There are around 7.6 million people living with a heart or circulatory disease in the UK: four million men and 3.6 million women.
A new study led by researchers at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University and Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute looked at the possible association between red meat intake and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD).
Atherosclerosis is a hardening and narrowing of your arteries caused by cholesterol plaques lining the artery over time.
It can put blood flow at risk as your arteries become blocked.
The condition is both a heart and arteries problem.
The study, the first of its kind, looked at 4,000 US men and women aged over 65.
It found that for every 1.1 serving of meat per day, ASCVD risk increased by a staggering 22%.
The study also found that about 10% of this elevated risk is explained by increased levels of three metabolites produced by gut bacteria from nutrients abundant in meat.
Higher risk and interlinkages with gut bacterial metabolites were found for red meat but not poultry, eggs, or fish.
“These findings help answer long-standing questions on mechanisms linking meats to risk of cardiovascular diseases,” said the paper’s co-first author Meng Wang.
“The interactions between red meat, our gut microbiome, and the bioactive metabolites they generate seem to be an important pathway for risk, which creates a new target for possible interventions to reduce heart disease.”
By leveraging extensive clinical and dietary data among a large elderly community, the research “links the gut microbial pathway to animal source foods and heightened ASCVD risks,” said co-senior author Stanley L. Hazen, section head of preventive cardiology and rehabilitation at Cleveland Clinic.
Other key findings included:
- Higher intakes of unprocessed red meat, total meat (unprocessed red meat plus processed meat), and total animal source foods were prospectively associated with a higher incidence of ASCVD during a median follow-up of 12.5 years.
- The higher risk of ASCVD associated with meat intake was also partly mediated by levels of blood glucose and insulin and, for processed meats, by systematic inflammation but not by blood pressure or blood cholesterol levels.
- Intakes of fish, poultry, and eggs were not significantly associated with ASCVD.
Red meat includes beef, lamb, pork, veal and venison, and processed meat is classified as anything which has been modified by smoking, curing or adding salt or preservatives, such as bacon, ham, sausages or salami.
The UK recommendations are that people who eat 90g or more of red and processed meat a day should reduce this to 70g a day.
British Heart Foundation senior dietitian Victoria Taylor says: “When it comes to lowering our risk of heart and circulatory diseases, it’s our diet as a whole that will make more of a difference.
“While reducing our red and processed meat intake is recommended – you don’t have to banish red meat from the dining table.
“Most of us could benefit from a traditional Mediterranean-style diet.
“This means eating less meat, and more fish and plant-based protein, such as lentils, nuts and seeds – but also plenty of fruit, vegetables and wholegrains.”
