Would you also bite that bullet with regard to the association between cigarettes and lung cancer? We don’t have RCTs.
How do we know that it’s not just the fact that people who smoke also don’t exercise? Well, it’s simple: we trivially adjust for exercise. Just like we have prospective cohort research on unprocessed vs processed red meat: we can design studies that measure it.
(This is aimed at your sibling comment) If you’re saying there’s a confounder we don’t know about in play: then what is it and what evidence would you bring to the table to justify its inclusion in our inference model? Note: that evidence would have to be at least as good as the evidence you’re rejecting for not having that magical secret confounder.
That said, even before getting to cancer outcomes, I would replace red meat with another protein source just to avoid saturated fat. And if I was only moved by cancer outcomes and refused to change my high red meat diet, I would ensure I'm eating lots of veg/fruit to insulate myself against the risks which is what you see in the Tomorrow Alberta Project prospective cohort analysis among the highest red meat eaters who also ate the most fruit/veg.
How do we know that it’s not just the fact that people who smoke also don’t exercise? Well, it’s simple: we trivially adjust for exercise. Just like we have prospective cohort research on unprocessed vs processed red meat: we can design studies that measure it.
(This is aimed at your sibling comment) If you’re saying there’s a confounder we don’t know about in play: then what is it and what evidence would you bring to the table to justify its inclusion in our inference model? Note: that evidence would have to be at least as good as the evidence you’re rejecting for not having that magical secret confounder.
That said, even before getting to cancer outcomes, I would replace red meat with another protein source just to avoid saturated fat. And if I was only moved by cancer outcomes and refused to change my high red meat diet, I would ensure I'm eating lots of veg/fruit to insulate myself against the risks which is what you see in the Tomorrow Alberta Project prospective cohort analysis among the highest red meat eaters who also ate the most fruit/veg.