[Vision2020] Archives of Internal Medicine: Too much red meat in diet can shorten lifespan

[Ted Moffett]

http://www.news-medical.net/news/20120313/Too-much-red-meat-in-diet-can-shorten-lifespan-Study.aspx
 Too much red meat in diet can shorten lifespan:
Study<http://www.news-medical.net/news/20120313/Too-much-red-meat-in-diet-can-shorten-lifespan-Study.aspx>
Published on March 13, 2012 at 2:43 PM

By Dr Ananya Mandal, MD

According to Harvard researchers, publishing this week in the Archives of
Internal Medicine, the risk of dying at an early age - from heart disease,
cancer <http://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Cancer.aspx>, or any
other cause, rises in step with red-meat consumption. Eating too much red
meat, which is high in saturated fat and
cholesterol<http://www.news-medical.net/health/Cholesterol-What-is-Cholesterol.aspx>,
has long been seen as unhealthy, especially for the heart. The new study,
however, is the first to estimate the effect of red meat in diet on a
person's lifespan.

The researchers used data from two long-running studies of health
professionals, researchers tracked the diets of more than 121,000
middle-aged men and women for up to 28 years. Every four years, people in
the study were asked detailed questions about their eating habits. They
were also asked about other health determinants like smoking and drinking,
exercise, and body weight. Men were in their early 50s, on average, when
the study started. Women were in their mid-40s.

Roughly 20% of the participants died during that period. On average, each
additional serving of red meat the participants ate per day was associated
with a 13% higher risk of dying during the study. Additionally processed
red meat products -- such as hot dogs, bacon, and salami -- appeared to be
even more dangerous: Each additional daily serving was associated with a
20% higher risk of dying.

Researchers estimated that substituting one daily serving of red meat with
fish, poultry, nuts, legumes, whole grains, or low-fat dairy products would
reduce the risk of dying in this stage of life by 7% to 19%. If everyone in
the study had slashed their average red-meat intake to less than half a
serving per day, the researchers say, 9% of deaths among men and 8% of
deaths among women could have been prevented.

Pan and his colleagues found that the men and women in the study who ate
the most red meat also tended to be heavier, less physically active, and
more likely to smoke and drink alcohol than their peers. However, the
researchers did take those and other factors into account in their analysis.

“Our message is to try to reduce the red meat consumption to less than two
to three servings per week,” said lead author An Pan, a research fellow at
the Harvard School of Public Health, in Boston. “We don't want everyone to
be a vegetarian,” Pan said, though he added that avoiding processed red
meat altogether may be a good idea. “It's better to go with unprocessed
products and plant-based foods.”

Dean Ornish, the founder and president of the Preventive Medicine Research
Institute, in Sausalito, California, said a plant-based diet provides a
“double benefit” in that it reduces a person's exposure to the harmful
substances in meat while also providing valuable nutrients. “There are
literally hundreds of thousands of protective substances that you find in
fruits and vegetables and whole grains and legumes and soy products that
prevent disease,” said Ornish, who wrote an editorial accompanying the
study.

Pan explained that the reason red meat is harmful is because in addition to
the high saturated fat content, which can contribute to heart disease,
charring red meat at high temperatures can produce carcinogens on the
surface. And processed meats contain certain additives that in high
quantities are believed to promote cancer as well.

Robert Ostfeld, a cardiologist and associate professor of clinical medicine
at Montefiore Medical Center, in the Bronx, N.Y. said, “If you eat more red
meat, on average, you may be eating fewer fruits and vegetables, so you're
getting the bad things from the red meat and you're not getting the good
things from the fruits and vegetables… My preference is for people to have
as little red meat as they can, and I think it's ideal to avoid red meat.”
He was not a part of the study.

“Substituting almost any other food for red meat reduces risk, sometimes
substantially,” Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies, and
public health at New York University, told WebMD. “This is a call for a
more varied diet that substitutes other foods for red meats, especially
nuts,” said Nestle, who was not involved in the research.

The study echoes previous research which has also linked diets high in red
meat to a shorter life span. In 2009, a study by the National Cancer
Institute found that people who ate the equivalent of a quarter-pound
burger or small steak each day had about a 30% greater risk of dying over
10 years than people who only ate red meat occasionally. High red meat
consumption has also been linked to
obesity<http://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Obesity.aspx>and
type
2 diabetes <http://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Type-2-Diabetes.aspx>
.

---------------------------------------

Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20120313/76bd13f6/attachment-0001.html>