Eating processed meat may increase your risk of diabetes, according to a new study

A new study sheds light on the connection between meat consumption and diabetes.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge published their findings in the latest issue of the journal The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, It found that regular consumption of processed meat and, to a lesser extent, regular consumption of unprocessed red meat lead to a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

To reach this conclusion, the research team analyzed data from 31 study cohorts participating in the InterConnect project. The cohorts included people from the Americas, the Eastern Mediterranean, Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Western Pacific. As the study explained, participants were eligible for inclusion if they were over 18 years old and provided “available data on dietary intake and incident type 2 diabetes.” This resulted in a total of 1,966,444 eligible study participants.

“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 Professor Nita Forouhi of the Medical Research Council’s Department of Epidemiology at the University of Cambridge and one of the study’s lead authors in a statement. “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.”

How much processed and unprocessed meat increases your risk? As the authors noted, for processed meat, it’s about 50 grams per day, or “the equivalent of 2 slices of ham,” according to the University of Cambridge. This resulted in a 15% higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the next 10 years. Eating 100 grams of unprocessed red meat per day, or a piece of meat the size of a small steak, was associated with a 10% higher risk of type 2 diabetes over the same period. As for poultry, the team found an association, but added that the data was not strong enough to draw a firm conclusion.

“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,” added Forouhi.

Of course, this is far from the first study to suggest that processed foods may not be the best choice for your health – including highly processed meat substitutes.

In July gastronomy reported on a study presented at the Nutrition 2024 conference that examined the eating habits of more than 500,000 people over a 30-year period. The team found that those who ate larger amounts of ultra-processed foods had a 10% higher risk of dying from all-cause mortality than those who chose to eat whole foods instead.

And at the beginning of August gastronomy also reported on another study conducted in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe The study showed that eating highly processed plant foods can increase the risk of serious health problems such as heart attacks and strokes. The results showed that for every 10 percent increase in calorie intake from highly processed plant foods, study participants had a 5 percent higher risk of heart disease and a 6 percent higher risk of coronary heart disease.

Still, some medical experts say this study should be taken with caution because the researchers were unable to account for other factors such as diabetes and family history of insulin resistance. As Dr Duane Mellor, a dietitian and spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association, told CNN, it’s “possible that the increased risk associated with eating processed and red meat is due to these other confounding factors.” However, others, such as Prof Naveed Sattar, an expert in cardiometabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, told the BBC: “This is an important study that is very well done despite the inevitable observational nature of the evidence.”

So what should you do, according to the Cambridge researchers? It’s simple. As they wrote in their conclusion, their study “supports the idea that reducing consumption of unprocessed red meat and processed meat could benefit public health.”