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Red and processed meat are bad for you

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between 2010 and 2021, the global health burden linked to red meat nearly doubled, rising by about 44%.

In addition to being linked with cancer, stroke[1], type 2 diabetes mellitus[2][3], and overall mortality[4][5] (see also Schwingshackl et al., 2017a for best evidence).

Neuenschwander et al., 2023 finds a bunch of great health effects of swapping red and processed meat for nuts, legumes, whole grains etc.

Why is processed meat worse?

Red and processed meat health effects are sometimes, but not always linear

The dose-response between processed meat and cancer mortality is linear, but non linear for CVD (Wang et al., 2016)

References

  1. Chen G-C, Lv D-B, Pang Z, Liu Q-F. Red and processed meat consumption and risk of stroke: a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2013; 67: 91–95. https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2012.180 PMID: 23169473 ↩︎

  2. Feskens EJM, Sluik D, van Woudenbergh GJ. Meat consumption, diabetes, and its complications. Curr Diab Rep. 2013; 13: 298–306. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-013-0365-0 PMID: 23354681 ↩︎

  3. Micha R, Michas G, Mozaffarian D. Unprocessed red and processed meats and risk of coronary artery disease and type 2 diabetes—an updated review of the evidence. Curr Atheroscler Rep. 2012; 14: 515–524. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11883-012-0282-8 PMID: 23001745 ↩︎ ↩︎

  4. Sinha R, Cross AJ, Graubard BI, Leitzmann MF, Schatzkin A. Meat intake and mortality: a prospective study of over half a million people. Arch Intern Med. 2009; 169: 562–571. https://doi.org/10.1001/archinternmed.2009.6 PMID: 19307518 ↩︎

  5. Larsson SC, Orsini N. Red meat and processed meat consumption and all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis. Am J Epidemiol. 2013; kwt261. Available: http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/10/21/aje.kwt261.short ↩︎