Does Red Meat Increase the risk of Type 2 Diabetes?

In the ongoing quest to understand the relationship between dietary choices and health, a recent study adds weight to the importance of substituting red meat with alternative protein sources for the prevention of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D).

The study, conducted with a vast cohort of 216,695 participants, sought to confirm the connection between red meat consumption and the incidence of T2D. The research involved the assessment of intakes of total, processed, and unprocessed red meat over 5,483,981 person-years of follow-up. The results are compelling.

Intakes of all types of red meat, including total, processed, and unprocessed, showed a positive and almost linear association with higher risks of T2D. For those in the highest quintiles of consumption, the hazard ratios (HR) were significant: 1.62 for total red meat, 1.51 for processed red meat, and 1.40 for unprocessed red meat.

The study then delved into the power of substitution. When one serving per day of nuts and legumes replaced total red meat, the risk of T2D was lowered by a substantial 30%. For processed red meat, substituting with these alternatives reduced the risk by an even more impressive 41%. Substituting dairy for total, processed, or unprocessed red meat also led to a significantly lower risk of T2D.

Ref: Xiao Gu, Jean-Philippe Drouin-Chartier, Frank M. Sacks, Frank B. Hu, Bernard Rosner, Walter C. Willett, Red meat intake and risk of type 2 diabetes in a prospective cohort study of United States females and males, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,2023, ISSN 0002-9165