Rise in red meat consumption leads to more diet-linked deaths

‘The island nations have limited land for meat production, so depend heavily on meat imports’

INCREASED red meat consumption worldwide has led to an increase in the number of diet-related illnesses and deaths, according to a study.

Since the early 1990s, the amount of processed and red meat products sold worldwide has more than doubled and now reaches more nations than ever.

US researchers looked at data from as far back as 1993 from 154 countries on the sale of 14 red meats such as beef, pork and lamb, and six processed foods made by smoking, curing or salting.

They counted the number of deaths from diet-related causes, such as type 2 diabetes, bowel cancer and coronary heart disease in over-25s.

Western and Northern Europe, along with island nations in the Caribbean and Oceania, were hardest hit by the increase in meat products, the researchers write in their paper, published in the journal BMJ Global Health.

Analysis of the figures revealed that increases in red and processed meat consumption accounted for 10,898 deaths in 2016-18, up nearly 75 per cent on the figures for 1993-5.

Another metric used to assess the health impact of the foodstuffs was years of life lived with disability, and data show food accounted for 313,432 in 2016-2018, a 90 per cent increase on 1993-1995. Between 1993 and 2018, island nations in the Caribbean and Oceania, and countries in Northern and Eastern Europe, became “particularly vulnerable” to diet-related disease and deaths associated with large meat imports, the researchers say.

Dr Min Gon Chung, of Michigan State University, said: “The island nations have limited land for meat production, so depend heavily on meat imports, while many of the European countries – such as Slovakia, Lithuania and Latvia – benefited from regional trade agreements and tariff exemptions after joining the European Union in 2003-4, which accelerated meat imports.”

In 1993-5, the countries with the highest proportion of deaths attributable to red meat were Tonga, United Arab Emirates, Barbados, Fiji, Gabon, Bahamas, Greece, Malta, Brunei and Saint Lucia.

In 2016-18, the top 10 was the Netherlands, Bahamas, Tonga, Denmark, Antigua and Barbuda, Seychelles, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Croatia and Greece. These countries accounted for more than 7 per cent of all diet-related deaths worldwide.