“Heme iron is better because it is absorbed very well, unlike non-heme iron from vegetables, which is not as good,” “meat is an important food to prevent anemia because it has heme iron, which is absorbed,” “I can’t stop eating meat because I need iron.” These are phrases we have heard many times, but they are not entirely true. heme iron It has an A side, that of good bioavailability, and a lesser-known B side. We are going to talk about that B side here.
In mid-August A study was published which reports that heme iron, present in red meat and other animal products, is significantly linked to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. This is nothing new, but it is rare for the topic to jump from professional circles to the mainstream media, as has happened in this case.
Reading it, many people have been surprised by the relationship between heme iron and diabetes, which to a greater or lesser extent is considered to be linked to excessive sugar consumption. But what about iron? Meat? What does that have to do with it?
First, a few words about dietary iron, a type of iron found mainly in the blood and tissues of animals. It is true that this type of iron is absorbed more easily than non-heme iron, which is found predominantly in vegetables. This point has been used as an argument to justify eating meat or animal products to prevent anemia or simply to have adequate iron levels, always pointing to the absorption of heme iron as something desirable, but that is not the whole picture.
Heme iron also has, as we said, a downside, and that is that it is an important oxidative compound, and the oxidative stress it causes leads to inflammation and DNA damage when associated with free radicals. For this reason, it is linked to increased risk of numerous pathologies: atherosclerosis, cancer, endometriosis… And type 2 diabetes.
This oxidative power of heme iron, in a context of low intake of animal products, is not a problem because it is at manageable levels. But when we are in a situation like the current one, where the intake is very high (not only daily, but several times a day), it can turn against us. While our body does have mechanisms to regulate the absorption of non-heme iron, and is also affected by other components of the diet that reduce or enhance its absorption, heme iron is absorbed without this regulation, and a high presence in the diet increases the deposits and therefore the oxidative stress we mentioned.
Furthermore, we know that the low presence of heme iron in vegetarian diets is one of the variables that explains the lower incidence of some diseases in the group and also the improvement of some pathologies such as diabetes or cardiovascular diseases when treated with a plant-based diet. Beyond other factors that are also relevant, such as the greater contribution of fiber or the greater presence of phytochemicals.
The somewhat lower iron reserves of the vegetarian population, which have been repeatedly pointed out as a weakness of this type of diet, are actually protective and reduce the risk of several of the most prevalent diseases in our society. This can be read in the conclusions of a systematic review and meta-analysis from 2018 that examines the effect of vegetarian diet on iron status in adultswhich also encouraged the general population to review their iron reserves and eat more vegetables and less meat. The August study indicates that the trend of adding heme iron to plant-based meat alternatives to improve their organoleptic characteristics should be reviewed, precisely for all these reasons.
A few days ago, A new meta-analysis has come to light The study specifically investigated the relationship between meat consumption and the risk of type 2 diabetes in 31 cohorts from 20 countries, involving nearly two million people, with an average follow-up of ten years. According to this work, the consumption of 50 grams of processed red meat per day or 100 grams of unprocessed red meat is associated with a 15% greater chance of developing type 2 diabetes, while with white meat the risk increases by 8%. All this compared to a person who does not eat meat. The study identifies several factors that would explain this relationship, one of them being the iron content of meat.
Taking all this into account, continuing to give the simplistic message that heme iron is good because it is better absorbed and that iron from plant-based foods is bad, and encouraging people to eat more meat on that basis, is advice that is not well adapted to scientific evidence. And not only for this reason.
It has been known for more than ten years the relationship between high levels of iron and ferritin (a protein that stores and transports iron) and an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The mechanisms have become increasingly well-known and this latest study, with a sample of dietary reports from more than 200,000 people over 36 years, further strengthens this link.
In the words of lead researcher Fenglei Wang, the press release from Harvard School of Public Health: “Compared with previous studies, which relied solely on epidemiological data, we integrated multiple layers of information, including conventional metabolic biomarkers and cutting-edge metabolomics. (…) This allowed us to gain a more complete understanding of the association between iron intake and type 2 diabetes risk, as well as the potential metabolic pathways underlying this association.”
Of course, it is important to maintain adequate iron levels and prudent reserves in our body. But increasing meat consumption to achieve this is not a good idea. And beware, not only is a pathological excess of iron associated with a high risk of suffering from type 2 diabetes, but This risk also exists within ranges considered normal.which perhaps is time to review and adjust.
Iron deficiency anemia is rarely solved by increasing red meat consumption to obtain more heme iron, but rather by looking for the causes of the anemia, treating them and overcoming it with adequate supplementation when necessary.
Although the study has limitations and requires further research, the accumulated evidence we have regarding the relationship between heme iron, meat and diabetes is already strong enough to be taken into account when developing dietary advice for the population.
Frank Hu, another of the authors of the paper, left this unequivocal advice in the press release: “Reducing heme iron intake, particularly from red meat, and adopting a more plant-based diet may be effective strategies for reducing the risk of diabetes.”
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