Humans ate meat for thousands of years—so how could meat suddenly cause heart disease only in the last 100 years?
Scientific Claim
The emergence of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease as a leading cause of death occurred only in the 20th century, despite consistent human consumption of animal-based diets throughout evolutionary history.
Original Statement
“Heart disease and heart attacks weren't a thing until just over a 100 years ago. How could the one food that humans have always eaten be the cause of this modern disease?”
Context Details
Domain
cardiology
Population
human
Subject
human consumption of animal-based diets
Action
predates
Target
emergence of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease as a leading cause of death
Intervention Details
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (2)
This study shows that heart disease only became one of the top causes of death in the last 100 years, even though humans have been eating meat and dairy for thousands of years — so something new in the 20th century must have made it more common.
Technical explanation
This paper directly addresses the timing of cardiovascular disease (CVD) becoming a leading cause of death, placing it in the late 20th century as part of an epidemiologic transition, which supports the assertion that atherosclerotic CVD emerged as a top killer only in the 20th century despite long-standing animal-based diets.
This paper proves that heart disease was #1 for most of the 1900s, but only became the top killer in modern times — not in ancient times — even though people always ate animal foods.
Technical explanation
This paper explicitly documents that heart disease was the leading cause of death until recently, and only in the late 20th/early 21st century did cancer overtake it — confirming that CVD became dominant in the 20th century, consistent with the assertion.