Study: Red meat consumption linked to higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes
A large new study by Harvard researchers suggests that eating just two servings of red meat a week increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life, and the risk increases even more with higher consumption, according to the study published Thursday in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, writes CNN.
“The association between red meat and type 2 diabetes has been observed in various populations around the world,” said the study’s first author, Xiao Gu, a postdoctoral researcher in nutrition at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.
“We continue to strengthen existing evidence with improved data and techniques. I hope our study could settle the debate about whether or not we should limit red meat consumption for health reasons.”
About 462 million people worldwide are affected by type 2 diabetes
About 462 million people worldwide are affected by type 2 diabetes, a number that has been rising rapidly, the authors said.
“Preventing diabetes is important because this disease itself is a serious burden and is also a major risk factor for cardiovascular and kidney disease, cancer and dementia,” Gu said.
Red meat consumption has been associated with type 2 diabetes risk in previous studies, but the authors of the latest research wanted to improve upon them by adding details about how diabetes diagnoses and related biomarkers were affected by consumption over a long period of time of time.
The authors studied 216,695 people
The authors studied 216,695 participants in the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS), Nurses’ Health Study II (NHS 2), and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS), all of which recruited participants between 1976 and 1989. The first two studies investigated risk factors for major chronic diseases among female registered nurses in North America, while the latter study assessed the same topics but for men.
Participants reported their health status every two years
Participants, mostly white, were on average 46 years old when NHS started, 36 years old when NHS II started and 53 years old when HPFS was initiated. All were followed up until 2017 at the latest. Participants reported their health status every two years via a questionnaire. Their dietary intake was also measured every two to four years using questionnaires asking them to report their average consumption of various foods and beverages over the past year.
Almost 22,800 people developed type 2 diabetes
At the end of the follow-up periods, nearly 22,800 people developed type 2 diabetes, and those who ate the most total red meat had a 62% higher risk of developing the disease compared to people who ate the least little bit. Eating the highest amount of processed or unprocessed red meat was linked to a 51% and 40% higher risk of type 2 diabetes, respectively.
What did the meat include? processed
Processed meat, as defined by the authors, included sausage, beef or pork hot dogs, ham, processed meat sandwiches; a portion equal to 28 grams of ham or 45 grams of the other types of meat.
What unprocessed meat included
Unprocessed meat included lean or extra lean hamburger, regular hamburger, beef, pork, or lamb as a sandwich or mixed meal; and pork, beef or lamb as a main course. Eighty-five grams of pork, beef or lamb constituted a serving of raw meat.
“The results of this study, which was extremely comprehensive, confirmed current dietary recommendations for limiting red meat consumption,” Alice Lichtenstein, the Gershoff Professor of Nutrition Science and Policy and Tufts University in Boston, said via email. Lichtenstein was not involved in this study.
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2023-10-20 08:02:00
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