Eating high amounts of red meat may raise diabetes risk by as much as 49%
- The study found that this risk increased with each additional serving of red meat.
- However, switching some red meat to healthier protein options like beans, nuts, chicken, or fish helped lower diabetes risk.
A large-scale study in the United States has found that consuming red meat in large amounts, especially processed meat, may be associated with a higher risk of developing diabetes, which increases with every additional serving.
Furthermore, for each additional daily serving of red meat, researchers observed a 10% to 16% increase in diabetes risk, depending on the type of red meat consumed.
The findings also indicate that substituting red meat with plant-based proteins or other healthier protein sources can help reduce this increased risk by as much as 14%.
The study adds to a growing body of research that has found that eating red meat, especially processed varieties like sausages or bacon, increases the risk of type 2 diabetes.
Another issue with processed meats is that they contain compounds formed during curing and high-heat cooking that may increase inflammation, the researchers point out.
Diets higher in processed red meat may be high in salt and nitrates, which may further impair insulin sensitivity. Such diets may also lack fiber-rich plant foods, which can affect blood sugar regulation.
Red meat is usually classified as muscle meat that comes from animal sources such as beef, pork, lamb, or goat.
Meat consumption and incident type 2 diabetes: an individual-participant federated meta-analysis of 1·97 million adults with 100 000 incident cases from 31 cohorts in 20 countries
Meat consumption could increase the risk of type 2 diabetes. However, evidence is largely based on studies of European and North American populations, with heterogeneous analysis strategies and a greater focus on red meat than on poultry. We aimed to investigate the associations of unprocessed red meat, processed meat, and poultry consumption with type 2 diabetes using data from worldwide cohorts and harmonised analytical approaches.
This individual-participant federated meta-analysis involved data from 31 cohorts participating in the InterConnect project. Cohorts were from the region of the Americas (n=12) and the Eastern Mediterranean (n=2), European (n=9), South-East Asia (n=1), and Western Pacific (n=7) regions. Access to individual-participant data was provided by each cohort; participants were eligible for inclusion if they were aged 18 years or older and had available data on dietary consumption and incident type 2 diabetes and were excluded if they had a diagnosis of any type of diabetes at baseline or missing data. Cohort-specific hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs were estimated for each meat type, adjusted for potential confounders (including BMI), and pooled using a random-effects meta-analysis, with meta-regression to investigate potential sources of heterogeneity.
Among 1 966 444 adults eligible for participation, 107 271 incident cases of type 2 diabetes were identified during a median follow-up of 10 (IQR 7–15) years. Median meat consumption across cohorts was 0–110 g/day for unprocessed red meat, 0–49 g/day for processed meat, and 0–72 g/day for poultry. Greater consumption of each of the three types of meat was associated with increased incidence of type 2 diabetes, with HRs of 1·10 (95% CI 1·06–1·15) per 100 g/day of unprocessed red meat (I2=61%), 1·15 (1·11–1·20) per 50 g/day of processed meat (I2=59%), and 1·08 (1·02–1·14) per 100 g/day of poultry (I2=68%). Positive associations between meat consumption and type 2 diabetes were observed in North America and in the European and Western Pacific regions; the CIs were wide in other regions. We found no evidence that the heterogeneity was explained by age, sex, or BMI. The findings for poultry consumption were weaker under alternative modelling assumptions. Replacing processed meat with unprocessed red meat or poultry was associated with a lower incidence of type 2 diabetes.
I have been an ovo-lacto-vegetarian Buddhist for more than 50 years. My Type 2 Diabetes showed up 30 years ago. My father and my mentor died of complications of diabetes after decades, including severe cataracts and torturous full-body neuropathy.
