Heart disease risk & red meat

Study points to new culprit in heart disease: researchers say the surprising findings could lead to new treatments for heart disease. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/health/study-points-to-new-culprit-in-heart-disease.html?smid=fb-nytimes&WT.z_sma=HE_SPT_20130407&_r=0

This is just a single study to add to the pile. L-carnitine has, in many other studies, been shown to be cardioprotective, with effects including reduced incidence of chronic heart failure and death in those with chronic heart disease and reduced heart damage during ischemia (carnitine is a potent antioxidant). Carnitine may be necessary for high TMAO, but the existence of the TMAO-producing bacteria could just be due to suboptimal gut flora (caused by meat or other factors, hard to say). Meat eaters in most studies are less healthy on all metrics (they smoke more, drink more, weigh more, etc.) than vegans, and as you adjust for those risk factors the correlations of disease states with individual dietary ingredients can shrink or disappear completely.