Assumptions about health are a dangerous thing. Someone consumes meat and later in life suffers heart disease therefore the lazy or prejudiced amongst us assume meat is the criminal. Its a pretty lazy assumption as well, for example in a local crime hotspot there may be many police officers. Does that mean they commit the crime? Its possible but more than likely not the case.
Lets look at some of the suspects in disease and ill-health.
Public Health Nutr. 2002 Feb;5(1):29-36.
Mortality in British vegetarians.Appleby PN, Key TJ, Thorogood M, Burr ML, Mann J.
AbstractOBJECTIVE:To compare the mortality of British vegetarians and non-vegetarians.
DESIGN:Analysis of original data from two prospective studies each including a large proportion of vegetarians--the Oxford Vegetarian Study and the Health Food Shoppers Study. Standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) compared with the population of England and Wales were calculated from deaths before age 90 for vegetarians and non-vegetarians in each study. Death rate ratios (DRRs) for vegetarians compared with non-vegetarians within each study were calculated for each of 14 major causes of death.
SUBJECTS:Twenty-one thousand men and women aged 16-89 years at recruitment, including more than 8,000 vegetarians.
RESULTS:SMRs for all causes of death were significantly below the reference level of 100 in both studies: 52 (95% confidence interval (CI) 49-56) based on 1,131 deaths in the Oxford Vegetarian Study and 59 (57-61) based on 2,346 deaths in the Health Food Shoppers Study. For all causes of death, the DRR for vegetarians compared with non-vegetarians was close to one in both studies: 1.01 (95% CI 0.89-1.14) in the Oxford Vegetarian Study, 1.03 (0.95-1.13) in the Health Food Shoppers Study.
CONCLUSIONS:British vegetarians have low mortality compared with the general population. Their death rates are similar to those of comparable non-vegetarians, suggesting that much of this benefit may be attributed to non-dietary lifestyle factors such as a low prevalence of smoking and a generally high socio-economic status, or to aspects of the diet other than the avoidance of meat and fish.
So that kind of shifts the finger of suspicion somewhat. Who are the other suspects? Processed foods, lack of education, genetics, stress, smoking, alcohol intake, malnutrition and other lifestyle factors seem to be at the scene of the crime and should be considered before convicting meat consumption.