The study has been critiqued extensively by the expert community. One critique is that people who eat red meat tend to ignore common wisdoms of healthy behavior, creating correlating factors in their risks of mortality.
“This particular group doesn’t adequately acknowledge that,” said David E. Cummmings, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington. “They try to account for this but never fully.”
Willett acknowledged that the researchers cannot be sure to have taken into account all correlating factors.
The American Meat Institute issued a statement the day of publication responding to the study and criticizing its “unreliable self-reporting.”
“We were concerned that the study was quite definitive in its answer,” said Janet M. Riley, senior vice president of the American Meat Institute.
—Staff writer Kerry M. Flynn can be reached at kflynn@college.harvard.edu.