#304 Is Red Meat Actually That Unhealthy? with Dr Kevin Maki PhD
2nd Jul 2025
If you ordered a steak at a restaurant are you essentially ordering a heart attack or a nutrient-rich whole food?
Few foods spark more debate than red meat. It’s been blamed for heart disease, cancer and diabetes, but some people praise it for being high in iron, zinc, vitamin B12 and quality protein. So, if you add red meat to your plate is it helpful or harmful?
Whether you eat meat or avoid it, I think you’ll find today’s conversation cuts through the noise of social media and clears up a lot of confusion in the nutrition space. I wanted to disentangle the obvious issues surrounding environmental concerns of eating animal products from today's discussion, and simply talk through the data as we have it. It’s given me a lot to think about when it comes to recommendations for people, as well as how concerned I would be about red meat consumption overall.
Today we’re chatting with researcher and academic Dr. Kevin Maki, PhD, who specialises in clinical studies on nutrition, metabolism, and chronic disease risk factors. He's also an Adjunct Professor at Indiana University School of Public Health, a Master and Past President of the National Lipid Association, and a Fellow of the American Heart Association and The Obesity Society. Dr. Maki has participated in over 300 clinical trials and published more than 250 scientific papers, books and book chapters.
You’re going to learn about:
- Whether red meat is actually unhealthier than poultry
- What red meat really does to your cholesterol, your blood pressure and your long-term health risk
- Whether red meat is a source of unhealthy fats
- Types of red meat and which ones are less healthy than others
- How much red meat you can safely consume
We also talk about seed oils, plus high protein diets and their relationship to kidney disease, longevity and diabetes risk.
The 4 big takeaways I got from this episode were:
- Moderate amounts (50g per day) of unprocessed lean red meat in the diet is fine
- Diet quality and the addition of whole unprocessed foods is more important
- High Protein is very important in middle aged and older adults
- Beware of the 4 white poisons: Sugar, Salt, Saturated Fat and refined Starches
Episode guests
Kevin C Maki, PhD, CLS, MNLA, FTOS, FAHA
Kevin C Maki, PhD is the Founder and Chief Scientist for Midwest Biomedical Research (Addison, Illinois). He specializes in the design and conduct of clinical studies in human nutrition, metabolism, and chronic disease risk factor management.
Dr Maki is also Adjunct Professor and Dean’s Eminent Scholar in the Department of Applied Health Science at the Indiana University School of Public Health, Bloomington, Indiana. He is a Master and Past President of the National Lipid Association, a Fellow of The American Heart Association and The Obesity Society, and was a member of the American Society for Nutrition Statistical Review Board (2020-2023), as well as a certified Clinical Lipid Specialist. He has been the Co-Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Clinical Lipidology (since July 2023).
Dr. Maki has participated in more than 300 clinical trials and observational studies as an investigator, consultant, or statistician, and published more than 250 scientific papers, books, and book chapters. He earned a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Public Health, and an MS in Preventive and Rehabilitative Cardiovascular Health from Benedictine University.
