WASHINGTON: People who eat the most red meat and the most processed meat have the highest overall risk of death from all causes, including heart disease and cancer, US researchers reported yesterday.
The new study is one of the largest to examine the highly controversial and emotive issue of whether eating meat is indeed bad for health. The study found that eating the equivalent of a four-ounce (quarter-pound) hamburger daily gave men and women a much higher risk of dying, and of dying of heart disease and cancer, compared with those who ate less than an ounce of red meat a day.
“Red and processed meat intakes were associated with modest increases in total mortality, cancer mortality, and cardiovascular disease mortality,” said Rashmi Sinha of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, who led the study published in The Archives of Internal Medicine.
Even when other factors were accounted for — eating fresh fruits and vegetables, smoking, exercise, obesity — the heaviest meat-eaters were more likely to die over the next 10 years than people who ate the least amount of meat.
Research was conducted for over a decade and it found that those who ate more red and processed meats appeared to have an “increased” risk from overall deaths, and specifically from cancer or heart disease.
The researchers said thousands of deaths could be prevented if people simply ate less meat.
Of the half million people in the study, 47,976 men and 23,276 women died over the 10-year period. They ranged in age from 50 to 71.
“For overall mortality, 11 percent of deaths in men and 16 percent of deaths in women could be prevented if people decreased their red meat consumption,” Sinha’s team wrote.
Red meat and death, they said, were associated in several ways: Cancer-causing compounds are formed when meat is cooked at a high temperature. Meat is also a major source of saturated fat and contributes to risk factors for heart disease, including higher blood pressure and elevated cholesterol levels.
Saturated fat has also been associated with breast and colorectal cancer. Processed meats have a high level of sodium nitrate, considered by many to be carcinogenic.
To prevent cancer and heart disease, it is recommended people limit the intake of saturated fats and shift to a leaner diet.
Many studies show that people who eat less meat are healthier in many ways, and Sinha’s team noted that meat contains several cancer-causing chemicals as well as the unhealthiest forms of fat.
Two years ago another study affirmed the same link when findings showed that people who eat a great deal of red and processed meats have greater risk of developing bowel and lung cancer than people who eat small quantities, according to US National Cancer Institute.
Sinha’s team said that 11 percent of deaths in men and 16 percent of deaths in women could have been prevented if they had decreased their meat consumption to the equivalent of a quarter of a small hamburger a day. The chance of men dying of cardiovascular disease would have decreased 11 percent and for women, 21 percent.
A similar trend was found in the consumption of processed meats. People whose diets contained more white meat had lower risks of death.
Lona Sandon, a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, recommends that people replace high-fat red and processed meats with protein-rich foods such as poultry or fish, beans, eggs, and low-fat dairy. Also, she adds, filling half a plate with vegetables and a quarter with meat will help keep portions in control.
