were inaccurate; association/causation; relative/absolute risk; and the healthy person confounder.

* This one added flawed definitions of processed and UNprocessed meat, both of which were confounded by junk foods.

* The main outcome of interest was dementia – defined as self-reported dementia and deaths due to dementia. Dementia deaths were analysed as a secondary outcome. Deaths are objective; self-reported dementia is subjective. That's another flaw.

* The study claimed that participants with processed red meat intake above 11.25 grams per day, compared with those below 4.5 g per day, had a 13% higher risk of dementia and a 14% higher risk of Subjective Cognitive decline. The researchers want us to believe that dementia comes down to fewer than 8 g of meat. Puh-lease.

* The study didn't report that there were as many non-findings as findings or that there were NO findings for dementia and UNprocessed red meat (even with the compromised definition of UNprocessed red meat).

* The biggest issue however was this...