How your love of red meat could KILL you

Red meat, aside from being delicious, can add a number of beneficial nutrients to our diet, including iron and B12 vitamins.

In recent decades our passion for red meat has been growing.

And at the same time, there has been mounting evidence that the more red meat you eat, the greater your risk of several life-threatening diseases.

Now, a new review of the scientific studies to date, highlights that risk is real.

It warns eating red meat increases a person’s likelihood of being diagnosed with diabetes, coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke and various forms of cancer.

Researchers found eating just 100g of unprocessed red meat increases the risk of stroke and breast cancer by 11 per cent, fatal heart attack by 15 per cent, bowel cancer by 17 per cent and prostate cancer by 19 per cent.

Meanwhile eating just 50g of processed red meat increases the risk of all deaths from cancer by eight per cent, breast cancer by nine per cent, bowel by 18 per cent, pancreatic by 19 per cent as well as stroke by 13 per cent, and cardiovascular death by 24 per cent and diabetes by a staggering 32 per cent.

The authors, from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, said: “It is plausible to conclude that high consumption of red meat, and especially processed meat, is associated with an increased risk of several major chronic diseases and preterm mortality.”

The researchers considered average daily intake to be between 50g and 100g per person, with high consumption defined as being more than 200g a day. 

Processed meat differs from unprocessed meat in that it undergoes treatment to extend its shelf life, be it curing, smoking, salting or adding chemical preservatives.

Sausages, bacon, salami and frankfurters are all examples of processed red meat.

Red meat is thought to be dangerous because of the additives introduced when it is processed, and because it often contains antibiotics and hormones used to feed and treat the animals.

Furthermore, the practise of cooking meat at high temperatures, in a frying pan or on the barbecue, “may lead to the production of heterocyclic amines, which are thought to increase cancer risk in humans,” the researchers warned.

Other substances, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are considered carcinogenic, are also produced when meat is cooked.

The authors note that while there is a risk associated to eating red meat, it is more so for people who eat a lot, and more processed varieties.

“Concerns regarding health hazards related to high red meat intake and especially processed red meat intake, both of which have been increasing during recent decades.”

The NHS recommends eating no more than 70g of red and processed meat each day.

Those people who eat 90g a day – the equivalent of three thin slices of roast beef, lamb or pork – experts recommend cutting down.

The review is published in the Journal of Internal Medicine.

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