Eating red meat and meat products does not appear to be associated with significant health risks in most people, according to an international study. The researchers recommended that healthy people continue to eat meat and meat products as much as they currently eat.
The study, which is widely believed, was prepared by an international team of doctors, after reviewing several previous studies on the subject.
The researchers, led by Bradley Johnston of the University of Dalhousie in Halifax, Canada, said in their study published in the latest issue of the Journal of Analytic Medicine, that their study only revealed a weak relationship between meat intake, cancer and diabetes, as well as heart disease and circulation. Bloody.
The team of 14 researchers made new dietary recommendations in the same journal based on data analysis of five synthesis studies.
May cause cancer
The International Agency for Research on Cancer, in the French city of Lyon, classified eating red meat - beef, pigs, sheep and goats - as "may cause cancer", and even products of these meat classified by the agency as "carcinogenic."
Therefore, many nutrition guidelines recommend eating less meat. "But these recommendations are based primarily on observational studies that were at risk of factors that could disturb the outcome," Johnston and colleagues wrote, "making it difficult to talk about a causal relationship."
The team reviewed all the medical studies related to this issue, which were published in the journal until July 2018, and are included in the database of the journal.
The researchers assessed the results of these studies, taking into account research methods and data quality and taking into account the factors of influence, to see how strong the results of these studies individually.
These influencing factors include, for example, preservatives such as sodium salt, nitrate and nitrite salts, or substances that arise from meat grilling.
The result of this rigorous review is that if humans eat less meat and eat three servings of meat a week - seven to four times - the risk of infection is only slightly reduced.
scale down
If 1,000 people eat less processed meat, the incidence of diabetes that is counted among these numbers will drop in 11 years by 12 cases.
If 1,000 people cut back on untreated meat, the number of deaths from cancer is lower than the average age by eight, and deaths from cardiovascular disease in 11 years will drop by four.
In all scenarios, this risk reduction was weak or very weak.
The researchers also took into account the comfort many people feel when eating meat.
After weighing the health risks and losing the sense of comfort of eating meat, Johnston and colleagues recommended that healthy people continue to eat meat and meat products as much as they currently eat.
However, the researchers do not take into account that giving up meat can be feasible for other reasons, such as animal rest, for example, or because of the effects of animal husbandry on the environment and climate.
Stefan Kapisch, an expert at the German Institute for Food Research in Potsdam, said the critical way researchers dealt with previous studies was correct. "In terms of nutrition, many factors are related to other factors, so it is not easy to find Causal relationships between cause and effect. "
However, Kabesh does not advocate changing current dietary recommendations, but instead sees in this study an additional motivation for better-quality studies on the relationships between nutrition and health.