First red meat...now should we pluck chicken from diet?
FOR those who love tucking into a chicken dinner, it’s enough to make you choke on your drumsticks.
A study has found that eating red meat and poultry just three times a week can increase the risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, pneumonia and other serious illnesses.
It is already well known that red and processed meat is linked to higher chances of getting bowel cancer.
But researchers wanted to assess whether regular meat consumption could be connected to any of the 25 most common non-cancerous illnesses for hospital admissions in the UK.
And as well as looking at the usual suspects such as bacon and sausages, they examined the effects of eating chicken and turkey.
Their findings add to growing concerns about health problems from eating too much meat. The team from Oxford University found eating red meat, processed meat and poultry three times a week or more could lead to a greater risk of developing a host of digestive conditions such as gallbladder disease.
The study of nearly 475,000 middle-aged Britons found that every 70g of unprocessed red meat and processed meat – the equivalent of three slices of ham or bacon – consumed daily raised their risk of heart disease by 15 per cent, diabetes by 30 per cent and pneumonia by 31 per cent.
And for every 30g of poultry meat a day, the risk of developing gastro- oesophageal reflux was increased by 17 per cent and diabetes by 14 per cent.
Lead author Dr Keren Papier said: ‘We have long known that unprocessed red meat and processed meat consumption is likely to be carcinogenic.
‘This research is the first to assess the risk of 25 non-cancerous health conditions in relation to meat intake in one study.’
The study, published in the journal BMC Medicine, acknowledged that weight is a factor – with many of the meat- eaters in the study overweight, and most of the increased risk of disease reduced once participants’ body mass index was taken into account.
Public Health England advises those who eat more than 90g of red and processed meat a day to cut down to 70g, the average daily consumption in the UK.