English singer, songwriter, and record producer James Blunt had a megahit, "Goodbye My Lover," that was recorded in Carrie Fisher's bathroom. But that isn't the most outrageous thing he's done.

In the 1990s, to spite his vegan pals who he thought were wrong about the health risks of eating meat, he went on a two-month all-meat diet — and developed scurvy.

Consuming nothing but meat and condiments was a disaster.

But the lack of vitamin C (which causes scurvy, a disease characterized by swollen, bleeding gums, and the opening of previously healed wounds) isn't all a meat-focused diet can do to you.

Research by the Cleveland Clinic's Dr. Stanley Hazen, director of the Center for Microbiome & Human Health, shows that when gut bacteria digest certain nutrients abundant in red meat and other animal products, a byproduct called carnitine forms a chemical called TMAO (trimethylamine N-oxide).

TMAO significantly increases the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Hazen's latest investigation into explains what happens during a two-step process used by your gut microbes to convert carnitine into TMAO, the nasty atherosclerosis- and blood clot-promoting molecule.

It also reveals that long-term vegetarians and vegans have low levels of the carnitine-converting microbe in their gut, and therefore have virtually no ability to transform carnitine into TMAO. If you stop eating red meat, you eliminate TMAO-producing bacteria from your system in just four weeks.

Instead of red meat, stick with fresh or fresh-frozen, omega-3-rich wild salmon, skinless chicken, and lots of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains.