TV host Piers Morgan rejoiced on Good Morning Britain last week after reading about a new study which claimed that eating meat is safe. The study, published in a prestigious medical journal, found that eating red and processed meat does not increase your risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes or early death. Morgan couldn’t resist having a pop at vegetarians. “Vegetarians, eat your gruel,” he said. “Go ahead and do it. But it no longer gives you health benefits.”

However, not everyone agreed with the study. Richard Hoffman, for one, argues that these sorts of large studies that provide nutritional advice based on the average of very large populations say nothing about individual differences in risk. People who are overweight or obese, for example, have a different risk profile to people who are a healthy weight, so blanket advice on how much meat they can eat would differ. As Hoffman notes, “a one-size-fits-all policy in nutrition makes no more sense than calculating the average shoe size in a population and recommending that everyone wear that size”.

Other academic experts in Australia were similarly dismissive of the study and listed at least four shortcomings.

In other bovine news, raw milk (read: unpasteurised) is making a comeback, at least in some corners. But don’t ditch the pasteurised stuff yet. While the health benefits of raw milk are still uncertain, other risks, such as consuming harmful bacteria, are more clear. And as 35,000 wildfires tear through Indonesia, air pollution levels are having a hazardous effect on health – on children’s health in particular.

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