High iron loads are related to red meat consumption, but those at risk for cardiovascular disease are also groups (male, smoker, obese, inflammation) that have high iron loads.
Daniel A Quintana Pacheco, Disorn Sookthai, Clemens Wittenbecher, Mirja E Graf, Ruth Schübel, Theron Johnson, Verena Katzke, Paula Jakszyn, Rudolf Kaaks, Tilman Kühn, Red meat consumption and risk of cardiovascular diseases—is increased iron load a possible link?, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 107, Issue 1, January 2018, Pages 113–119, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqx014
See also https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5183733/ comparing epidemiology studies to random controlled trials : “Thus, results from RCTs support that the consumption of red meat does not influence CVD risk factors, whereas epidemiologic studies support that the consumption of red meat is associated with higher incidences of CVD-related morbidity and mortality.”
