Red meat consumption and mortality: results from 2 prospective cohort studies.
Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study
Prospective cohort study
PubMed 22412075 · doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2011.2287
What was done
Researchers prospectively followed 37,698 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986–2008) and 83,644 women from the Nurses' Health Study (1980–2008) who were free of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer at baseline. Diet was evaluated using validated food frequency questionnaires updated every 4 years. The primary outcomes were total, CVD, and cancer mortality over up to 28 years (2.96 million person-years) of follow-up.
What was found
Across follow-up, 23,926 total deaths were documented, including 5,910 CVD and 9,464 cancer deaths. After multivariate adjustment for lifestyle and dietary risk factors, each 1-serving-per-day increase in unprocessed red meat was associated with pooled hazard ratios (HRs) of 1.13 (95% CI, 1.07–1.20) for total mortality, 1.18 (95% CI, 1.13–1.23) for CVD mortality, and 1.10 (95% CI, 1.06–1.14) for cancer mortality. For processed red meat, the corresponding HRs were 1.20 (95% CI, 1.15–1.24) for total mortality, 1.21 (95% CI, 1.13–1.31) for CVD mortality, and 1.16 (95% CI, 1.09–1.23) for cancer mortality. Substituting 1 serving per day of other foods (fish, poultry, nuts, legumes, low-fat dairy, whole grains) for red meat was associated with a 7% to 19% lower mortality risk. The authors estimated that consuming fewer than 0.5 servings per day (~42 g/d) could have prevented 9.3% of deaths in men and 7.6% in women.
Why it matters
This study provides long-term prospective evidence linking both processed and unprocessed red meat consumption to increased risk of premature mortality and quantifies the potential mortality reduction achievable by substituting alternative protein sources.
Limits
The study is observational and cannot establish causality due to potential residual confounding from unmeasured or imperfectly measured lifestyle factors. Dietary intake was self-reported via food frequency questionnaires, introducing potential measurement error. The cohorts comprised exclusively US health professionals, which may limit generalizability to socioeconomically and ethnically diverse populations.
Cited by
- partial Epidemiological studies indicate that one serving (about 85 grams) of meat per day increases cancer risk by approximately 13%, with a doubling of intake doubling the risk.