A: It's good to hear that you've been following my advice up to this point. Here's my next gem: take everything you just read in this little article by Dr. Gabe Mirkin and his "fitness and Health e-Zine", and TOSS IT IN THE TRASH. The headline of Mirkin's article is, "Finally, a clue to explain why you should avoid red meat." I think it should be changed t "Finally, why you should never trust a word I say again." There's so much junk medicine in this one small article that I don't even know where to begin. This theory that eating meat causes an inflammatory response is based on another theory - evolution. And people call me a quack. Anyone who bases a scientific opinion on something as ignorant and far-fetched as evolution has some serious credibility issues. According to professor Ajit Varki's of the University of California, San Diego, all mammals except for humans have a molecule called Neu5Gc in their tissues. Dr. Varki's theory is that, "When humans ingest the flesh or milk of any mammal, they absorb Neu5Gc and treat it the same way as an invading germ, so they make antibodies against it. This turns on their immunity and keeps it active so it eventually attacks the host itself, the human body." So let me get this straight - he's saying that red meat ATTACKS your body? If that were the case, the human race would have died off LONG ago. He goes on to point out many of the epidemiological studies that have linked eating red meat to an increased risk of heart attacks, strokes, cancer, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, arthritis, and asthma. I put absolutely no stock in any epidemiological studies. The vast majority of them are nothing more than propaganda masquerading as science. There might be a handful of these studies that have some validity, but it's not worth wading through the muck to find them. Here's the crux of the issue. The writer of the article, Dr. Gabe Mirkin, is a vegetarian grasping at straws for reasons to support his ludicrous "lifestyle choice." He said, "I sopped eating meat years ago, and this report makes me even more convinced that it should be avoided." "This report" - the one that's based on evolution and epidemiology? Look. Here's the long and short of it: Don't buy into the hype. Keep eating your grass-fed red meat - cooked rare to medium-rare. It's not going to attack you - no matter what these vegetarian whackos would have you believe. | 
