September 7, 2011 – Red meat and more particularly deli meats would markedly increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Conversely, sources of protein such as nuts, low-fat dairy products and whole grains reduce this risk.
This was confirmed by a large epidemiological study conducted by the School of Public Health at Harvard University.1.
For example, consuming 100 grams of red meat per day (the size of a deck of playing cards) would increase the risk of diabetes by 19 percent.
Deli meats would have an even more detrimental effect: 50 grams daily (one hotdog sausage or 2 slices of bacon) would raise the risk percentage to 51 percent.
In addition, the researchers wanted to know if the fact of substituting a meal of red meat by other sources of protein would provide a beneficial effect.
The results are again conclusive. Replacing meat with nuts would decrease the risk rate by 21 percent. Likewise, whole grains or a low fat dairy product lower the risk percentage by 23 percent and 17 percent respectively.
According to the researchers, these results clearly indicate that we should avoid as much as possible cold meats, a major source of sodium and nitrites, as well as seek to reduce red meat consumption.
Previous studies had already highlighted the link between the consumption of cold meats and the development of type 2 diabetes.
However, this new study clarifies the impact of red meat in the onset of the disease. It is also the most important in terms of the number of participants since we compiled the data of 3 large cohorts totaling 442,101 participants.2 in addition to adding new data to this meta-analysis.
Claudia Morissette – HealthPassport.net
1.Pan, A., Sun, Q. et al. “Red meat consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes: 3 cohorts of US adults and an updated meta-analysis”, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2011, Published online August 10, print version, October 2011.
2. It gathered the data of a cohort of health professionals (37,083 men followed for 20 years), the cohort of Nurses’ Health Study 1 (79,570 women followed for 20 years) and the cohort of Nurses’ Health Study 2 (87,504 women followed for 14 years). The results took into account other risk factors such as age, body mass and lifestyle.
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