Grilled meat, chicken ups risk of type 2 diabetes in U.S. adults

Open-flame and/or high-temperature cooking methods (such as grilling/barbecuing, broiling, or roasting) to prepare chicken and red meat are associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D), according to a study published online March 12 in Diabetes Care.

Gang Liu, Ph.D., from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues examined the correlation between open-flame and/or high-temperature cooking and doneness preferences for red meat, chicken, and fish in relation to T2D risk in U.S. adults who consumed more than two servings of animal flesh per week. Data were included for 52,752 women from the Nurses' Health Study (NHS), 60,809 women from NHS II, and 24,679 men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study.

During 1.74 million person-years of follow-up, the researchers documented 7,895 incident cases of T2D. Higher frequency of open-flame and/or high-temperature cooking was independently associated with an elevated T2D risk after adjusting for multiple variables, including baseline body mass index and total consumption of red meat, chicken, and fish. The pooled hazard ratio of T2D was 1.28 when comparing open-flame and/or high-temperature cooking used >15 times a month versus less than four times a month. The pooled hazard ratio for T2D was 1.20 when comparing the extreme quartiles of doneness-weighted frequency of high-temperature cooking. The correlations remained significant when chicken and red meat were assessed separately.

"Independent of consumption amount, open-flame and/or high-temperature cooking for both red meat and chicken is associated with an increased T2D risk among adults who consume animal flesh regularly," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to the nutrition industry.

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