Red meat consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes: 3 cohorts of US adults and an updated meta-analysis
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 08/22/2011

Pan A et al. – Red meat consumption, particularly processed red meat, is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D).

• Authors followed 37,083 men in the Health Professionals Follow–Up Study (1986–2006), 79,570 women in the Nurses’ Health Study I (1980–2008), and 87,504 women in the Nurses’ Health Study II (1991–2005).
• Diet was assessed by validated food–frequency questionnaires, and data were updated every 4 y.
• Incident T2D was confirmed by a validated supplementary questionnaire.

• During 4,033,322 person–years of follow–up, authors documented 13,759 incident T2D cases.
• After adjustment for age, BMI, and other lifestyle and dietary risk factors, both unprocessed and processed red meat intakes were positively associated with T2D risk in each cohort (all P–trend <0.001).
• The pooled HRs (95% CIs) for a one serving/d increase of unprocessed, processed, and total red meat consumption were 1.12 (1.08, 1.16), 1.32 (1.25, 1.40), and 1.14 (1.10, 1.18), respectively.
• The results were confirmed by a meta–analysis (442,101 participants and 28,228 diabetes cases): the RRs (95% CIs) were 1.19 (1.04, 1.37) and 1.51 (1.25, 1.83) for 100 g of unprocessed red meat and for 50 g of unprocessed red meat, respectively.
• Authors estimated that substitutions of one serving of nuts, low–fat dairy, and whole grains per day for one serving of red meat per day were associated with a 16–35% lower risk of T2D.