US Study Shows High Health Risks of Eating More "Red" Meat
A 10-year US study shows that the more "red" meat such as beef, lamb, and venison, or the more processed meat products one consumes, the higher the health risks; however, this pattern does not apply to people who eat "white" meat such as pork, chicken, and turkey.
This research was jointly initiated by the US National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health and the senior organization AARP. Starting in 1995, researchers used questionnaires to track the meat-eating habits of over 500,000 American adults aged 50 to 71. Among them, 47,976 men and 23,276 women died during the study period.
According to a report by AFP on the 23rd, researchers grouped the participants based on different meat categories and their daily meat intake. They found that the mortality rate of the group with the highest daily intake of "red" meat was higher than that of the group with the lowest daily intake. The same pattern was found among people who ate processed meat products. The study indicated that if the "red" meat eaters reduced their consumption to the level of the lowest-consumption group, 11% of male deaths and 16% of female deaths could be avoided.
Meanwhile, in their research report, authors such as Reichman Singh said that the situation was different among "white" meat eaters: the mortality rate of the group with the highest intake of "white" meat was found to be slightly lower than that of the group with the lowest intake.
The report states that carcinogenic compounds are formed when meat is cooked at high temperatures, and meat is the primary source of saturated fat associated with cancer. Eating less meat helps reduce the risk of developing heart disease.