Red meats: Time for a paradigm shift in dietary advice

Recent evidence suggests dietary advice to limit red meat is unnecessarily restrictive and may have unintended health consequences. As nutrient-rich high quality protein foods, red meats can play an important role in helping people meet their essential nutrient needs. Yet dietary advice to limit red meat remains standard in many developed countries, even though red meat intakes appear to be within current guidelines. Meanwhile, energy intakes from processed foods have increased dramatically at the expense of nutrient-rich foods, such as red meat. Research suggests these food trends are associated with the growing burden of obesity and associated diseases in recent decades. It is time for dietary advice that emphasizes the value of unprocessed red meat as part of a healthy balanced diet. •Dietary advice to limit red meat is unnecessarily restrictive and may have unintended health consequences.•Overzealous focus on limiting red meat may have distracted from effective nutrition strategies to address chronic diseases.•With increasing intakes of highly processed foods it is important to reconsider nutrition priorities.