Can You Get Heart Disease From Eating Beef
Does eating meat increase your risk of heart disease?
5 February 2020
The headlines suggest that eating more meat could increase your risk of heart and circulatory problems. We look at the truth behind this coverage.
A higher meat intake could slightly increase your risk of heart and circulatory problems and an early death, according to research from the US.
The research, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, found that a higher intake of processed meat, unprocessed red meat, or poultry was associated with a small increased risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, heart failure, and death related to heart and circulatory disease.
The researchers, from Northwestern and Cornell universities, also found that a higher intake of processed meat or unprocessed red meat, but not poultry or fish, was associated with a small increased risk of early death.
Specifically, they found that eating two servings a week of processed meat was linked to a 7 per cent higher risk of heart and circulatory diseases, compared to eating none at all.
Red meat includes beef, lamb, pork, veal and venison
They also found that when it comes to unprocessed red meat, the risk of heart and circulatory diseases increased by 3 per cent with every two (large) servings per week, and the risk of early death (from all causes) increased by 3 per cent.
It's worth remembering that a 3 per cent (or even a 7 per cent) increase in risk is a small increase, especially if your level of risk is low to start with. Also, these findings are based on the average increase in risk across thousands of people and can be difficult to apply directly to individuals.
Red meat includes beef, lamb, pork, veal and venison, and processed meat is classified as anything which has been modified by smoking, curing, or adding salt or preservatives, such as bacon, ham, sausages or salami.
The researchers analysed six existing studies from America, which included the data of 30,000 people that was collected between 1985 and 2002.
Out of 30,000 people there were 6,963 heart and circulatory events and 8,875 total deaths during the average 19 year follow up.
How good was the research?
The research included six observational studies covering a fairly diverse study population, so the results are likely to be broadly representative of the general public (at least in the US).
The UK recommendations are that people who eat 90g or more of red and processed meat a day should reduce this to 70g a day.
A weakness of this study is that it defined a portion of red meat as 4oz (or 120g), and this is more than the average daily intake that the UK government has based its guidelines on (around 70g per day).
If the research is looked at this way, the findings could have been quite similar to previous research, which suggested that while it may be beneficial to cut down, eating within the recommendations for meat is probably safe.
The UK recommendations are that people who eat 90g or more of red and processed meat a day should reduce this to 70g a day.
The people in the study who ate meat most often likely to be younger, male, current smokers and more likely to have diabetes, higher body mass index, higher cholesterol levels and lower diet quality. Because this type of study can only show an observation rather than cause and effect, it could be these or other differences that caused the results. The researchers adjusted their findings to account for many possible differences, but this process isn't perfect.
Also, the research was based on self-reported data like questionnaires, and what people say they eat and what they actually eat could be different. Also, these people were only asked about their diet once when they entered the study, and their diets may have changed during the average 19 years of follow-up after that.
The study also didn't consider how the meat was prepared. This could explain the findings that linked poultry (such as chicken) with heart and circulatory diseases, because it could have been eaten as fried or processed chicken, with the added fat and salt that comes with it.
The BHF view
BHF Senior Dietitian, Victoria Taylor, says: "When it comes to lowering our risk of heart and circulatory diseases, it's our diet as a whole that will make more of a difference. While reducing our red and processed meat intake is recommended – you don't have to banish red meat from the dining table.
"Most of us could benefit from a traditional Mediterranean-style diet. This means eating less meat, and more fish and plant-based protein, such as lentils, nuts and seeds – but also plenty of fruit, vegetables and wholegrains."
The media coverage
The Daily Mail's headline 'Red meat IS bad for you' is not necessarily accurate, as the study shows that eating more red meat is associated with health problems, but could not establish a direct cause and effect.
The Sun focused their headline on chicken rather than red meat: 'EATING chicken just twice a week increases your risk of heart disease, a major study claims'. This is a surprising finding, although we don't know from the study whether any of the poultry was processed – in which case it might have salt added or a higher proportion of fat.
Source: https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/news/behind-the-headlines/meat-and-heart-disease
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