I WAS disappointed that Rosemary Goring's column about ceasing to be a vegetarian was based in part on an item of lowly significance regarding thyroid issues and use of soya products ("Meat might be murder, but it feels so good", The Herald, April 2).

Some forms of thyroid disease may be associated with iodine deficiency, not iron deficiency, and as such decreased absorption of iron would be an irrelevance or at most have a trivial effect on the thyroid.

Many articles are published in medical journals every year with various tenuous associations (though no firm evidence) criticising many aspects of a vegetarian diet and one must wonder at times if funding for research originates from the powerful meat industry.

A fact that is major and unequivocal, however, is the association of red meat with bowel cancer. Almost 4000 Scots a year contract this disease, which has the likelihood of having a far more serious prognosis than most thyroid disease, the latter often having a favourable outcome with medical treatment.

If red meat were a new foodstuff that was brought to the marketplace today it almost certainly would not pass our safety standards required for sale or consumption.

Red meat is allowed to be sold on historical grounds only. Meanwhile the meat industry promotes it as an essential requirement for good health.

Consumers will muddle on in confusion feeding their children what they believe to be healthy food. But it is potentially carcinogenic,

Dr David Walker,

91 Adele Street,

Motherwell.