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Diabetes and Influences from Meat Consumption

Reducing Risk of Diabetes -- Harvard Medical School Recommendations

To help lower diabetes risk, Harvard Medical School recommends: 

"Limiting red meat—steak, hamburger, pork chops, and the like—

and avoiding processed meat—bacon, hot dogs, and deli meats.
They mention alternate protein sources such as nuts, beans, couscous and quinoa.
Help save your friends and loved ones from the growing epidemic of diabetes.
Tell them to find what the experts are saying.

Cut Diabetes Risk by Picking Other Proteins Than Meat

Frank B. Hu, MD, PhD, of Harvard School of Public Health, and colleagues studied
about 200,000 individuals diet and disease links.  They also conducted a meta-analysis, combining prior data for a total of 442,101 participants, 28,228 of whom developed type 2 diabetes. 

"Clearly, the results from this study have huge public health implications given the rising
type 2 diabetes epidemic and increasing consumption of red meats worldwide,"
Dr. Hu comments.  "The good news is that such troubling risk factors can be offset by
swapping red meat for a healthier protein."  This is one of the first major studies linking
meat consumption with diabetes risk and to calculate the benefits of eating low-fat
dairy or plant proteins such as nuts and whole grains instead. 

"How much meat is to much?  Dr. Hu advises limiting processed meat to one serving
a week and unprocessed red meat to 2 or 3 weekly servings.  He says, "I think that's
the level above which it appears to be associated with a substantial increased risk."

Ref: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Oct 2011 via
Health & Nutrition Letter, Nov 2011, Vol., 29 from Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition

Process Meat Increases the Risk of Diabetes

A Harvard study of more than 40,000 health professionals showed that those who ate hot dogs, salami, bacon, or sausages two to four time per week increased their risk of diabetes by 35%.   Those who ate those produces five or more times per week experienced 50% increased risk.

Refs:  Diabetes Care, March 2002:25(3), Van Dam RM, Willett WC, Rimm EB,
Stampfler MF, Hu FB:  Dietary Fat and Meat Instake in Relation to Rick of
Type 2 Diabetes in Men.  (PCRM Good Medicine Summer 2008, p. 8)

For comprehensive info, check American Dietetic Association web link:    http://eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada/hs.xsl/nutrition_5105_ENU_HTML.htm
Meat and Iron & Diabetes  

In a study of roughly 70,000 women, those we the most red meat ( about one serving per day ) had a 22 percent higher risk of diabetes than those who ate the least ( about one serving per week ):  Arch. Intern, Med 164:2235, 2004

One possible culprit: Ireland, or, more precisely, the heme iron found in animal foods.  "Heme iron is much more readily absorbed, even if you already have enough on board, " explains Dr. Walter Willett, Chairman of Harvard's Health Department.

" we're better at regulating the non-heme iron that we get from plants and other supplements.  "

The sodium nitrite this added to processed meats ( like hotdogs, bacon and lunchmeats ) for color and as a preservative could also play a role.  In a study of 42,000 men, those who ate the most processed meats ( 5 times a week ) had a 46 percent higher risk of diabetes than those who ate the least ( twice a month ).  

From Diabetes Care 25: 417, 2002  -- Excerpts from the Nutrition Action Health Letter, September 2008 published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest , pages 5, 10, 11

Cut Diabetes Risk by Picking Other Proteins Than Meat

Frank B. Hu, MD, PhD, of Harvard School of Public Health, and colleagues studied
about 200,000 individuals diet and disease links.  They also conducted a meta-analysis,
combining prior data for a total of 442,101 participants, 28,228 of whom developed type 2 diabetes. 

"Clearly, the results from this study have huge public health implications given the rising
type 2 diabetes epidemic and increasing consumption of red meats worldwide,"
Dr. Hu comments.  "The good news is that such troubling risk factors can be offset by
swapping red meat for a healthier protein."  This is one of the first major studies linking
meat consumption with diabetes risk and to calculate the benefits of eating low-fat
dairy or plant proteins such as nuts and whole grains instead. 

"How much meat is to much?  Dr. Hu advises limiting processed meat to one serving
a week and unprocessed red meat to 2 or 3 weekly servings.  He says, "I think that's
the level above which it appears to be associated with a substantial increased risk."

Ref: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Oct 2011 via
Health & Nutrition Letter, Nov 2011, Vol., 29 from Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition

Another study, this one of more than 200,000 people found a "strong and consistent relationship between the intake of red and processed meat and the risk of developing diabetes."  The researchers estimated that, if one serving of red meat per day was replaced with a serving of nuts or grains the risk would be 21% or 23% lower respectively.  Substituting a serving of read meat with fish or poultry had less of an effect on type 2 diabetes risk reduction than did replacing red meat with either nuts or whole grains.

Ref:  Red meat consumptions and risk of type 2 diabetes:  Am Journal of Clinical Nutrition 94:  1088-96 via Vegetarian Journal, vol. 31, 2012, p. 25

Vegetarians are at lower risk for non-insulin-dependent diabetes, partly because they are leaner than non-vegetarians.  The vegetarians' high intake of complex carbohydrates, with its relatively high fiber content, improves carbohydrate metabolism, lowering basal glucose levels.

Ref:  Position of the American Dietetic Association: Vegetarian Diets

Head of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Dr. Neil Barnard’s published a reversing diabetes program

http://www.pcrm.org/health/diabetes/fact_sheets.html


 

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