<div class="post-top"><a href="http://www.news-medical.net/news/20120313/Too-much-red-meat-in-diet-can-shorten-lifespan-Study.aspx">http://www.news-medical.net/news/20120313/Too-much-red-meat-in-diet-can-shorten-lifespan-Study.aspx</a></div>
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</div><h1 class="post xfolkentry singlePost"><a class="taggedlink" href="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</a></h1>
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<span id="date">Published on March 13, 2012 at 2:43 PM</span>
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<p>By Dr Ananya Mandal, MD</p> <p>According to Harvard researchers,
publishing this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the risk of
dying at an early age - from heart disease, <a href="http://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Cancer.aspx">cancer</a>, or any other cause, rises in step with red-meat consumption. Eating too much red meat, which is high in saturated fat and <a href="http://www.news-medical.net/health/Cholesterol-What-is-Cholesterol.aspx">cholesterol</a>,
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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>“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.”</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>“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.</p> <p>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 <a href="http://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Obesity.aspx">obesity</a> and <a href="http://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Type-2-Diabetes.aspx">type 2 diabetes</a>.</p><p>---------------------------------------</p>
<p>Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett</p></div>
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