Reducing processed meat consumption by about a third could prevent more than 350,000 cases of diabetes in the United States over 10 years, a study suggests. Reducing adults’ processed meat intake by 30 percent, the equivalent of about 10 slices of bacon a week, would also lead to tens of thousands fewer cases of cardiovascular disease and colorectal cancer.
Less Processed Meat on the Table, Less Disease
A team from the Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Systems at the University of Edinburgh, together with the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, has developed a simulation tool to estimate the health impacts of reducing consumption of processed meat and unprocessed red meat.
While many studies have identified links between high levels of processed meat consumption and chronic disease, few have assessed the impact on multiple health outcomes. Some previous research also suggests that unprocessed red meat may contribute to chronic disease risk, but the evidence is still limited.
The researchers used data from a national health survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to create a simulated, representative sample of the U.S. adult population, a so-called microsimulation.
Their microsimulation is the first to estimate the effects of reducing consumption of processed meat and unprocessed red meat by 5 to 100 percent on multiple health outcomes in the United States.
The team estimated how changes in meat consumption affect the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, colorectal cancer, and death in adults. The effects were assessed in the overall population and separately by age, sex, household income, and ethnicity.
According to researchers, in addition to preventing more than 350,000 cases of diabetes, reducing processed meat consumption by 30 percent would lead to 92,500 fewer cases of cardiovascular disease and 53,300 fewer cases of colorectal cancer over a decade.
In this scenario, the greatest health benefits were found for white men and people with annual household incomes between $25,000 and $55,000.
The researchers also analyzed the effects of reducing consumption of unprocessed red meat alone and of reducing consumption of both processed meat and unprocessed red meat.
Reducing consumption of both by 30% reduced 1,073,400 cases of diabetes, 382,400 cases of cardiovascular disease, and 84,400 cases of colorectal cancer.
Reducing unprocessed red meat intake by 30%, which would mean eating about a quarter pound less of beef patties per week, led to more than 732,000 fewer cases of diabetes. It also led to 291,500 fewer cases of cardiovascular disease and 32,200 fewer cases of colorectal cancer.
The finding that more cases of disease were prevented by reducing consumption of unprocessed red meat compared with processed red meat is partly due to the fact that the average daily intake of unprocessed red meat is higher than that of processed meat, 47 g per day versus 29 g per day, respectively.
Because little is known about the effects of eating unprocessed red meat on chronic disease risk, the team says these estimates should be interpreted with caution and that more research is needed.
The study was published in The Lancet Planetary Health .
Professor Lindsay Jaacks, Chair of Global Health and Nutrition at the University of Edinburgh and one of the study’s authors, said: “Reducing meat consumption has been recommended by national and international organisations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including the Climate Change Committee here in the UK and the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC.
“Our research shows that these dietary changes could have significant health benefits in the United States as well, so this is a clear win-win situation for people and the planet.”
There is a link between processed meat, cardiovascular disease and death
A global study by Hamilton scientists found a link between processed meat consumption and a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. The same study did not find the same link with unprocessed red meat or poultry.
The information comes from the diets and health outcomes of 134,297 people from 21 countries across five continents, who were monitored by researchers to collect data on meat consumption and cardiovascular disease.
After following participants for nearly a decade, researchers found that consuming 150 grams or more of processed meat per week was associated with a 46 percent higher risk of cardiovascular disease and a 51 percent higher risk of death compared to those who ate no processed meat.
However, the researchers also found that moderate levels of unprocessed meat consumption had a neutral effect on health.
“The evidence for an association between meat intake and cardiovascular disease is inconsistent. We therefore wanted to better understand the associations between intakes of unprocessed red meat, poultry, and processed meat with major cardiovascular events and mortality,” said Romaina Iqbal, first author of the study and associate professor at Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan.
“The totality of available data indicates that consuming a modest amount of unprocessed meat as part of a healthy diet is unlikely to be harmful,” said Mahshid Dehghan, a researcher at the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) at McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences.
The Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study was initiated in 2003 and is the first multinational study to provide information on the association between processed and unprocessed meat intake and health outcomes in low-, middle-, and high-income countries.
“The PURE study examines significantly more diverse populations and broader dietary patterns, allowing us to provide new evidence that distinguishes the effects of processed from unprocessed meats,” said lead author Salim Yusuf, executive director of PHRI.
Participants’ dietary habits were recorded via food frequency questionnaires, while data on their mortality and major cardiovascular events were also collected. This allowed researchers to determine associations between meat consumption patterns and cardiovascular events and mortality.
The authors believe that further research could improve current understanding of the relationship between meat consumption and health outcomes. For example, it’s unclear what study participants with lower meat consumption ate instead of meat, and whether the quality of those foods differed across countries.
Non-meat food substitutes may have implications for further interpretation of associations between meat consumption and health outcomes. However, the study authors believe their findings “suggest that limiting processed meat intake should be encouraged.”
Eating Processed Meat May Increase Dementia Risk
Scientists from the Nutritional Epidemiology Group at the University of Leeds used data from 500,000 people and found that eating a 25g portion of processed meat a day – the equivalent of a slice of bacon – was associated with a 44% increased risk of developing the disease.
Their findings also show that eating unprocessed red meat, such as beef, pork or veal, could have a protective effect, as people who consumed 50g of it a day were 19% less likely to develop dementia.
The researchers were studying a possible link between meat consumption and the development of dementia, a condition that affects 5-8% of people over 60 worldwide.
Their findings, titled Meat consumption and risk of incident dementia: A cohort study of 493,888 participants in the UK Biobank, were published today in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Lead researcher Huifeng Zhang, a PhD student in the University of Leeds’ School of Food Science and Nutrition, said: “The prevalence of dementia is increasing worldwide and diet as a modifiable factor may play a role. Our research adds to the growing body of evidence linking processed meat consumption to increased risk of a range of non-communicable diseases.”
The research was supervised by Professor Janet Cade and Professor Laura Hardie, both from Leeds.
The team studied data from UK Biobank, a database containing in-depth genetic and health information from half a million UK participants aged 40 to 69, to investigate associations between the consumption of different types of meat and the risk of developing dementia.
The data included how often participants consumed different types of meat, with six options ranging from never to once or more a day, collected from 2006-2010 by the UK Biobank. The study did not specifically assess the impact of a vegetarian or vegan diet on dementia risk, but did include data from people who said they did not eat red meat.
Among the participants, 2,896 cases of dementia emerged over an average of eight years of follow-up. These people were generally older, more economically deprived, less educated, more likely to smoke, less physically active, more likely to have a history of stroke and a family history of dementia, and more likely to carry a gene that is highly associated with dementia. In the study population, more men than women were diagnosed with dementia.
Some people were three to six times more likely to develop dementia due to well-known genetic factors, but the findings suggest that the risks from eating processed meat were the same regardless of whether or not a person was genetically predisposed to developing the disease.
Those who consumed higher amounts of processed meat were more likely to be male, less educated, smokers, overweight or obese, had lower fruit and vegetable consumption, and higher energy, protein, and fat (including saturated fat) intake.
Meat consumption has previously been associated with a risk of dementia, but this is believed to be the first large-scale study of participants over time to examine a link between specific types and amounts of meat and the risk of developing the disease.
There are approximately 50 million cases of dementia worldwide, with approximately 10 million new cases diagnosed each year. Alzheimer’s disease accounts for 50-70% of cases, and vascular dementia for approximately 25%. Its development and progression are associated with both genetic and environmental factors, including diet and lifestyle.
Dr Zhang said: “Further confirmation is needed, but the direction of the effect is related to current healthy eating guidelines, which suggest that reduced consumption of unprocessed red meat may be beneficial to health.”
Professor Cade said: “Anything we can do to explore potential risk factors for dementia can help us reduce rates of this debilitating condition. This analysis is a first step towards understanding whether what we eat might influence that risk.”
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