That cycle played out repeatedly, Dr. Stamler said, as he came up against trade associations including the North American Meat Institute, which disputed some of his research on diet and heart health. (Dr. Stamler never cooked with salt and was a devoted adherent to the Mediterranean diet, which includes a relatively high amount of olive oil, fruits and vegetables.) As he told it, the meat institute “had a very simple view: Why don’t you do research, write papers, publish them and shut up? We didn’t feel that was an appropriate posture for people doing research on a scientific problem of great public health importance, to do the research and then bury it.”

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