A recent study suggesting that regular red meat consumption has negligible effects countered growing consensus that eating red meat is bad for you, and gave rise to questions about why expert advice on meat consumption seems to change so often. The Onion takes a look at the history of studies about the effects of eating meat.
20,000 BCE:
Red meat consumption linked to survival.
1896:
Popularity of John Harvey Kellogg’s corn flakes moves nation away from beef and fish cereals.
1906:
Upton Sinclair writes The Jungle to sway people toward buying his restaurant’s new bean burgers.
1978:
Physiologist Ancel Keys publishes a study finding Mediterranean diet is the healthiest, but even fucking Yugoslavian diet is better than what Americans eat.
1985:
Landmark report from the research arm of the Smiths finds that meat is murder.
1990:
Extreme Exaggeration Magazine finds that if you eat meat you will immediately die.
2015:
Dietary patterns study links healthy eating to longer, hungrier life.
2018:
Beyond Meat announces breakthrough imitation meat so authentic that it also gives you cancer.
2019:
Reports suggest the McRib is back!
2023:
Conventional wisdom will probably reverse again sometime around this year.