Global study explores the connection between meat consumption and type 2 diabetes risk

By Dr. Priyom Bose, Ph.D.Reviewed by Benedette Cuffari, M.Sc.Sep 6 2024

Eating red and processed meat ups diabetes risk, but swapping for poultry or unprocessed meat may help lower it slightly.

Study: Meat consumption and incident type 2 diabetes: an individual-participant federated meta-analysis of 1.97 million adults with 100,000 incident cases from 31 cohorts in 20 countries. Image Credit: monticello / Shutterstock.com

A recent Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology study evaluates the association between the consumption of unprocessed red meat, processed meat, and poultry, and type 2 diabetes using worldwide cohorts and standard analytical approaches.

Exploring the link between meat consumption and the risk of type 2 diabetes

Over the past 50 years, global meat production has increased rapidly to fulfill growing demands that often exceed optimal dietary guidelines in many regions. Previous studies have reported that the increased consumption of meat, particularly processed meat and unprocessed red meat, is associated with an increased risk of non-communicable diseases, particularly type 2 diabetes.

However, these studies have produced conflicting findings that have been attributed to differential data interpretation without considering biological mechanisms, variations in research methods, and different population-specific characteristics. Furthermore, most of these studies have been conducted in the United States and Europe, with few performed in Asian countries, which reflects geographical imbalances and the lack of inclusion of a diverse world population.

Poultry is generally considered to be a healthier alternative to red and processed meat; however, limited data is available on how poultry consumption may impact type 2 diabetes risk. As a result, there remains a lack of dietary guidelines that can advise the consumption of certain meat productions that do not negatively affect blood sugar levels.

About the study

The researchers of the current study hypothesized that red meat and processed meat consumption increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, whereas poultry intake does not affect this relationship. This hypothesis was tested using harmonized individual-participant data from diverse populations within the global InterConnect project.

The use of individual-participant data was optimized by enabling cross-cohort analyses without pooling data at a central location. A total of 31 cohorts from 20 countries, twelve of which were from the Americas region, nine from Europe, seven from the Western Pacific region, two from the Eastern Mediterranean region, and one from the Southeast Asia region.

Taken together, a total of 1,966,444 individuals were included in the study. All study participants were 18 years of age or older and provided data on their diet and diabetes status. Any participants with implausible energy intakes, a diagnosis of prevalent diabetes, and those with missing data were excluded.

Study findings

Among the study cohorts, six were comprised of women and three were men. Although most cohorts recruited participants between 40 and 60 years of age, some cohorts included participants younger than 40 years or older than 60 years.

Meat consumption varied by population. For example, a high consumption of unprocessed red meat ranging from 47-190 g/day was reported in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) cohort in the U.S., whereas the lowest rate of unprocessed red meat consumption was reported in the Health Effects of Arsenic Longitudinal Study (HEALS) cohort in Bangladesh. Similarly, the highest consumers of processed meat were reported in the German cohort, while the lowest consumers were from the Iranian and Puerto Rico cohorts.

The HEALS cohort was the lowest consumer of poultry, whereas the Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA Brasil) cohort from Brazil was the highest consumer of poultry with a mean of 72 g/day. Both the Americas and European regions reported a higher intake of poultry consumption than other study regions.

A total of 107,271 incident cases of type 2 diabetes were recorded over the follow-up period of 10 years. The most adjusted models indicated that unprocessed red meat consumption was positively associated with the incidence of type 2 diabetes. A similar association also prevailed in the case of processed meat intake and poultry consumption.

Replacing 50 g/day of processed meat with 100 g/day of unprocessed red meat reduced the risk of type 2 diabetes by an average of 7%. A similar reduction in diabetes incidence was also observed when 50 g/day of processed meat was replaced with 100 g/day of poultry.

The observed association between meat consumption and type 2 diabetes incidence was independent of age, sex, body mass index (BMI), levels of meat consumption, dietary assessment approach, follow-up duration, and geographical location.

Conclusions

These findings support previous reports indicating that lower consumption of processed meat and unprocessed red meat reduces the incidence of type 2 diabetes. However, future studies are needed to validate the positive association between poultry intake and type 2 diabetes incidence and explore whether reduced meat consumption influences the incidence of non-communicable diseases.