If you love cold cuts, we have bad news.
Eating both red and processed meat significantly increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, according to a new study in The Lancet magazine Diabetes and EndocrinologyThe probability is even higher if you eat just two slices of ham a day.
The researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, discovered this link after analyzing health data from 1.9 million participants from around the world as part of the InterConnect project, a European Union-funded initiative to research diabetes and obesity.
One finding: Regular consumption of unprocessed red meat – about 100 grams per day – increased the risk of developing diabetes by about 10 percent.
And eating 50 grams of processed meat a day – the equivalent of just two slices of ham – increases the risk of diabetes by about 15 percent.
“Our research provides the most comprehensive evidence to date of an association between consumption of processed meat and unprocessed red meat and a higher future risk of type 2 diabetes,” said Nita Forouhi, professor of epidemiology at Cambridge and lead author of the study, in a statement about the findings. “It supports recommendations to limit consumption of processed meat and unprocessed red meat to reduce the number of type 2 diabetes cases in the population.”
Overall, the conclusion seems to be that meat consumption correlates surprisingly strongly with the risk of diabetes. Eating just 100 grams of poultry per day increased the risk of diabetes by eight percent, according to the study. However, further analysis of the data showed that this connection was weaker than with red and processed meat.
“Although our results provide more comprehensive evidence of the association between poultry consumption and type 2 diabetes than previously available, the association remains uncertain and needs further investigation,” said Forouhi.
The overall result of the study is surprising, as it is widely accepted that consumption of refined carbohydrates is one of the main risk factors for type 2 diabetes.
“The underlying mechanisms linking meat consumption to the development of type 2 diabetes are not yet fully understood,” the study says. It suggests that eating certain types of meat disrupts insulin sensitivity or the human gut microbiome, leading to type 2 diabetes.
According to the researchers, further studies are needed.
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