It is funny how so many of the same people who love to shriek that “the science is settled” when it comes to some issues (the environment) are so willing to bend the facts when it comes to others:

What is really striking is that the eat-meat-die-young panic keeps rearing its ugly head so regularly, based on study after study with equally feeble risk ratios and numerous confounding factors. This suggests that the constant desire to scare those of a carnivorous bent has little to do with the evidence – which is shakier than a cow with BSE – and more to do with the prejudices of those who want us all to live a less red-blooded lifestyle. The particular desire to promote lentil-munching over hot dogs and burgers rather suggests a general sniffiness towards mass-produced food, too.

Absolutely right. I’d actually go further and say that a lot of environmental studies are equally dodgy but also have at their roots a desire to punish the masses for their bad taste.