Exploring the Role of Meat in Diverse Dietary Patterns and Across Life Stages

Although meat is a nutrient-dense food consumed across cultures and in a variety of dietary patterns, controversy exists among nutrition research, practice, and dietary policy about the type and amount of inclusion of meat and animal-sourced food products in the diet. While the beneficial nutrients (i.e., essential amino acids, iron, zinc, B vitamins, and more) in fresh, unprocessed meat generally outweigh nutrients of concern (i.e., saturated fat and cholesterol), attention on nutrients of concern coupled with the associations of potential health outcomes related to consumption of meat have been used as arguments to recommend reducing meat consumption. This narrative review summarizes key areas of published literature regarding meat in the diet that include: 1) nutritional value of meat; 2) certainty of evidence on the role of meat and health; and 3) meat in common dietary patterns and dietary pattern models. This overview focuses on dietary patterns that contain some level of meat and evaluates the evidence related to meat in a variety of dietary patterns and health outcomes while highlighting the limitations of nutrition study designs and broader implications, including confounding effects. These findings can help inform the discussion around several common dietary patterns, the extent to which they include meat products, and how they are associated with health outcomes.