Easy weight control: Keep meat off your plate

Eating meat may lead to weight gain, and this recent study provides the data (check out the NPR story here).

They looked at the association between meat consumption and weight gain, following 103,455 men and 270,348 women for 5 years.

3 important findings from this study:

1. There is a strong link between weight gain and meat consumption, even after controlling for variables such as total calories, weight, age, sex, and physical activity.
2. A diet that contains 250 grams of meat per day leads to 4 pounds of weight gain after 5 years.
3. Red meat is not the only culprit: weight gain is most strongly correlated with poultry consumption (which people tend to think of as the lower fat/ healthier meat option).  

Conclusion:

• Decreasing meat consumption (all types of meat) may help with weight management. High animal-protein diets will most likely not lead to long-term weight loss.

All I can think about is the massive amount of meat that we serve sick people in our hospitals and children in our schools. How much evidence will it take for us to actually start changing this?