Total Meat Intake is Associated with Life Expectancy: A Cross-Sectional Data Analysis of 175 Contemporary Populations.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Cross-sectional ecological study using aggregated country-level data
PubMed 35228814 · doi:10.2147/IJGM.S333004
What was done
Evaluated the population-level association between dietary intake (meat and carbohydrate crops) and life expectancy (at birth and at 5 years) using United Nations ecological data from 175 countries and territories. Analyses included bivariate correlations, partial correlations, and stepwise linear regression controlling for caloric intake, urbanization, obesity, and education levels.
What was found
Meat intake was positively correlated with life expectancy worldwide, and this relationship remained significant after adjusting for caloric intake, urbanization, obesity, education, and carbohydrate crops. Stepwise linear regression selected meat intake, but not carbohydrate crops, as a significant predictor of life expectancy, whereas carbohydrate crops showed a weak and negative correlation. The abstract reported no specific numerical values, effect sizes, or correlation coefficients.
Why it matters
Demonstrates a global population-level correlation between meat consumption and life expectancy, challenging assumptions that plant-exclusive diets uniformly track with longer life spans across diverse populations.
Limits
Ecological design relies on country-level aggregate data rather than individual-level dietary and health outcomes, risking ecological fallacy. Major socioeconomic and healthcare confounders may not be fully controlled, and no numerical statistics or confidence intervals are provided in the abstract.
Cited by
- context A 2022 study of UN and FAO data across 175 countries found a positive correlation between red meat intake and longevity that remained significant after adjusting for GDP and education level.