Even eating a little red meat can increase the risk of death

New research shows that eating small amounts of red and processed meat can increase the risk of all-cause death, especially cardiovascular disease.

Well, there it is. While we are generally preaching moderately, a new study from Loma Linda Health Health University puts forward the fact that consumption of even minimal red and processed meats can have an impact on all-cause mortality confused, including cardiovascular diseases.

The study's lead author, Saeed Mastour Alshahrani, said that although previous research has compared the risks of eating more meat with less meat, the new research looks at the consumption of small amounts of meat instead of not eating any.

"A question about the effect of lower intakes 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."

The researchers took an interesting approach using data from Adventist Health Study-2 (AHS-2), a prospective cohort study of some 96,000 Seventh-day Adventist men and women in the United States and Canada. Unlike the more varied diets of other cohorts, about half of Adventists are vegetarians and those who consume meat do so 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 an environment as vast as the Adventist Health Study," according to a statement by Loma Linda .

The study analyzed deaths of over 7,900 people over a period of eleven years. Of the people who consume meat, 90 percent of them consume only two ounces or less of red meat a day.

"We found that the highest intake of red meat and processed meat was associated with an all-cause mortality risk of 18 to 51% higher than among zero-consumption participants," the study notes. But even lower intakes were problematic.

The study concludes: "We found higher mortality from all causes and from cardiovascular disease, associated with relatively low consumption of red and processed meat (and unprocessed red meat in particular), compared with zero consumption ".

Of course, it is always good to remember that, as the authors point out, care should be taken to derive a causal link from observational data. Nevertheless, they say, "these results suggest possible adverse effects of red and processed meat, even with low to moderate levels of ingestion".

As the co-author of the study, Michael Orlich, MD, Ph.D .: "Our results give more weight to evidence that already suggests that eating red and processed meat may have a negative impact on health and life span. "

The study, Red meat and processed meat and mortality in a population with low meat consumption, was published in the journal Nutrients.