In a research article published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, Professor Koh Woon Puay of the Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, and colleagues report that greater consumption of red meat and poultry was associated with a significantly increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes — partially attributed to higher content of heme iron in these meats — in a Singaporean Chinese population.
Higher intake of red meat and poultry is associated with significantly increased risk of developing diabetes. Image credit: Snufkin.
Professor Puay and co-authors evaluated the relationships of red meat, poultry, fish, and shellfish intakes, as well as heme iron intake, with the risk of type 2 diabetes.
The researchers analyzed data from the Singapore Chinese Health Study, a population-based cohort study that recruited 63,257 Chinese adults aged 45–74 years from 1993 to 1998.
They found a positive association between intakes of red meat and poultry, and risk of developing diabetes.
“Specifically, compared to those in the lowest quartile intake, those in the highest quartile intake of red meat and poultry had a 23% and 15% increase in risk of diabetes, respectively, while the intake of fish/shellfish was not associated with risk of diabetes,” the authors explained.
“The increase in risk associated with red meat/poultry was reduced by substituting them with fish/shellfish.”
“Trying to understand the underlying mechanism for the role of red meat and poultry in the development of diabetes, we also investigated the association between dietary heme-iron content from all meats and the risk of diabetes, and found a dose-dependent positive association,” they said.
“After adjusting for heme-iron content in the diet, the red-meat and diabetes association was still present, suggesting that other chemicals present in red meat could be accountable for the increase in risk of diabetes.”
“Conversely, the association between poultry intake and diabetes risk became null, suggesting that this risk was attributable to the heme-iron content in poultry.”
While the findings are consistent with other Western studies that have shown that the increased intake of red meat and increase in heme-iron content of diet could increase the risk of diabetes, the study demonstrated the additional risk of red meat attributable to other possible chemicals, other than its heme-iron content.
It also suggested that chicken parts with lower heme-iron contents such as breast meat, compared to thighs, could be healthier.
Finally, the study also demonstrated the benefit of replacing red meat or poultry with fish/shellfish.
“Singaporeans don’t need to remove meat from the diet entirely,” Professor Puay noted.
“We just need to reduce the daily intake, especially for red meat, and choose chicken breast and fish/shellfish, or plant-based protein food and dairy products, to reduce the risk of diabetes. At the end of the day, we want to provide the public with information to make evidence-based choices in picking the healthier food to reduce disease risk.”
“Although a number of Western studies have consistently shown that red meat consumption should be moderated, this study is highly relevant as it is based on local population and consumption patterns.”
_____
Mohammad Talaei et al. Meat, Dietary Heme Iron, and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: The Singapore Chinese Health Study. American Journal of Epidemiology, published online August 22, 2017; doi: 10.1093/aje/kwx156
