Eating habits are closely related to various aspects of human life, such as growth, development, disease resistance, and is a consolidated fact that they represent the most influential environmental factor on the duration and quality of life. The impact of meat on the nutritional quality of the human diet through its contribution of protein and key micronutrients is often underestimated.

To date we have studied many nutritional strategies that are able to prevent or delay the onset of a disease, or also to optimise the therapy. But it is clear that not all individuals respond the same way to dietary changes and some of this variability is due to genetic and epigenetic individual differences, which can in turn affect the absorption, digestion, metabolism, excretion and the action of bioactive food compounds.

Although dietary factors are important in many chronic degenerative diseases, that are major causes of illness and death in affluent societies, it is therefore very difficult to determine with certainty a cause-effect relationship. Chronic diseases have indeed multiple causes and require years to develop: eating habits can therefore be a “risk factor”.

The scientific methods to investigate chronic diseases, their causes, treatment and prevention are mostly epidemiological, a method that studies the prevalence of frequency with which diseases occur and conditions that favour or hinder the development, looking for the relationship with eating habits. These studies can investigate subjects after the diagnosis of the disease (retrospective studies), or prior to diagnosis (prospective studies).

The influence of the data and the recommendations from developed countries in the field of nutritional guidance has often highlighted and recognised the essential micronutrients and protein intake towards which meat contributes.

As described previously, the iron content in red meat, for example, is more easily absorbed compared to forms present in plants. This involves great implications for cognitive health as there is a clear link between meat and mind.

The lack of micronutrients that are found in meat has been linked to brain disorders, including a lower intelligence quotient (IQ), autism, depression and dementia. Iron is crucial for the growth and the branching of neurons when it is still in the uterus, but also other typical meat nutrients, such as zinc which is found in high concentrations in the hippocampus, a crucial area for learning and storage; vitamin B12, which provides for the maintenance of the sheath that protects the nerves; or omega-3, such as docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA fatty acids), which help to keep neurons healthy and to limit inflammation.

The key question of meat is thus the amount that you should consume because, being a food with a high nutritional efficiency, it already allows for small amounts included in the Mediterranean Diet to benefit from its valuable effects without having risks to one’s health. Because if it is true that lack of meat can slow the development and knowledge, excessive consumption is associated with other health problems, such as vascular and neoplastic ones.

Even if there is a possible relationship between an excess of red meat consumption and cancer or cardiovascular disease, the results of the research are not entirely consistent and differ between populations, making it difficult to understand the reasons for this correlation. According to scientific studies, in fact, the meat-related mortality risk is more pronounced in the US, compared to what occurs in Europe or Asia. This could be due to several factors:

• Americans consume meat in much higher amounts than the European average and twice as much as in Italy;
• Europeans do not grill the meat as much as the Americans;
• the type of meat consumed by Americans comes mainly from castrated animals, this involves a much higher fat content than the European average; In addition these fats do not come from the surface but are present in the lean part of the muscle and are therefore difficult to remove;
• Americans farms allow the use of natural growth hormones.

The main diseases associated directly with food are cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes and some cancers.

The Sustainable Meat Project