RED MEAT

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Red meat has been demonised ever since the World Health Organisation deemed it to be a carcinogen. In fact they jumped to conclusions from the studies they analysed, which included ignoring over 740 out of 800 studies that were inconclusive i.e. did not show any significant association between red meat and cancer. These were almost all epidemiological studies, which can never prove causation due to their nature that they're not interventional studies, but WHO appeared to cherry-pick 56 studies out of the 800, and then drew their own conclusions, implying causation, when at most the studies could only show an association.

Dr Georgie Ede has an in-depth analysis of the WHO's findings here:

https://www.diagnosisdiet.com/full-article/meat-and-cancer.html

The problem with nutritional epidemiology is that they are loaded with confounding factors. The message for years has been that to be healthy you must avoid red meat and saturated fat. Who are the people who are going to follow the advice? Generally those who are more health-conscious, and likely to be living healthier lifestyles overall - exercising and making healthier choices such as not eating processed food and not smoking. We know that the ones eating the red meat and going against advice are also the ones more likely to be engaging in other lifestyle behaviours that negatively impact health, such as not exercising, smoking, but also eating the meat with processed foods - think burgers with the bun. 

There's a huge difference between eating a steak with chips (likely cooked in vegetable oil) and eating a steak with a salad. Or eating a burger with a bun and crisps, or eating a burger with vegetables or salad. The meals with carbs will be spiking blood glucose, but the meals based around protein/fat/low carb vegetables will lead to much more stable blood glucose. 

So you can start to appreciate why these nutritional studies are barely worth the paper they're written on. Then comes the fact that these are all done via food frequency questionnaires. Can you tell me accurately what you've eaten every day in the past week? Past month? Past year?