Abstract
Dietary guidelines emphasize selecting lean (low-fat) meats to reduce saturated fat and cholesterol, but growing evidence suggests that health effects may relate to other ingredients, such as sodium, heme iron, or L-carnitine. Understanding how meats influence health, and on which nutrients this relationship depends, is essential to advise consumer choices, set guidelines, and inform food reformulations. A recent study published in BMC Medicine involving 448,568 participants in 10 European countries, provides important evidence in this regard. After multivariate adjustment, intake of unprocessed red meat was not significantly associated with total or cause-specific mortality; conversely, intake of processed meat was associated with a 30% higher rate of cardiovascular disease (CVD) (per 50 g/day, relative risk 1.30, 95% confidence interval 1.17 to 1.45) and also higher cancer mortality. These findings are consistent with our previous meta-analysis, based on smaller studies, showing strong associations of processed meats, but not unprocessed meats, with CVD. Preservatives are the notable difference; the calculated blood-pressure effects of sodium differences (around 400% higher in processed meats) explain most of the observed higher risk. Although unprocessed red meats seem to be relatively neutral for CVD, healthier choices are available, including fish, nuts, legumes, fruits, and vegetables. Public-health guidance should prioritize avoidance of processed meats, including the low-fat deli meats currently marketed as healthy choices, and the food industry should substantially reduce sodium and other preservatives in processed meats.See related research article here http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/11/63.
Highlights
Eating red meat is commonly considered to be a major dietary risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD)
In calibrated and adjusted models for various lifestyle and dietary factors, consumption of unprocessed red meat was not significantly associated with CVD mortality (per 100 g/day, relative risk (RR) = 1.09, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.00 to 1.18); consumption of unprocessed poultry was associated with a non-significant trend toward lower risk; and consumption of processed meat was associated with a 30% higher risk
Subsequent analyses from large prospective cohorts in the USA supported stronger associations of processed meat intake with CVD, and suggested statistically significant, modest, associations of unprocessed red meats [12,13]. This investigation in European Prospective Investigation into Cancer (EPIC), including nearly half a million participants across 10 European countries and more than 5,000 cardiovascular events, confirms that consumption of processed meat is strongly associated with CVD risk, and that consumption of unprocessed red meat has little to no association
Summary
Eating red meat is commonly considered to be a major dietary risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Most of the focus has been on the saturated fat and cholesterol content, leading to public-health emphasis on selecting lean meats and moderating overall meat consumption [1], yet a growing body of evidence indicates that the story is not so simple. Whether compared with the overall background diet or with carbohydrate consumption, overall intake of saturated fat is consistently unrelated to incidence of CVD [2,3,4]. The health effects of red meat may be most strongly related to other ingredients, such as sodium or other preservatives present in processed meats [5],
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