Petition filed against the false red meat claims by Annals of Internal Medicine

A few weeks ago, there was a big media story about the Annals of Internal Medicine who had published recommendations that adults continue to eat red meat and processed meat which goes against mounting evidence and studies recommending the contrary. This has since faced a lot of backlash from other health professionals and organizations. The World Health Organization listed red meat as probably carcinogenic to humans and processed meats as carcinogenic to humans back in 2015.  The American Heart Association and American Cancer Society joined the backlash along with many other plant-based physicians and organisations such as The physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) who were outraged by the recommendations.

The PCRM which includes 12,000 doctors, filed a petition with the Federal Trade Commission to correct false statements regarding the consumption of red and processed meats that was released by the Annals Of Internal Medicine on September 30th 2019. There is a great deal of evidence that links red meat consumption to heart disease, colorectal cancer and increased risk of premature death. The president of the True Health Initiative (THI) consisting of a global group of health experts also joined the Physicians Committee in its opposition to the false recommendations. The PCRM is requesting that the Annals Of Internal Medicine are permanently prohibited from disseminating the recommendations and that they issue a public retraction and correct their position regarding the paper in question.

It is also interesting to note that the lead author of these findings also failed to disclose that he had years of ties to large agribusiness and food trade companies.  Many associations like the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society have publicly responded by stating these false recommendations can “harm the credibility of nutritional research”.

Lets hope that this petition is successful and the recommendations are retracted. The public are already confused enough about what they should eat and avoid for optimal health.