Red meat linked to early death

NEW YORK, March 24 (UPI) -- A U.S. study suggests people who eat red meat every day are more likely than others to die of heart disease and cancer.

The National Cancer Institute study -- which looked at data from 545,653 men and women ages 50 to 71 -- found that those who ate the equivalent of a hamburger each day were 30 percent more likely to die during the 10 years of the study than those who ate fish or poultry, The Washington Post reported Monday.

The findings are published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"This is a slam-dunk to say that, 'Yes, indeed, if people want to be healthy and live longer, consume less red and processed meat," Barry M. Popkin -- a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina who wrote an editorial published alongside the study -- told the newspaper.

Researchers said the reasons red meat is unhealthy range from the levels of saturated fat to cancer-causing compounds created by cooking and processing red meat.