November 9 STUDY FAILS TO FIND EVIDENCE THAT RED MEAT IS LINKED TO INFLAMMATION
MedicalResearch.com interview with:
Dr. Alexis C. Wood
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)/ARS
Child Nutrition Research Center
Baylor College of Medicine, Texas
MedicalResearch.com: What is the context of this study?
Answer: We know (we think!) that what we eat has a big influence on our health. However, discovering which foods influence our health, and how, is a real challenge. Research on this topic should be viewed as an ongoing process as new results and study methods emerge and the food environment evolves.
Red meat is often considered a food that should be minimized in diets intended to promote good health. This may seem surprising since red meat is a good source of protein and many other nutrients, but advice to limit red meat consumption is based on several large-scale studies showing associations between meat consumption red and the development of diseases such as type 2 diabetes. , and other factors linked to the risk of cardiovascular disease. However, more recent research, with different designs or approaches, has struggled to conclusively support this association; for example, in studies where the amount of red meat in people’s diets is manipulated, we do not see the expected increases in risk. Other studies have suggested that any association between red meat consumption and chronic disease may reflect confounding effects due to adiposity – that is, the increased disease risk actually reflects the associated increased risk at a higher BMI.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?
Answer: Our main finding was that consumption of red meat, whether processed or not, was not associated with inflammation (a risk factor for some chronic diseases of adulthood), when we adjusted for BMI people.
We also looked for associations between unprocessed red meat consumption and plasma metabolites. We found that eating red meat was associated with lower levels of an amino acid in the blood, an amino acid that has anti-inflammatory effects. However, red meat does not have a major influence on blood levels of this amino acid, again suggesting that there are other factors that drive this inflammatory pathway.
MedicalResearch.com: Are processed meats/other foods known to directly cause inflammation?
Answer: I think it’s very difficult to say that certain foods are “known” to have health effects! As I said, we must continue to refine and approve our studies, weigh all the evidence, and estimate the likelihood that a given food increases the risk of inflammation. Currently, it appears that high amounts of saturated fat, or high amounts of saturated fat that are not balanced by certain anti-inflammatory unsaturated fats, are good candidates for increasing inflammation.
Therefore, foods that meet this nutritional profile (i.e., are high in saturated fat only) are considered the foods most likely to contribute to increased inflammation.
MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?
Answer: Readers should be aware that we have another line of evidence suggesting that unprocessed red meat does not have a negative impact on health. Therefore, unless advised otherwise by your doctor(s), reducing the amount of unprocessed red meat you consume, in and of itself, may not be the top priority for promoting health.
MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research following this study?
Answer: Our study was observational, meaning we asked people about their usual diet while simultaneously measuring inflammation and metabolites (including the amino acid associated with eating unprocessed red meat) in their blood, and looked for associations. This approach has many advantages, but, like all study designs, it also has many limitations.
Therefore, I would recommend that future studies include trials in which the amount of red meat a person consumes is manipulated, as well as studies on animals raised in highly controlled environments.
Our research groups plan to expand this study by examining other aspects of biology, in addition to metabolites, and using longitudinal data to examine changes in diet and disease risk over time. . We can’t wait to see what this data shows!
MedicalResearch.com: Is there anything else you would like to add? Revelations?
Answer: Of course. First, this study was funded by the Beef Checkoff, and expenses related to the Beef Checkoff are overseen by the Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB) as well as the USDA. Beef Checkoff was not involved in the study at all (we actually used data collected between 2000 and 2002!) and was not even aware of the results until they were submitted for publication . Beef Checkoff was also not involved in this interview, and indeed, I don’t think Beef Checkoff is aware that I’m giving this interview – they give their scientists a lot of freedom. However, the results of any scientific study must be considered in light of the findings of other studies seeking to answer the same question. Readers should therefore be aware that not all studies report a lack of association between red meat consumption and inflammation.
I have also received funding from Sabra Dipping Co, Hass Avocado Board, Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Life Sciences Institute and Unilever R&D, as well as the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health.
Finally, I would like to remind readers that the reason we eat (or not eat) certain foods is extremely complex. This reflects many interacting factors, and we should never forget that many forms of privilege can contribute to this. I hope our recent study provides a data point – just one of many data points – that will help people understand how foods may be associated with health but should not be used for other purposes .
Quote:
Alexis C. Wood, Goncalo Graca, Meghana Gadgil, Mackenzie K. Senn, Matthew A. Allison, Ioanna Tzoulaki, Philip Greenland, Timothy Ebbels, Paul Elliott, Mark O. Goodarzi, Russell Tracy, Jerome I. Rotter, David Herrington,
Untargeted metabolomic analysis studying the links between consumption of unprocessed red meat and markers of inflammation,
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,
Volume 118, number 5, 2023, pages 989-999,
ISSN0002-9165,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajcnut.2023.08.018
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Last updated on November 9, 2023 by Marie Benz
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