Eating lots of red meat could increase mortality risk
According to a recent study, eating lean proteins like nuts, fish and chicken could reduce a person’s mortality risk compared to a diet high in red meats, eggs and dairy.
The findings confirm that diets high in red meat and fatty proteins like eggs and cheese were not linked to a higher risk of dying among people who were otherwise healthy. But people with one other risk factor – like drinking lots of alcohol, smoking, being overweight or inactive – were more likely to see their death risk rise if they ate more red meat.
Researchers at the Harvard University led the study that spanned three decades and more than 130,000 people. It was observational in nature so it did not probe the biological reasons behind the changes in death risk according to diet, nor did it demonstrate cause and effect.
According to co-author Mingyang Song, a research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital, their findings suggest consuming more plant proteins, but when choosing animal proteins, fish and chicken are the better choices.
When researchers examined what kinds of protein were linked to higher mortality risk, they found them to be primarily processed and unprocessed red meats, including beef and pork.
The lowest mortality rate was seen among people who got their protein mainly from breads, cereals, pasta, beans, nuts and legumes.Song said researchers were surprised to see there was no apparently higher risk of dying among otherwise healthy red meat eaters.
“While we expected we might find the associations to be weaker in the healthy lifestyle group, we did not expect them to completely disappear,” he said.
“But when we looked deeper into the data, we found that — at similar levels of animal protein intake — those in the unhealthy lifestyle group consumed more red meats, eggs and high-fat dairy, while the healthy lifestyle group consumed more fish and poultry.”