People who increased their daily servings of red meat over an 8-year period were more likely to die during the subsequent 8 years compared to people who did not increase their red meat consumption, according to a new study led by researcher from Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. The study also found that decreasing red meat and simultaneously increasing health alternative food choices over time was associated with lower mortality.
Published online on June 12 in the British Medical Journal, researchers used health data from 53,553 women in The Nurses’ Health Study and 27,916 men in the Health Professionals’ Follow-up Study who were free of CVD and CA at baseline. They looked at whether changes in red meat consumption from 1986-1994 predicted mortality in 1994-2002, and whether changes from 1994-2002 predicted mortality in 2002-2010.
Increasing total processed meat intake by half a daily serving or more was associated with a 13% higher risk of mortality from all causes. The same amount of unprocessed meat increased mortality risk by 9%. The researchers also found significant associations between increased red meat consumption and increased deaths due to CVD, respiratory disease, and neurodegenerative disease.
The association of increases in red meat consumption with increased relative risk of premature mortality was consistent across participants irrespective of age, physical activity level, dietary quality, smoking status or alcohol consumption.
The researchers suggest that the association between red meat consumption and increased risk of death may be due to a combination of components that promote cardiometabolic disturbances, including saturated fat, cholesterol, heme iron (only found in meat), preservatives and carcinogenic compounds produced by high temperature cooking, as well as the gut-micobiota-derived metabolite TriMethylAmine N-Oxide (TMAO) associated with promoting atherosclerosis.