Eating more red meat over time is associated with an increased risk of type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), according to a new study. An Pan, Ph.D., of the National University of Singapore, and colleagues analyzed data from three Harvard group studies and followed up 26,357 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study; 48,709 women in the Nurses’ Health Study; and 74,077 women in the Nurses” Health Study II. Diets were assessed using food frequency questionnaires. During more than 1.9 million person-years of follow-up, researchers documented 7,540 incident cases of T2DM. The study found that increasing red meat intake during a four-year interval was associated with an elevated risk of T2DM during the subsequent four years in each cohort. The results indicate that compared with a group with no change in red meat intake, increasing red meat intake of more than 0.50 servings per day was associated with a 48 percent elevated risk in the subsequent four-year period. Reducing red meat consumption by more than 0.50 servings per day from baseline to the first four years of follow-up was associated with a 14 percent lower risk during the subsequent entire follow-up.
