Chris:

If you look at actual deaths from foodborne illnesses, far more people die from fruits and veggies than from meat.  Example: 21 people died this year from cantaloupes, one from strawberries, and one from Cargill ground turkey.

And if you look at the deadliest outbreaks throughout history:

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Deadliest_foodborne_illness_incidents

Far more people have died from shady Mexican cheese, bean sprouts, cantaloupe, and onions than have died from meat of any kind...and the meat deaths are from things like "cold cuts" and hot dogs.  Even store-bought hamburger doesn't make the list, let alone actual cuts of beef.

I eat everything good bleu rare, too.

JS

Natalia:

That particular statement about linoleic acid converting to CLA
in the presence of grill heat is a) not footnoted and b) seems bogus to
me.  In that case, well-used deep-fryer seed oil ought to be full of
CLA, since the source oil is full of LA -- but I haven't seen any
indication that this is the case. 

First, oil mostly oxidizes (burns) on the grill AFAIK.

Second, the number of possible configurations of 18:2 (linoleic acid) is quite large, and even if isomerization occurred, it seems like the odds of heat randomly happening to produce the one single isomer that we can use (trans-rumenic acid) are relatively low.

I'm open to correction on this issue...but it seems highly fishy to me.

JS