Regularly eating unprocessed red meat and processed meat may be associated with a higher risk of ischemic heart disease, diabetes and other significant health conditions, according to a new analysis of more than 470,000 adults.
The study, published in BMC Medicine, focused on data taken from the UK Biobank study.
“The World Health Organization and many national dietary advice bodies have in recent years recommended a reduction of red and processed meat consumption, based on consistent evidence linking high processed meat, and probably red meat consumption, with colorectal cancer risk,” wrote lead author Keren Papier, University of Oxford in the U.K., and colleagues. “While the association between meat intake and cancer risk has been comprehensively studied, there is less information on the association between meat consumption, especially poultry meat, and incidence of major non-cancerous health outcomes.”
Each participant’s dietary habits were evaluated using special questionnaires, and the researchers tracked the regularity of 25 common health conditions. Patients who chose not to answer questions about meat consumption—selecting “prefer not to say” or “do not know” during the questionnaire—were excluded from this part of the analysis. Each participant also answered questions about alcohol intake and how many cigarettes they smoke, providing more context into how these different factors relate to one another.
Overall, Papier et al. found that eating a higher amount of both unprocessed red meat and processed meat was linked to a heightened risk of ischemic heart disease, pneumonia, diverticular disease, colon polyps and diabetes. These trends were “similar” when looking at unprocessed red meat and processed meat separately.
“Differences in BMI across the categories of meat consumption appear to account for a substantial part of the increased risks, suggesting that residual confounding by adiposity may still operate,” the authors added.
In addition, consuming a higher amount of unprocessed red meat or poultry is associated with a lower risk of iron deficiency anemia.
The full study can be read 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.