Too much red meat ups risk of type 2 diabetes

September 14, 2004 in Diabetes & Diabetes Prevention, Nutrition Topics in the News

Too much red meat ups risk of type 2 diabetes

Middle age and elderly women whose diets include a lot of red meat appear to have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

A total of 37,309 participants in the Women's Health Study were followed for an average of 8.8 years. The subjects were at least 45 years of age, and had never been diagnosed with heart disease, stroke, cancer, or diabetes when the study began. Food questionnaires were used to determine how much red meat the subjects ate.

Women who ate the highest amounts of red meat were 28% more likely to develop diabetes than their peers who ate the lowest amounts. In terms of specific meats linked to diabetes, bacon and hot dogs were identified as two of the worst offenders.

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