Red Meat Attacks the Heart

You may be an avid carnivorous, looking continuously for proteins, calcium and iron in the food, but here comes some bad news for you: people eating two or more servings of red meat daily are much more vulnerable to heart disease and diabetes. This is the result of a research published in the journal "Circulation," which connected this diet habit with a 25% higher risk of experiencing a group of conditions called metabolic, compared to people who had only two servings of meat weekly.

The metabolic syndrome refers to interconnected conditions like high accumulation of visceral fat, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, atherosclerosis and hypertension. The research also confirmed previous findings that connected diet soda consumption to a boost in the rate of heart disease and diabetes.

"When we found that diet soda promoted risk we were surprised. But then we thought about other behavior patterns. It may be associated with compensating for eating higher calorie food. People may say: 'I can eat this cookie because I am drinking this diet soda," co-author Dr. Lyn Steffen, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota, told Heath24.com.

"Lots of meat, fried foods and diet soda add up to heart disease and the conclusions add to a swelling body of evidence linking fast food with unhealthy lifestyles," wrote the authors.

The researchers investigated the diets of 9,514 subjects, aged 45 to 64, looking at precise details of their food habits. Questionnaires assessed the consume frequency for 66 food items, and the subjects were assigned to 2 categories: those following a western diet, rich on processed meat, fried foods and red meat; and a prudent diet comprising fruit and vegetables, with small quantities of fish and poultry.

"After 9 years, nearly 40% of those following a western diet developed three or more of the factors linked to metabolic syndrome," wrote the authors, who showed the results stood even when smoking and exercise were took into account.

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