The Link Between Red Meat and Heart Disease May Be What's In Your Gut
Researchers tracked the diets of about 96,000 Seventh-day Adventist men and women in the United States and Canada. Throughout the eleven-year study, approximately 7,900 individuals died. The scientists found that the people who ate red meat, even the equivalent of just two small meatballs a day, reduced their life expectancy by almost 20%.
That’s a surprising finding, but it doesn’t mean you must stop eating all meat. In the United Kingdom, researchers wanted to compare the effects of red meat, poultry, fish or vegetarian diets on the development of cancer in the colon.
32,147 women were recruited for the study in England, Wales and Scotland. Researchers tracked them for an average of 17 years. At the conclusion of the study, the red meat and processed meat eaters experienced higher rates of colon cancer than the ones eating primarily poultry and seafood. Several studies suggest that as many as 1 in 5 bowel cancers in the United Kingdom can be linked to eating red or processed meats.
Cancer wasn’t the only negative effect that was linked to red meat.
In a study that observed 37,698 men and 83,644 women over 22 years, researchers documented 23,926 deaths. After going over all the major lifestyle and dietary risk factors, they found this.
“...consumption of meat, particularly red meat, is associated with increased risks of diabetes [AND] cardiovascular disease (CVD).”
Replacing one serving of red meat daily with other foods like fish, poultry, nuts, legumes, low-fat dairy, and whole grains can reduce mortality risk by 7 to 19%.
The researchers said, “We also estimated that 9.3% of deaths in men and 7.6% in women in these [studies] could be prevented at the end of follow-up if all the individuals consumed fewer than 0.5 servings [half a serving] per day (approximately 42 g/d) of red meat.” On average, researchers have found that each daily serving of processed or red meat increases the risk of heart disease by 22 percent.
Now scientists may finally have figured out what causes the risk, and the villain may be the chemicals your gut bacteria produce.
In a study done in the U.K., 3,931 people were followed for a median of 12.5 years, and their average age at baseline was 73. The study adjusted for common risk factors such as age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, smoking, physical activity, other dietary habits, and many additional risk factors.
The researchers found three significant things that link eating red and processed meat to heart disease. Two, that have been documented by numerous studies, are elevated blood sugar levels and general inflammation in the body. The surprising third one is gut bacteria.
To be more accurate: microbiome-related substances. One in particular, trimethylamine N-oxide metabolite, also known as TMAO, appears to be the main culprit. Higher levels of it in your gut microbiome can make you more susceptible to damage from eating red meat. High blood levels of TMAO have also been associated with a higher risk for chronic kidney disease and Type 2 diabetes.
That means three things, elevated blood sugar levels, general inflammation and the makeup of your gut microbiome are MORE IMPORTANT than things like cholesterol or blood pressure in causing heart disease. Because of these findings, researchers now say that it is more important to understand the health effects of other things in meat, like L-carnitine and heme iron, instead of just focusing on the amount of fat or cholesterol.
This study opens up the possibility of using your gut to treat or even prevent heart disease in the future. But for now, the only sure thing to do is limit how much red meat you eat.
Here’s what the American Heart Association says:
"Cardiovascular disease – which includes heart attacks and strokes – is the leading cause of death in the U.S. and around the world. As people age, their cardiovascular disease risk increases.
But risks can be lowered by eating a diet emphasizing fruits and vegetables, legumes, nuts, whole grains, lean protein and fish, staying physically active, getting enough sleep, maintaining a healthy body weight, not smoking and properly managing blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels.”
IMPORTANT NOTE: This study is an important step, but it is not the final word. While microbiome biomarkers were directly measured in the blood, study participants’ dietary habits were self-reported. That means the study findings are observational and cannot be used to prove cause and effect. The risk is real, but more studies are needed before establishing a definitive link.
Reference Links:
Red Meat Consumption and Mortality Results From 2 Prospective Cohort Studies
An Pan, PhD; Qi Sun, MD, ScD; Adam M. Bernstein, MD, ScD; et al
Archives of Internal Medicine, Published Apr 9, 2012; 172(7):555-563. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2011.228
Meat consumption and mortality - results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition
Sabine Rohrmann, Kim Overvad, H Bas Bueno-de-Mesquita, Marianne U Jakobsen, Rikke Egeberg, Anne Tjønneland, Laura Nailler, Marie-Christine Boutron-Ruault, Françoise Clavel-Chapelon, Vittorio Krogh, Domenico Palli, Salvatore Panico, Rosario Tumino, Fulvio Ricceri, Manuela M Bergmann, Heiner Boeing, Kuanrong Li, Rudolf Kaaks, Kay-Tee Khaw, Nicholas J Wareham, Francesca L Crowe, Timothy J Key, Androniki Naska, Antonia Trichopoulou, Dimitirios Trichopoulos, Max Leenders, Petra HM Peeters, Dagrun Engeset, Christine L Parr, Guri Skeie, Paula Jakszyn, María-José Sánchez, José M Huerta, M Luisa Redondo, Aurelio Barricarte, Pilar Amiano, Isabel Drake, Emily Sonestedt, Göran Hallmans, Ingegerd Johansson, Veronika Fedirko, Isabelle Romieux, Pietro Ferrari, Teresa Norat, Anne C Vergnaud, Elio Riboli & Jakob Linseisen
BMC Medicine, Published 07 March 2013
Dietary Meat, Trimethylamine N-Oxide-Related Metabolites, and Incident Cardiovascular Disease Among Older Adults: The Cardiovascular Health Study
Meng Wang, Zeneng Wang, Yujin Lee, Heidi T.M. Lai, Marcia C. de Oliveira Otto, Rozenn N. Lemaitre, Amanda Fretts, Nona Sotoodehnia, Matthew Budoff, Joseph A. DiDonato, Barbara McKnight, W.H. Wilson Tang, Bruce M. Psaty, David S. Siscovick, Stanley L. Hazen and Dariush Mozaffarian
Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, Published 1 Aug 2022https://doi.org/10.1161/ATVBAHA.121.316533
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4/28/2023
