I recall the conversation with a research physician. He described that the lower rate of cardiovascular morbidity/mortality in women of child-bearing age may actually be due to monthly blood loss during menstruation, which results in the concurrent loss of iron. His argument was compelling enough that I’ve been taking “Silver” multi-vitamins for more than 25 years. Senior vitamins don’t have iron supplement.
Maybe there was a point to the old practice of blood letting. It served to take out the excess iron.
And maybe the real reason why red meat is bad for you has nothing to do with saturated fat but because of all that iron, which may oxidize cholesterol and cause arterial plaque.