“Spam” meat tied to diabetes risk in Native Americans: study
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Native Americans who often ate processed meat in a can, generically known as “spam” and a common food on reservations, one subsidized by the government - had a two-fold increased risk of developing diabetes over those who ate little or none, according to a U.S. study.
Native Americans are at especially high risk of developing diabetes, with nearly half having the condition by age 55.
Researchers writing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition surveyed 2,000 Native Americans from Arizona, Oklahoma and North and South Dakota to look into potential reasons for the high rate.
"A lot of communities in this study are in very rural areas with limited access to grocery stores… and they want to eat foods that have a long shelf life,” said Amanda Fretts, the lead author and a researcher at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
None of the survey participants, whose average age was 35, had diabetes at the start of the study when they answered questions about diet and other health and lifestyle factors.
After five years, a follow-up survey found that 243 people had developed diabetes.
Middle age and elderly women whose diets include a lot of red meat appear to have an increased risk of developing diabetes. Dr. Simin Liu, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and colleagues examined the association between red meat consumption and the risk of type 2 diabetes, the type that doesn’t necessarily require insulin.
A total of 37,309 participants in the Women’s Health Study were followed for an average of 8.8 years. The subjects were at least 45 years of age, and had never been diagnosed with heart disease, stroke, cancer, or diabetes when the study began. Food questionnaires were used to determine how much red meat the subjects ate.
During the study, 1558 women were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
Among the 500 people in the original study group who ate the most canned processed meat, 85 developed diabetes. In contrast, among the 500 people who ate the least amount of “spam,” just 44 developed the disease.
Though Spam is a brand-name pork product, the lower-case term is also used to describe any kind of processed, canned meat, Fretts said. Canned meat is available freely to many Native Americans on reservations as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food assistance program.
Fretts and her colleagues found that unprocessed meat did not have the same relationship with diabetes, with people equally likely to develop diabetes regardless of how much hamburger or cuts of pork or beef they ate.
If you’re worried about getting diabetes, you may be watching your diet, trying not to eat too many bagels, muffins, and other processed carbohydrates—but have you ever thought of skipping the steak, hot dog, or burger? A study published today in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that eating as little as one serving a day of red meat increases your risk of type 2 diabetes, the kind that typically affects adults and often occurs when cells stop responding to the hormone insulin.
“We found that one serving per day of processed meat like a hot dog or sausage was associated with a 50 percent increased risk of diabetes” compared with people who ate processed meat less than once a month, said study co-author Dr. Frank Hu, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. “That’s pretty high.”
Unprocessed meat, including steak, hamburgers, and pork chops, raised diabetes risk by 20 percent in those who ate at least four ounces a day, compared with those who ate that amount once a week.
Study participants had about a 7 percent risk, on average, of developing Type 2 diabetes over course of the studies ranging from 14 years to 28 years; a 50 percent increase in risk would raise that to a 10.5 percent risk, while a 20 percent increase in risk would raise it to 8.4 percent.
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By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff
“I think what this study indicates is processed meats should be a priority for reduction (in the diet), especially among American Indians where they can go to food assistance programs and they can get discounted spam,” said Dariush Mozaffarian, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health who was not involved in the study.
Mozaffarian and his colleagues two years ago conducted an analysis that found that processed meats were tied to a 19 percent higher diabetes risk, while unprocessed meats were neutral.
“I think the biggest difference between processed and unprocessed meats is sodium,” he said, though he added that there is no clear explanation for the link of processed meats and diabetes.
Fretts and her colleagues noted that the people who ate the most processed meats tended also to be heavier, with larger waistlines, raising the possibility that processed meats contribute to obesity, which raises the risk of diabetes.
In an emailed statement to Reuters Health, The American Meat Institute, which represents companies that process meat, said that “processed meats are a safe and nutritious part of a balanced diet.”
Fretts said the study could not prove that eating processed meats was to blame for the increased risk of diabetes.
“I think there needs to be more follow-up,” she said.
Amanda M Fretts,
Barbara V Howard,
Barbara McKnight,
Glen E Duncan,
Shirley AA Beresford,
Mihriye Mete,
Sigal Eilat-Adar,
Ying Zhang, and
David S Siscovick
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