ABSTRACT

This chapter looks briefly at what we mean by 'meat and dairy products'. It examines why Meat and dairy products (MDPs) have until relatively recently generally been thought to be good for health. The idea that MDPs are basically good for our health, has, until recently, been deeply entrenched within the culture of most countries. An important systematic review of the evidence for the direct relationship between red and processed meat consumption and the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) has recently been updated. As with relationship between diet and CVD, the relationship between diet and cancer has become increasingly clear over the last few decades – due particularly to the work of the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) which has systematically reviewed all the available studies and published two seminal reports in 1997 and 2007 and propose to publish a further report in 2017.