Eating processed meat can lead to a heightened risk of major cardiovascular disease (CVD) events or mortality, according to new findings published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
“Evidence of an association between meat intake and cardiovascular disease is inconsistent,” first author Romaina Iqbal, PhD, an associate professor at Aga Khan University in Pakistan, said in a statement. “We therefore wanted to better understand the associations between intakes of unprocessed red meat, poultry and processed meat with major cardiovascular disease events and mortality.”
Iqbal et al. tracked the diets and outcomes of more than 134,000 individuals who enrolled in the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study. The participants, who came from 21 different countries, were followed for an average of nearly 10 years.
Overall, the group found that eating 150 grams or more of processed meat each week is associated with a 46% higher risk of CVD and a 51% higher risk of mortality compared to a person who eats no processed meat.
Eating reasonable amounts of unprocessed meat or poultry, however, appears to have no significant impact on the risk of CVD or death.
“The PURE study examines substantially more diverse populations and broad patterns of diet, enabling us to provide new evidence that distinguishes between the effects of processed and unprocessed meats,” senior author Salim Yusuf, executive director of the Population Health Research Institute at McMaster University in Canada, said in the same statement.
A recent study in BMC Medicine also explored this topic. The authors concluded that regularly eating unprocessed meat and processed meat is associated with a higher risk of ischemic heart disease, diabetes and other serious health issues.
Read the full analysis in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition here.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.