Eating More Red Meat May Mean Quicker Death
Increasing consumption of both processed and unprocessed red meat was associated with a greater risk of dying during the study period, data from two large, prospective studies showed.
Through up to 28 years of follow-up, each additional serving of red meat per day was associated with a relative 13% to 20% increased risk of all-cause mortality, with the higher risk attributed to processed meats, according to Frank Hu, MD, PhD, of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues.
It was estimated that 9.3% of the deaths in men and 7.6% of the deaths in women could have been prevented by consuming less than half of a serving of red meat (42 grams) per day, roughly equivalent to about one hot dog, the researchers reported online in Archives of Internal Medicine.
However, 77.2% of men and 90.4% of women consumed more than that during the studies.
Hu and colleagues examined data from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, which tracked men ages 40 to 75 at baseline from 1986 to 2008, and from the Nurses’ Health Study, which followed women ages 30 to 55 at baseline from 1980 to 2008.
The current analysis included 37,698 men and 83,644 women, all of whom were free from cardiovascular disease and cancer at baseline.
Eating red meat raises ‘substantially’ risk of cancer or heart disease death
Regularly eating red meat increases significantly risk of death from heart disease and cancer, according to a study of more than 120,000 people carried out over 28 years.
The findings show that each extra daily serving of processed red meat – equivalent to one hot dog or two rashers of bacon – raised mortality rate by a fifth.
Conversely, replacing red meat with fish, poultry, or plant-based protein foods contributed to a longer life. Nuts were said to reduce mortality rate by 20%, making a case for swapping roast beef for nut roast.
Data from 121,342 men and women taking part in two large US health and lifestyle investigations were analysed to produce the findings, published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.
The studies monitored the progress of their participants for more than 20 years and gathered information about diet.
Scientists documented 23,926 deaths, including 5,910 from heart disease and 9,364 from cancer, and there was a striking association in the data between consumption of red meat and premature death.
Diet was assessed at baseline and every four years using a food frequency questionnaire. Unprocessed red meat included beef, pork, lamb, or hamburger and processed red meat included bacon, hot dogs, sausage, salami, and bologna.
During follow-up, the amount of red meat eaten declined for both men and women.
There were 23,926 deaths, including 5,910 from cardiovascular disease and 9,464 from cancer.
Consistent with the analysis of all-cause mortality, each additional serving of red meat per day was associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular mortality (HRs 1.18 for unprocessed products and 1.21 for processed products) and cancer mortality (HRs 1.10 and 1.16).
That was after adjustment for several potential confounders, including age, body mass index, alcohol consumption, physical activity levels, smoking status, race, menopausal status and hormone use in women, family history of diabetes, MI, or cancer, personal history of diabetes, hypertension, or hypercholesterolemia, and intakes of total energy, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.
Additional adjustment for other foods or nutrients yielded similar findings. Adjustment for saturated fat, cholesterol, and heme iron weakened the relationships with cardiovascular mortality slightly, although they remained statistically significant.