TLDR - Meat is good for you
The association between a plant-based diet (vegetarianism) and extended life span is increasingly criticised since it may be based on the lack of representative data and insufficient removal of confounders such as lifestyles.
We examined the association between meat intake and life expectancy at a population level based on ecological data published by the United Nations agencies.
Population-specific data were obtained from 175 countries/territories. Scatter plots, bivariate, partial correlation and linear regression models were used with SPSS 25 to explore and compare the correlations between newborn life expectancy (e(0)), life expectancy at 5 years of life (e(5)) and intakes of meat, and carbohydrate crops, respectively. The established risk factors to life expectancy – caloric intake, urbanization, obesity and education levels – were included as the potential confounders.
Worldwide, bivariate correlation analyses revealed that meat intake is positively correlated with life expectancies. This relationship remained significant when influences of caloric intake, urbanization, obesity, education and carbohydrate crops were statistically controlled. Stepwise linear regression selected meat intake, not carbohydrate crops, as one of the significant predictors of life expectancy. In contrast, carbohydrate crops showed weak and negative correlation with life expectancy.
If meat intake is not incorporated into nutrition science for predicting human life expectancy, results could prove inaccurate.
Full Paper - https://doi.org/10.2147/IJGM.S333004
As this came out a few years ago, I went to see what the general conversation has been on it. Broadly speaking it seems like a good study, but with some contentious choices in how the data was controlled.
A lot of conversation about it here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/t1wr3z/meat_intake_is_positively_correlated_with_life/
https://www.reddit.com/r/ScientificNutrition/comments/wvnp1c/total_meat_intake_is_associated_with_life/
TLDR the general consensus is that the study seems to provide evidence that meat might be part of an optimal diet for longevity, and it provides a good foundation for future studies that could provide us with an ideal healthy nutrional advice that includes meat.
Thanks for pointing out the other discussions, sadly I can’t easily see reddit content anymore, their fedora wearing bouncer gets in the way
The consensus of reddit commenters, or of scientific literature citing this paper?
Looking at the 31 papers that cite this paper, i don’t see much contention at all
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=2005&sciodt=0%2C5&cites=17223526489288575358&scipsc=
I fear social media consensus is quite biased, several people have tried to get this community removed, they feel very strongly about it.
In terms of data collection, looking at food production data in a country is a good approach, i think its much better then using food-frequency-questionaries every 4 years. That removes lots of self-reporting errors and biases.
What this paper shows, is that right now, with real people, the lived experience is that more meat consumption improves longevity. Real results, real people, real circumstances, not just healthy study participants.