The red (meat) scare

A new study finds that a diet rich in red meat and processed meats can lead to premature death. The study, which is the largest of its kind, came out yesterday in the Archives of Internal Medicine. For 10 years researchers tracked 500,000 people, ages 50-71, documenting what they ate over the course of that decade. The results find that people who consumed the equivalent of one hamburger a day increased their chances of dying by 30 percent. To fully understand the implications of this research we are joined by Barry Popkin who wrote an editorial accompanying this study. He is a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill where he heads the division of nutrition epidemiology.