Red meat consumption links to Increased diabetes risk

People who eat a lot of red meat increase their risk of developing type 2 diabetes, while those who cut down on red meat cut their risk.

Those are the findings of a large new study out of Singapore involving 149,000 United States men and women.

The researchers found that increasing the consumption of red meat can increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 48 percent.

“There is no need to have more red meat on your plate; it increases the risk of diabetes,” said lead researcher An Pan, an assistant professor at the Saw Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore.

“It is better to reduce your red meat consumption by replacing it with other healthy food choices, like beans, legumes, soy products, nuts, fish, poultry and whole grains,” he added.

For the study, Pan’s team collected data on three Harvard group studies: the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, the Nurses’ Health Study and the Nurses’ Health Study II. All the participants answered questions about their diet every four years, resulting in more than 1.9 million person-years of follow-up.

There were more than 7,500 cases of type 2 diabetes, the researches found.

Comparing diet with the cases of diabetes, Pan’s group found that people who increased their consumption of red meat by 0.5 servings per day during a four-year period were 48 per cent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, compared with people who ate less red meat.

Moreover, people who cut their red meat consumption were 14 percent less likely to develop type 2 diabetes, they found.