Behind the beef: Dal‑led research on red and processed meats challenges orthodoxy, stirs controversy
But did he expect his work on the perceived risks of eating red and processed meats would cause an international firestorm?
“It is nutrition which, historically, is of great interest to the public
and to newspapers, so I expected interest,” he says, “but probably not
this much.”
Minutes after publication Monday evening, the series of papers from an
international panel led by Dr. Johnston of Dal’s Department of Community
Health and Epidemiology generated breaking-news headlines on hundreds
of major sites like the New York Times, the BBC, the Washington Post and
the Associated Press.
The research also sparked fierce criticism from organizations like
the the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society and the
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, with the latter suggesting it
could “cause harm to human health and erode public confidence in
nutrition science.”