How your daily ham sandwich could be making you sick

A slice of ham or salami on bread every day, we Dutch like it. But: it is not wise. This had already come to light through various studies, but a large mega-study has now found even stronger evidence. Processed meat and red meat can increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.

That is at the prestigious University of Cambridge explore. They looked at data from at least 31 studies, conducted in 20 countries. Almost 2 million people participated in all these studies. And it turned out that eating meat increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

It can go quickly

This mainly applies to processed meat (eg salami) and red meat (eg roast beef). Chicken and other poultry have also come under scrutiny, but to a lesser extent than other meats. More research is needed to see if that type of meat also increases risk.

Anyway, it can go very fast if you look at the sizes. Some results from the study:

• Two servings of processed meat – about 50 grams – on bread, for example, could increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 15 percent within 10 years.

• Eating 100 grams of red meat per day (that’s around a small steak, for example with dinner) can increase the risk of diabetes by 10 percent.

• Poultry, although better research is needed, can increase the risk by 8 percent with 100 grams per day.

To limit

Cambridge lead researcher Nita Forouhi explains the study: “This is the strongest evidence to date of a link between eating processed and red meat and an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes . without increasing the number of new diabetes cases.”

The data from the research comes from all over the world, but Cambridge emphasizes that there is not much available from Africa and wants more research there. Several factors were also analyzed, such as age, sex, energy intake and BMI.