🥩 Does red meat really cause inflammation?

Recommendations to limit red meat consumption are often based on old studies suggesting that red meat promotes inflammation.

These studies are often association studies that look at self reported food intake, which can be biased.

So a recent study looked at blood markers of 4000 free living individuals.

The findings? Intake of unprocessed red meat (beef, pork or lamb) was not directly associated with any markers of inflammation when adjusted to body weight.

This means that body weight, not red meat, may be the driver of inflammation.

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This study highlights that lean unprocessed red meat can be enjoyed in a heart-healthy diet and that current public health recommendations are based on weak association studies. An update is overdue.

🧀 Meat and dairy fat may boost cancer immunity

A fatty acid, named trans-vaccenic acid (TVA), found in meat and dairy products from grazing animals improves the ability of certain immune cells to infiltrate tumors and kill cancer cells.

Interestingly, patients with higher levels of TVA in the blood responded better to immunotherapy.

In mice, a diet enriched with TVA significantly reduced the tumor growth potential of melanoma and colon cancer cells compared to a control diet.

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This study helps to understand how 1) the building blocks of diet affect our health and 2) whole foods have benefits beyond macros.

🍵 Your tea's flavour may not be what you think

If you think the flavour of tea depends on the tea varieties, you are forgiven.

It is the soil microbes that give tea roots and leaves their distinct flavour.

Soil microbes affected their uptake of ammonia from the soil, which in turn affected the amount of theanine in the leaf, which is key for determining a tea's taste.

This flavour enhancement effect was reported in both low-quality and high quality teas.

🥊 Punchline

Tea trees require lots of nitrogen and this discovery could help to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers while promoting the quality of tea trees.