The study doesn't say whether red meat is "good" or "bad", just that eating red meat correlated (within their study group) with shorter telomere lengths. Telom

The study doesn't say whether red meat is "good" or "bad", just that eating red meat correlated (within their study group) with shorter telomere lengths. Telomeres are caps at the end of the chromosomes that serve as a protection against genetic damage. They decrease in length every time a cell divides until they are eventually used up altogether - at which point a healthy cell will initiate self-destruction. Some years back they were a much-hyped focus of aging research, as there was the hypothesis that if you could keep the telomeres long, your cells (and by extension, you) could live indefinitely. In that context, eating red meat would appear to be an unhealthy choice. However, said hypothesis is no longer current. Telomeres probably do play a role in the aging process, but the whole affair is much more complex than just "keep your telomeres long". So basically, never eating red meat again isn't going to make you immortal.