Eating small amounts of red and processed meats can increase the risk of death

A new study from Loma Linda University Health suggests that eating even small amounts of red meat can increase the risk of all-cause deaths, especially cardiovascular disease.

Saeed Mastour Alshahrani, lead author of the study and PhD student at the School of Public Health at the University of Loma Linda, said the research filled an important gap left by previous studies involving relatively high levels of red meat consumption and comparing them to low intake.

"A question about the effect of lower absorption levels compared to a meat-free diet has remained unanswered," Alshahrani said. "We wanted to look more closely at the association between low intake of red and processed meat, all-cause cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality compared to those who did not eat meat at all."

This study, "Red Meat and Processed Meat and Mortality in a Low-Consumption Population" is part of the Adventist Health Study-2 (AHS-2), a prospective cohort study of approximately 96,000 Seventh-day Adventist men and women day in the United States. and Canada. The principal investigator of AHS-2 is Gary E. Fraser, MD, Ph.D., professor of medicine and epidemiology at Loma Linda University Health.

Adventists are a unique population: about 50% are vegetarians and those who consume meat at a low level. This allowed researchers to study the effect of low levels of red and processed meat consumption compared to zero consumption in a broad setting such as the Adventist Health study.

The study evaluated the deaths of more than 7,900 people over an 11-year period. The diet was evaluated with the aid of a quantitative questionnaire validated on the frequency of meals and the results concerning mortality were obtained from the National Index of Deaths. Of the people who consume meat, 90 percent of them consume only two ounces or less of red meat a day.

Nearly 2,600 of the reported deaths were due to cardiovascular disease and more than 1,800 were due to cancer. Processed meat – modified to improve flavor by drying, smoking or salting (like ham and salami) – only the risk of mortality was significantly associated, probably due to a very small proportion of the population that consumes this meat. However, total consumption of red and processed meat was associated with relatively higher risks of death from total illness and cardiovascular disease.

Michael Orlich, MD, Ph.D., co-director of AHS-2 and co-author of the present study, said these new findings corroborate a large body of research that asserts the potential adverse health effects of red meats and transformed.

"Our results give more weight to evidence already suggesting that eating red and processed meat could have a negative impact on health and longevity," said Orlich.

The study was published in nutrients in the special issue, Dietary Assessment in Epidemiology of Nutrition: The Public Health Implications of Lifelong Health Promotion.

Provided by
Loma Linda Adventist University, Center for Health Sciences