Canadian study suggests that meat diet does nor cause cancer, it reduces it

A new study appears to fly in the face of the vast majority of previous studies that suggest a positive correlation between meat consumption and cancer and other serious health issues.

Most prior studies and meta-studies, like this large 2007 study, have concluded that "red and processed meat intake appears to be positively associated with risk of cancer of the colon and rectum, esophagus, liver, lung, and pancreas", although not other types of cancer. That's a pretty damning list, and this was a huge study of half a million Americans, published in PLoS Medicine journal (impact factor 9.9) and the US National Library of Medicine. 

It confirms what is now the conventional wisdom on the subject. The World Health Organization agrees with these findings, as does Harvard University's review of major US and European studies.

This new study, though, somehow "found no link between eating animal protein and higher death risk". In fact, it says, "higher animal protein intake was associated with lower cancer mortality, supporting its role in a balanced, health-promoting diet".

Wait, what? 

Now, this was a much smaller study (16,000 individuals), carried out by McMaster University in Canada, and published in Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism journal (which has a much lower impact factor of 2.6). But, still, how did they manage to come up with a finding so diametrically opposed to what masses of other studies have found?

If it was an American study, you might well conclude that Donald Trump or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might have been interfering. But this is a Canadian study.

Way down towards the end of the article, though, it is mentioned that the research was funded by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA), an advocacy group for American beef producers. Coincidence? It says the NCBA "was not involved in the study design, data collection, and analysis or publication of the findings". But you really have to wonder.