Every time we turn around it seems that there is some expert or some study telling us that another food is "bad" for us. And given a little more time, there will be another person saying that the food is, in fact, "good." Red meat -- a category that includes beef, pork and lamb -- has been subject to this time and again and it is getting difficult to keep track of all the things that it can -- and cannot -- do. Fortunately, an Independent columnist neatly summarized the benefits and risks of eating red meat.

Benefits

• High in zinc, which is important for a healthy immune system.
• Contains more iron than most foods, and it is more easily used by the body than iron from other sources
• Also a good source of other vitamins and minerals, including phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, selenium and b vitamins.
• Excellent source of complete proteins
• A high-protein diet based on lean red meat has been shown to help weight loss

Risks

• An increased risk of bowel cancer was found for people who ate more than two servings of red meat per week.
• The Mediterranean diet, which is low in red meat, has been shown to decrease the risk of Alzheimer's disease
• Excessive amounts of red meat can lead to a higher risk of osteoporosis due to an acid byproduct from digesting very large amounts of protein.
• Eating red meat every day can double the risk of Arthritis
• Red meat is high in saturated fat and cholesterol
• A recent study found that rating more than one serving of red meat per day can double the risk of breast cancer, especially in young women.

Just when you thought that they had lowered the fat and calories (and taste) in just about every product there is, increasing "good" fats and vitamins in an effort to give even the worst foods some nutritional benefit, along comes a product that surprises you. A new study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that a simple addition of Stanol, a substance known to lower cholesterol, to cheese gave the cheese a cholesterol-lowering effect.

At first glance, it may seem like a rather obvious conclusion because stanol is in other supplements and drugs, where it has been successfully shown to lowerer LDL cholesterol levels. It has never before been combined with a food product and its success when combined with cheese means that the risks associated with eating high-cholesterol foods could be mitigated simply by fortifying them.

More studies are needed, but it looks like we could be seeing a new wave of cholesterol-lowering foods in the future.