You probably already know this (low hanging fruit), but in case your or another reader doesn't, eliminating processed meat and limiting red meat consumption seem very likely to reduce your risk of some types of cancer, particularly of the colon. There are studies that argue otherwise, and the purported relative risks also vary, but my general takeaway has been that processed meat = definitely bad, and red meat = possibly bad if eaten daily or in consistently large portions.
Recommendations are a little varied depending on where you look, but what I've opted for is having processed meat at most once a month and red meats at most 3x/week (this was a big cut for me!) Depending on your priors of having the relevant cancers (family history, lifestyle factors) you might not need this extreme a reduction, or even to worry at all.
I've honestly spent no more than ~5 hours researching this so could be being misled by poorly conducted studies, but I view it as at least weak evidence in favor of it that the NHS and WHO are aligned on this advice. I also have family history of colon cancer, making the potential upside of a reduction in my risk more appealing than the downside of just eating more fish and poultry.
Curious to see other responses to this question, best of luck.
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/red-meat-and-the-risk-of-bowel-cancer/ https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/cancer-carcinogenicity-of-the-consumption-of-red-meat-and-processed-meat https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/whats-the-beef-with-red-meat
Thanks for the information Antonio! The fact/possibility that red meat should be eaten in limited quantities actually is something that I had forgotten about, so I appreciated your response.
If you're looking to do more research (not that you should), I just started looking through some of Peter Attia's stuff this weekend and it seems promising.
If you are on an extremely high income then the health benefits might be worth it.
Otherwise go to Lidl or Aldi on a Saturday night when a lot of the meat has 30% off stickers. Buy whatever cuts are cheapest. Freeze the meat as soon as you get home. Then buy kale, broccoli and frozen mixed veg to eat with the meat and splash out on swimming pool fees or a day out hiking or trail running or mountain biking or wild swimming.
Perhaps income level doesn't actually have anything to do with it. If the health benefits are worth it and you don't pay for the expensive meat, then you risk developing health problems down the road which will cost you even more money.
Put differently, if you view it as an investment, and if that investment has a positive ROI, it's probably worth making regardless of whether or not you are wealthy. Caveats include things like opportunity cost and whether you have enough cash on hand to make the investment in the first place.
My guess is the optimal health decision re meat consumption is to fully replace terrestrial meat with wild-caught, low mercury seafood.
I usually buy from local butchers. If you are willing to eat something other than steaks (eg liver, which is definitely much richer in vitamins), you should make sure to buy it as fresh as possible, and local butchers are probably the best option for freshness as they generally cut the meat on demand.
(or maybe I'm just generalizing from one example, please check the quality of your local butcher)
If you consider changing your meat acquisition habits based on health and ethical reasons, I presume you have considered changing your animal products consumption habits based on the same reasons, and rejected the idea on some grounds, right?
I'm having a little trouble understanding what you are asking. I don't see eating meat as unethical, at least not in the grand scheme of things, so I wasn't considering eliminating it from my diet.
Currently I buy meat at the grocery store (Sprouts), but I'm considering spending more money via something like Crowd Cow on meat that was raised responsibly and stuff. The main reason is because I suspect the health benefits are worth it. I've been thinking that I should invest more money in my health in general.
I don't actually know that the health benefits are worth it though.
I recall a blog post emphasizing that it is important to spend the money on it.From this blog post: "Do not eat cheap industrially-farmed animal products." and "Eat organic when possible, especially when discussing animal products. Generally spend more money on food — the cheaper the food, the more “hacks” the producer used to be able to deliver that price. Many of these hacks are harmful — they inject saline solution to increase weight, feed dead animals to live animals, use antibiotics a lot etc."Are there third alternatives I should consider? Local butchers? Whole Foods?
Edit: I found a lit review Effects of organic food consumption on human health; the jury is still out!.