Can replacing red meat with herbal alternatives reduce the risk of premature death? : Salt: NPR

A new study published in The bmj I can not tell you exactly how much red meat is acceptable to stay healthy or prevent disease.

But it helps to define a big picture and perhaps a bigger question: what does a healthy diet look like?

A diet consisting of a lot of nuts, seeds, fish, vegetables and whole grains – and perhaps up to an egg a day – seems to be better than a diet rich in red meat, especially processed meats such as only bacon and hot dogs.

There is already ample evidence that processed red meats have an increased risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers.

And this new study, which includes about 80,000 men and women, reveals that limiting red and processed meats can help reduce the risk of premature death.

"We followed the dietary habits of our participants for several decades," says study author Frank Hu, director of the Harvard T.H. Department of Nutrition's Chan School of Public Health. This allowed Hu and his colleagues to compare people who increases their consumption of red meat and processed over time with those who had a relatively stable consumption. On average, US adults consume approximately one serving per day.

Overall, those who increased their consumption of processed red meat by approximately 3.5 servings per week, giving a higher risk of death of approximately 13% over the eight-year follow-up period of the study.

"We felt that when people replace red meat and processed by nuts, seeds, fish [and other alternatives sources of protein, as well as vegetables and whole grains], their risk of death was reduced by more than 10% "during the follow-up period, explains Hu.

I asked Tom Sherman, a professor at Georgetown University, who teaches nutrition to medical students, to review the study. "At first, I thought," Oh no, another article shows that eating red meat is bad, "Sherman wrote by e-mail. "But actually, this one is pretty interesting" because it examines behavioral changes.

"The behavioral changes are enlightening and diagnostic enough," says Sherman. He says the changes may indicate that a person is starting to pay attention to his diet – or is starting to actively neglect it. And these changes "have respectively positive or negative impacts on their chronic disease risk: obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and cancer," he says.

This is an observational study, so it can not prove the cause and effect between diet and death. But he can create an association. According to Sherman, all observational studies on nutrition have the disadvantage of being difficult to dissociate the independent effect of changes in meat consumption from lifestyle-related factors, such as as body weight, physical exercise, alcohol consumption, etc. But these new discoveries concur proof.

Hu points out that in this new study, as well as in previous research, the risks associated with the consumption of red meat are higher – and more pronounced – with treaty red meats.

"Processed meats usually contain large amounts of sodium and preservatives," Hu said. In addition, high temperature cooking methods, such as broiling, can produce carcinogens. And recent research has linked high consumption of red meat – especially processed meats – to lower diversity and abundance of healthy bacteria in the gut. "It can contribute to increased risk," said Hu.

Sherman adds, "I'm still getting ready to share data on red and processed meat consumption and mortality, CVD [cardiovascular disease] or cancer risks with my students because it sounds incredibly scary. "

"Unfortunately," he says, "it seems to be right."