New research from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health provides strong evidence that higher intakes of red meat – just two servings per week – increases the risk of type 2 diabetes later in life.Yet the quality of such evidence, while statistically significant, has been deemed low by some research groups owing to the limitations of observational research, such as relying on unreliable self-reported food intake, for example.
The chronic disease, rising rapidly worldwide, is the leading cause of illness and death globally. .The study, published online this month in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, included 216,696 participants, 81 per cent female, from the ongoing Nurses’ Health Study, Nurses’ Health Study II and Health Professionals Follow-up Study in the United States.
Participants who consumed the most total red meat – versus the least – were 62 per cent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes during the study period. Each additional daily serving of red meat increased diabetes risk further – 46 per cent for processed red meat and 24 per cent for unprocessed red meat.