Eating meat is a risk factor for developing type-2 diabetes
A study involving 2m people around the world has found eating meat is a risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes.
A study involving 2m people around the world has found eating meat is a risk factor for developing type-2 diabetes.
Swapping processed meat such as sliced ham for unprocessed red meat or poultry was associated with a lower incidence of type-2 diabetes, it also said.
Researchers, from University of Cambridge, Dublin City University, University College Dublin and many others, said their results highlight “the importance of reducing meat consumption for public health”.
Among the adults analysed, the median amount of meat eaten every day was up to 110g a day for unprocessed red meat, up to 49g a day for processed meat, and up to 72g a day for poultry.
“Greater consumption of each of the three types of meat was associated with increased incidence of type-2 diabetes,” the study found.
Eating unprocessed red meat or poultry was linked with a lower risk of developing type-2 diabetes, they said, and they called for more research on this comparison.
People in Europe reported eating more processed meat than in other regions. People in America reported the highest levels of eating poultry, an analysis of data on 1.97m people shared through the InterConnect project showed.
The analysis shows regularly eating 50g of processed meat daily – about two slices of ham – is associated with a 15% higher risk of developing type-2 diabetes in the next 10 years.
Eating 100g of unprocessed red meat daily - equivalent to a small steak - was associated with a 10% higher risk of type-2 diabetes.
They found regularly eating 100g of poultry was associated with an 8% higher risk but this link became weaker as they tested under different scenarios. However the links for processed meat and unprocessed meat persisted.
“Our findings show that the consumption of unprocessed red meat, processed meat, and poultry were each associated with an increased risk of type-2 diabetes,” the study found.
“The associations varied across cohorts, but we found no specific factor - ie, age, sex, BMI, number of incident cases, follow-up duration, levels of meat consumption, dietary assessment approach, or geographical location - that could meaningfully account for this heterogeneity.”
Professor Nita Forouhi, at the University of Cambridge and the paper's senior author, said this is the most comprehensive evidence to date of these links.
“It supports recommendations to limit the consumption of processed meat and unprocessed red meat to reduce type 2 diabetes cases in the population,” she said.
“While our findings provide more comprehensive evidence on the association between poultry consumption and type-2 diabetes than was previously available, the link remains uncertain and needs to be investigated further.”
Researchers were based in Europe, Asia, Australia, Iran, Canada, Mexico and the US. Irish contributions are from the School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science, UCD and School of Health and Human Performance DCU.
The study “Meat consumption and incident type-2 diabetes: an individual-participant federated meta-analysis of 1.97m adults with 100,000 incident cases from 31 cohorts in 20 countries” is in the journal .
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
