It is difficult to attribute cancer specifically to red meat rather than the absence of vegetables, fiber, or the presence of ultra-processing due to weak associations and study limitations.

“net net I would say that every one of these studies basically ends up having the same issue with it which is when you look at the details you realize it is very difficult to um to come up with a meaningful uh view that it's red meat specifically that is driving cancer as opposed to the absence of vegetables the absence of fiber or maybe the presence of some of the ultra processing things that go into consuming certain patterns of meat like you know uh uh you know gas station bot jerky and stuff like that so um you know we could talk a lot more about this but I I really think that the health effects the ill health effects for red meat consumption is incredibly weak um the hazard ratios themselves for this are very very small even with all of the limitations that I've mentioned”