Regular red meat, like steak or roast, isn't the same as processed stuff like bacon or hot dogs — they're made differently and might affect your health in different ways, so experts say we shouldn't treat them the same when studying their health effects.

The UK meat industry says you need red and processed meat to stay healthy because it has important nutrients, and warns that eating less meat could leave women and kids missing key vitamins and minerals.

Eating processed meats like bacon or sausage is more likely to cause long-term health problems than eating plain red meats like steak, according to health studies.

Official food advice says to eat less red meat and processed meats like bacon, but this advice mostly comes from studies that can't prove cause and effect and don't show how much risk there really is.

Eating processed meats like bacon or sausages every day is linked to a higher chance of heart disease, but eating regular red meat like steak or burgers doesn’t seem to raise the risk—so it might be the processing, not the meat, that’s the problem.

Experts gave different advice for fresh red meat versus processed meat because they might affect your health differently, and people have different preferences. They only looked at health, not the environment or animal treatment.