Red meat intake and cardiovascular risk: it’s the events that matter; not the risk factors

A meta-analysis reported in 2017 (1) that red meat intake did not significantly affect blood lipids and lipoproteins or blood pressure. The running title was misleading; it referred to cardiovascular risk. It is crucial to recognize that coronary risk factors, although they weakly predict risk (2), are not the same as the actual risk of cardiovascular events such as myocardial infarction, stroke and cardiovascular mortality.